Scam in the Academia: The Saudi Royal Institute of Business and Social Sciences  (SRIBSS Scam) The title summarises the ordeal of 3 good friends who registered to attend the Saudi Royal Institute of Business and Social Sciences (SRIBSS) conference scheduled to hold from 29-31 October 2019. The organizers used names of prominent professors and experts to advertise their scam to unsuspecting public. At the end of the registration and flight book periods, these three friends have paid more than RM 14000 (US$3337). Meanwhile, the organizers claimed that over 1900 participants registered for the conference! How it happened. These friends saw an advert on a conference supposedly organised by the Saudi Royal Institute of Business and Social Sciences (SRIBSS) via social media channels. As expected, they searched the website of the organizers (http://sribss.org/) and found out the following are the board of directors of the entity-  Ziyad Almalki Board Chair SRIBSS; Assistant Professor , Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Eng Imam Ahmed Operations Manager; Head of organizing team Dr. Abdullah Alfaifi; Research Education & Training Director; Assistant Professor, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia. Dr. Saad Alshahrani; Deputy Chair, Research Director; Assistant Professor, Head of Department of Economics, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Dr. Ahmad Alalaiwe; Research Policy Director; Assistant Professor, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Dr. Naseer Alqahtani; Director; Advisor to Executive VP Dr. Monira Alwhaibi; Co-Director of Scientific Affairs and Research Dr. Ahmed Al-Shehri; Director; Assistant Professor, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University,Al-Kharj, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Dr. Abdullah Alahmari; Research Integrity Director; Assistant Professor, King Fahad University, KSA With the names of these respected individuals, they felt all was ok. In fact, they also reviewed the event brochure (http://sribss.org/Downloads/Jeddah_6ISRMC_Brochure.pdf; a copy is also attached as the website may cease to exist after this post) and names of respected scholars enlisted as key speakers- Prof. Mahmoud Shahin Alahwal Dean, Faculty of Medicine, KING ABDULAZIZ UNIVERSITY, KSA; Dr. Hani Z. Asfour Dean, Faculty of Pharmacy, KING ABDULAZIZ UNIVERSITY, KSA; Professor John Hattie Director Melbourne Graduate School of Engineering UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE & CHAIR AITSL; Professor David Giles Dean of Sciences FLINDERS UNIVERSITY and Professor Field Rickards Dean of Education Melbourne Graduate School of Education UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE. The website also showcased pictures from the past conferences held in GCC countries such as Oman, UAE, Qatar (details here: http://sribss.org/previous-events/). The networth of the event partners- Saudi Airline and King AbdulAziz University, KSA - seems to further add credence to the search. They thought all facts looks genuine and fine.  These friends submitted their unpublished paper and also got acceptance letter. They paid registration fees, and went further to pay the flight tickets through the Emirates Airline ‘agents’ (as a 30% discount on flight ticket was presumably given). They got Emirates flight booking reservations and required details to process their leave applications from the university to attend the conference....everything looks set. During this period, the organizers respond to emails within the hour through the representative- Dr Noor Hadi. Noor Hadi even noted that over 1900 participants registered for the conference and urged participants to make payments within the time to avoid disqualification. The problem started when the expected visa letters were not issued within the stipulated time. They got worried and sent emails to the usual contact, no response was received. Their hearts already beating fast, they contacted the Board of Directors and Key Speakers. Only of them responded:  The key speaker- Professor John Hattie wrote (October 02, 2019):  “This is a con.   They have never asked me, I (and not is field rickard) am not going, and this is fourth year in a row they tried this scam.”  The Chairman of the Board - Dr. Ziyad S. Almalki wrote ( (October 02, 2019): “This website and their operators are not from Saudi Arabia or even in Saudi Arabia and used Saudi identities to make everything looks real.  We reported it here but can’t do anything about it out of Saudi Arabia. You need to notify all your colleagues about this scam.” At this time, is clear this is a scam! The feedback seems to suggest this scam has been ongoing for four years, and these respected personalities did not post any report online to save unsuspecting researchers from such trauma! The friends contacted another friend who checked the domain registration information for sribss.org and observed the website is registered in the United States and the owner also resides in the US. I have decided to share their experience to save other researchers from such trauma. As at now, no report online to expose these illicit activities. Infact, the organizers are already organizing another round of event for January 2020 tagged ‘Madinah 7th International Saudi Royal Multidisciplinary Conference (Madinah-7ISRMC)’ (http://sribss.org/jeddah-6isrmc/). It is hoped that this post will alert other researchers on SRIBSS SCAM. Lessons for other researchers: 1. Researchers should search for names of the conference organizers (especially the prominent persons) and contact directly to confirm the genuineness of the workshop/conference 2. Information of sites such as https://www.exordo.com/blog/9-signs-this-is-a-fake-conference/ should help further. Here are the 9 Signs that indicate a conference is fake: The conference has an overly ambitious title; The technical programme is broad. Very broad; The language on the conference website is…off (typos and grammatical errors); Renowned organisations are sponsoring a low-profile conference; The organisers’ contact details are missing, or aren’t quite right; Another conference with a suspiciously similar name already exists; The conference or its organisers have known associates; The organisers are charging higher-than-normal fees; The conference is unusually frequent 3. Buy air tickets directly from airlines. Do not allow organizers to buy on your behalf 4. Be careful if the contact person sounds too nice or responds too soon to enquiries. For now, these friends are taking necessary legal steps to seek redress. Hopefully, we can stop such fraud from expanding in our communities and especially in such areas as academia.  Thanks for reading. Hope we can keep exposing these individuals and their tactics. Kind regards. Hafis Bello [email protected] *Please reshare to save others from such ordeals.*