How to Spot Event Planner Scams and Protect Your Business

Event planner scams are on the rise. Here’s how to spot them and protect your business. 

This Is Not About Fear. It’s About Skill.

Event planning runs on trust.

We move fast. We build relationships quickly. We collaborate across vendors, venues, hotels, and clients, often before ever meeting face-to-face. That is not a flaw in the industry. It is a strength.

But in 2024 and 2025, scammers have begun exploiting that strength with increasing sophistication. Across the U.S., planners in every sector, corporate, association, wedding, and social, are reporting more frequent and more believable scam attempts.

What’s important to understand is this: These scams are not targeting inexperienced planners. They are targeting capable professionals who know how to get things done.

Want to learn how to spot these event planner scams?

This guide breaks down the most common event planner scams happening right now, how they operate, and how planners can protect themselves without losing momentum, confidence, or trust in their own judgment. This is not intended as legal advice, but as tips and guidance to avoid scams.

The Most Common Event Planner Scams Happening Right Now 

1. The “Too Easy” Client or Overpayment Scam

When Professional Instincts Are Used Against You

This scam often starts as what feels like an ideal inquiry.

The client is decisive. The budget is healthy. They approve your proposal quickly, sometimes without negotiation. Communication is efficient and professional.

Then comes the hiccup. An accidental overpayment. A check that includes extra funds meant for another vendor. A request for help correcting the mistake.

The planner is asked to forward money on the client’s behalf.

The emotional hook here is responsibility.

Event planners are wired to fix problems and keep things moving.

Scammers rely on that reflex.

By the time the original payment fails weeks later, the funds you forwarded are gone.

What makes this scam dangerous is not carelessness. It’s that the situation mirrors legitimate scenarios planners have handled successfully many times before.

2. The “Preferred Vendor” Corporate Event Scam

When Trust Comes Through Familiar Channels

This is the scam that has shaken the industry the most.

In these cases, the inquiry does not come from a cold email or a suspicious DM. It comes through a referral. In some instances, through professional networks, planners trust deeply.

There are phone calls. Real conversations. Strategic discussions that sound exactly like a corporate stakeholder planning a high-budget event. The individual understands timelines, vendor workflows, and how planners operate under pressure.

In at least one case, the introduction came through an MPI executive referral, using the same professional pathways planners rely on every day to build business. Nothing about the entry point felt unusual. And that is what made it so effective.

The request itself is subtle. “We use preferred vendors.” “Can you handle payment, and we’ll reimburse?” Many planners have done this legitimately with trusted corporate clients.

What ultimately prevents loss is not another verification step. It is a boundary.

As Sara Beth Raab, founder of SB Events, shares:

“He came through a referral, and that mattered. The introduction was tied to an MPI executive, which immediately placed him inside a circle of trust. I had phone calls with him. Real conversations. Nothing felt obviously wrong on the surface. But when he asked me to pay his preferred vendors on his behalf, I paused and said no. I didn’t accuse him. I just held the boundary. The very next day, I was at IMEX and heard Andrea from Skift mention his “name” on stage as part of a known scam. That moment reinforced something I trust deeply. Even when everything looks legitimate, your gut still matters. It’s not paranoia. It’s pattern recognition.”

This experience highlights a shift planners need to recognize.

Scammers are no longer trying to break into the industry. They are trying to blend into it.

3. Social Media and Vendor Booth Scams

Fast, Public, and Designed to Bypass Verification

These scams thrive in public digital spaces where speed matters more than scrutiny.

Scammers insert themselves into legitimate Facebook and Instagram event posts, posing as organizers or staff. They solicit vendor booth fees or ticket purchases for opportunities that do not exist.

The pressure point here is scarcity. Vendors do not want to miss out. Organizers do not want to leave people hanging. Scammers exploit both.

Often, planners discover the scam only after vendors have already lost money. Even when planners do everything right, their events and brands can still be used as bait.

4. Impersonation of Trusted Organizations

When Credibility Is Borrowed, Not Earned

Another growing trend involves impersonation of well-known foundations, government agencies, conferences, or brands.

These scammers use official-sounding language, realistic documentation, and sometimes even reference real people or organizations. They rely on institutional credibility to lower defenses.

What makes this especially unsettling is that planners are conditioned to trust formal structures. We expect large organizations to have layers and processes.

In these cases, credibility itself becomes the weapon.

A Hard but Important Truth

You Can Do Everything Right and Still Be Targeted

This is the part that often gets left out of conversations about fraud.

You can:

• • Require contracts
  • Hold phone calls and Zoom meetings
  • Verify referrals and LinkedIn profiles
  • Follow your standard operating procedures

And still encounter a sophisticated scam attempt.

That does not mean you failed. It means the tactics have evolved.

Today’s scams are designed to pass surface-level checks. When that happens, boundaries become the final safeguard.

The goal is not perfection. The goal is resilience.

How Event Planners Can Protect Themselves

Require Live Conversations

Never Pay Vendors on a Client’s Behalf Without Cleared Funds

Be Careful With ACH and Banking Information

Slow the Timeline

Trust Your Gut

If something feels off, pause.

Intuition is not emotional. It is pattern recognition built through experience. In an industry as complex as events, that instinct is one of your most valuable tools.

A Final Word of Encouragement

Event planners are problem-solvers, negotiators, and risk managers by nature. The same skills that make you exceptional at your job make you capable of navigating this moment.

This rise in scams is not a reflection of weakness in the industry. It is a sign of its growth and visibility.

With shared knowledge, clear boundaries, and trusted tools, planners can continue to operate with confidence, creativity, and care. Because when you learn how to spot event planner scams, you can protect your business from scammers. (SEO)

Where Security Meets Smart Sourcing

Choosing the right platforms matters.

Groups360’s GroupSync platform is designed to support planners with transparency, verified hotel inventory, and secure workflows for group hotel booking and sourcing.

If you’re ready to explore a faster, more streamlined way to manage group hotel bookings, sign up for a free GroupSync account and experience a smarter approach to planning.