Persistent Event Scam Reemerges With Yet Another Alias

A long-running event scam has returned under a new alias, the third identity used in recent months. The tactics are the same — trying to trick planners into paying fraudulent vendors.

Over the past several months, the scammer has cycled through multiple identities: first as “Gregory Mount” of Glidden Paint, then ”Peter Hollenbeck” of Glidden Paint, and now as “Crystal Davis,” a supposed coatings specialist at the American Coatings Association. Each iteration uses nearly identical language, timelines, and fabricated vendors.

A New Alias Targets a New Victim

The latest target was keynote speaker and consultant Beth Inglish, who immediately sensed something was off.

“We’re planning a combined office launch and team bonding event,” the email read, pitching a December 17 gathering for 30 attendees. An event planner was needed who could coordinate with vendors and manage on-site logistics . 

As in previous iterations, the scam required the planner to use “a mix” of their own vendors and a few the client “already has relationships with.” This included a supposed AV partner, Electrosonic and a magician, both fabrications. The event budget was $25,000, including $5,000 for AV and $7,800 for a magician. 

These vendors would be paid upfront, and the planner would get reimbursed, the hallmark of the scheme. Once money is sent to the “vendors,” it disappears.

Red Flags Pile Up

The first red flag, Inglish said, was an email subject line referencing an office opening in Tennessee while the body of the message said Nevada.

Inglish did her due diligence and checked the provided domain names. The websites Davis provided — americancoatingsassociation.com and paint.com were suspect and led to unsecure pages.

When Inglish called the number in the email, she was surprised to find Crystal Davis sounded like a man. 

“It seemed he was scrambling in the background when I called,” she said. “I asked a lot of detailed questions and felt some of the answers were odd. For instance, he told me the magician was $7,600. No experienced event planner would pay that for a magician for a group of 30,” said Inglish.

The scammers mimic industry language and leverage the urgency of an upcoming event to push planners into making quick decisions. “This is all especially awful as a lot of the event planning industry is built on trust,” said Inglish. 

Legal Expert Urges Planners to Report Attempts

Attorney Joshua Grimes with Grimes Law Offices said that planners who Mount, Peterson, or Davis have contacted should file complaints with local police and state attorney general's offices. 

In addition, the FBI has an Internet Crime Complaint Center to report cyber-enabled crime. 

“If those people get enough complaints, they may make it a priority to investigate. The challenge is that Internet crimes are hard to investigate and solve, since you don't know where the perpetrators are. So local law enforcement is usually ill-equipped to deal with these matters,” said Grimes. “Given these scams, a planner's first line of defense should be using their own intuition and skills to prevent themselves from becoming victims.”

Grimes also encouraged industry leaders and associations to pressure the government into rendering assistance.

How Planners Can Protect Themselves

Independent planners, who often manage their own vendor payments, are especially vulnerable to these tactics. Grimes outlines the steps planners should take when handling an unsolicited inquiry. 

1.  Be especially careful about business that seems to comes out of nowhere.

2.  Call the association or company to confirm that the person inquiring really made the initial contact. When Skift Meetings called the American Coatings Association, we were told there is no Crystal Davis.

3. Validate identities on social platforms like LinkedIn.

4. If a planner is requested to make payments to vendors, get the client's money up-front, and disburse the funds at least one week after arrival in the planner's bank account. For new clients, consider two weeks before disbursing funds. The planner should also receive a deposit for their services, and allow those funds time to clear, before starting.

Skift Calls the Scammer

To test the validity of the latest alias, Skift dialed the number provided to planners.

After several rings, a man answered. When asked for Crystal Davis, he said he was Crystal Davis.

Skift asked if he was planning an office opening. He replied, “Give me 15 seconds.”

He returned and confirmed he was planning an office launch and team bonding event for the American Coatings Association.

“We need someone to help with planning, to help with our vendors,” he said, noting that the event would be held Dec. 17 in Nevada. When asked if that date was too close to the winter holidays, he said, “We are late on deadlines. The office was supposed to open on December 3, but we had to push it back and don’t want to wait until 2026. So we will combine it with a Christmas party, combining our internal staff with our execs.”

When asked about past connections to Glidden Paint, the previous alias, the person hung up.