Fraudulent conference announcements ?

Perhaps this type of scam should have it's own forum?

Examples:

http://www.uia.be/node/46358

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An increasing number of email scams are using NGOs, International NGOs, development agencies, meetings, international conferences etc as the hook to defraud or cheat unsuspecting recipients.
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Does anyone know how that type of scam works? Or is this a form of advance fee fraud?

These are advance fee, and you will actually find some in our forums already.

Here's an example: http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4846

Essentially, the scammers is looking to collect advance payment for hotels, visa fees, conference fees, etc. for the nonexistent conference.

There are also some good examples of conference scams, and you can see how they work at our scambaiting site, 419eater.com. Here is an example of a "mass bait" of a fake conference You can see the scammers' tactics starting on page 2:
http://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=150339