AI Fuels Convincing Event Scam 

The email looked like a legitimate RFP from a real biotech company. It wasn’t.

Therese Jardine, CEO of Strategic Event Procurement, received an email purportedly from a sales representative at AniCell Biotech, a real veterinary medicine company, outlining plans for a late-May event and requesting support with planning. 

A former procurement leader at Microsoft with more than two decades of global contracting experience and extensive cybersecurity training, she immediately spotted the inconsistencies.

The timeline was unrealistic. The sender's role didn't track. The link didn't match the domain.

"That was the giveaway," she said. "It wasn't a real SharePoint link." 

This scam involved a compromised LinkedIn account belonging to a real executive.

When Jardine insisted on a phone call before reviewing any materials, explaining that this is standard practice in her cybersecurity protocol, communication stopped immediately.

Take Pause

The near-miss illustrates an event industry vulnerability. Planners are conditioned to move fast on new opportunities, particularly now, when budgets are tighter, and competition is stiffer.

"When business is slow, and an opportunity comes in, the instinct is to grab it," Jardine said. "That's exactly what scammers are counting on."

Had she clicked the link, the consequences could have been serious. Some scam links load pages that immediately try to install malware. This can let attackers monitor your activity, steal files, or lock your data for ransom. 

This is what happened at The Glasshouse, a New York City event venue. A scammer infiltrated its IT system. 

“Bad actors got into our system silently for a little while and saw our routine,” said Gianluca Sardo, president of The Glasshouse NYC. 

A client’s sharp eye picked up inconsistencies in an invoice they received. It was different than others in the past, and the client alerted The Glasshouse. 

The scammers also registered a domain name almost identical to The Glasshouse's. Since then, The Glasshouse has brought on a cybersecurity firm and now requires verbal confirmation for all payments.

Scams Expand Beyond Email

The threat isn't limited to fake RFPs. Jardine reports a surge in spoofed DocuSign requests that appear legitimate but are designed to steal credentials or personal data, or to install malware. She has also received several fraudulent calls from impersonators posing as law enforcement.

"I've gotten multiple phishing attempts in just the past few days," she said. "It's happening more than ever."

Corporate planner Andrew Roby is seeing the same. Unsolicited DocuSign requests with no context are a regular red flag now, he said.

AI Makes Attacks Harder to Spot

What's changing isn't just frequency — it's sophistication. "With bots, it's easier to create highly personalized outreach at speed," Jardine said. "That's the downside — it enables nefarious activity."

Deepfake video calls impersonating executives to authorize wire transfers have already been reported in corporate settings. 

Jardine's advice: slow down. Verify through trusted channels. And if a new contact won't get on a call before you open a document, beware.