TMA is aware that some members are being contacted by scammers who claim to have a TMA Distressed Investing Conference attendee list or TMA member contact list available for sale. Know that this is NOT a result of hacking activity. These scammers DO NOT have access to any TMA lists. This is a known tactic among scammers who falsely claim to have access to contact lists. 

Please do not engage with any company claiming to have use of the TMA conference or membership database; responding to these emails (even to unsubscribe) confirms to them that they have reached a valid email address. Scammers offering to sell these lists often aggregate information based on web crawler or email “scraper” programs searching for the “@” sign in email addresses posted on various websites (including LinkedIn and Facebook). While this is illegal in most countries, it does not prevent scammers from doing so, so the best way to prevent yourself from receiving these emails is to protect your information, and, if at all possible, don’t post your email address online (or post it in an obscured way, by using an image or by not using the “@”) sign.

You can report this type of fraud (it only takes a few minutes!) to the Federal Trade Commission via this online form: https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/#/ 

Learn more about the prevalence of list and hotel scams targeting the conference industry:
 https://exhib-it.com/blog/dont-be-fooled-by-trade-show-scams-and-scammers 
https://www.tsnn.com/blog/investigation-fake-list-vendors 

What does TMA do to keep its systems secure?
Cybersecurity is a broad term, but in short, it is the protection of internet-connected systems from cyberattacks. These systems could include various hardware, software, and applications.
TMA’s cybersecurity is managed by Empist, a full-service technology company, that provides compliance, managed multi-factor authentication, dark web monitoring, password management and security awareness training.