600 pounds is equal to RM3152.03. I wonder if this conference is really a platform to help postgraduates or to boost capitalism education. Sadly it is organised by Muslim Nation and where Kaaba is located. Allah knows best. Likely, any link to MDPI, Frontier, or Hindawi is now banned by China and Indonesia due to a series of predatory and controversial publications. Allah knows best.

Dear Hussain Sargana ,

This is indeed a though one. At first sight it looks authentic. The website looks (misleadingly) professional. The society behind it “Qura Al-Saud Research Society for Applied Research” looks legit HOWEVER apart from their own website (https://qarsar.org ) I was unable to find anything about them. This is a red flag, and there are more:

-The name “prof. dr. Hatim Bin Hijazi Maktoom” is mentioned, I was unable to find anything about this ‘professor’

-The addition of ICAR in the title is somewhat suspect, as far as I can see it has nothing to do with for example https://icar.org.in/content/about-us

-Mysteriously enough I was unable to find info about "3rd Jeddah International Conference on Applied Research" since if the 4th conference is planned there should be a 3rd one, right?

-See the strong resemblance with the conference discussed here on RG

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Is-SCRIBSS-Experience-of-Academic-Conference-a-SCAM

-The names of the keynote speakers are used before and are all old men (be clear about it, there is nothing wrong with that, but predatory journals and conferences often use names of retired researchers, most likely not that active anymore (on the net)). The names: Prof. David Giles, emeritus professor, Prof. John Hattie, emeritus professor, are used in a previous conference as well with a suspiciously similar layout (see enclosed file)

-The photos of the conference are most likely taken from other websites like http://mcblaboratory.org/news-events/scientific-activities/southern-denmark-university-sdu-collaborative-health-research-day

-Their promise that your paper will be published in a Scopus indexed journal is strange, this is not how it works. A journal should announce their collaboration to publish (part of) the proceedings and none of the mentioned journal mentions them…

More importantly, even when this event takes place (which I very much doubt) then it is of little use for you. The scope is way too broad and the supposed keynote speakers were active in the field of education. I very much doubt whether anyone (again if it takes place) with your field of expertise will attend this conference.

I would say avoid.

Best regards.

#Copied post just for an insight

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.*

A post from @Sulaimon Olanrewaju Adebiyi, dated October 4, 2019

Jamaliah Jamil They are not Saudis but operating from other countries, I have shared a post of another person who directly or indirectly experienced the same problem, it is a detailed post regarding these sorts of conferences.

Hussain Sargana

The best way is to prepare an email and cc all journal editors in chiefs to highlight the issue and ask them to take action if they are doing fraud in their names. Don't forget to put the professor in cc mentioned on the website as the keynote speaker.

Its place was strange place, no doubt this is scam and fraudulent conf,,

During whatsapp chatt I ask Prof. Dr. Hatim Bin Hijazi Maktoom what is your major and which university and he reply

Work for QARSAR, Newly graduated from Umm Al Qura, see you back latter.

jazakALLAh.

I also think this is fraud

I doubt also about this conference. I received a mail from them with the following acceptation letter. They invite me to register before march 13th.

i have received acceptance letter and demand for registration before 13th march.

please any body guide me whether i should make registration or not?

Dear Noorul Amin ,

Do read the previous replies, these should be disturbing enough to make your conclusion. In addition, looking at the letter received by Abdelmajid Bybi I see a strange thing, they mention “ICAR-2023 accepted papers will be published in one of the following journals (please tell us your priority of journal):” As indicated in my reply of January 31st, 2022 this not the way it works. ‘Normally’ a journal announces a collaboration with a conference, see for example: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/pb-assets/JBFA%20Capital%20Markets%20Conference%202023-1669741712930.pdf

I would say avoid this one.

Best regards.

PS. There are more issues with the list of Scopus indexed journals they mention, for example the journal title “Computer Languages, Systems and Structures” this title no longer exists https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/computer-languages-systems-and-structures or the journal “Psychotherapy and Politics International” is no longer published by Wiley https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/15569195 and the new owner of this highly specialized journal will unlikely accept unrelated papers , see for example https://ojs.aut.ac.nz/psychotherapy-politics-international/article/view/77/51

Rob Keller

Thank you very much for highlighting these importants points. I agree with you, this is a fake conference. Also, in QARSAR website, I found several anomalies, e.g., what they give as a previous workshop "‘Cybersecurity: Future Challenges & Network Defenses" all the informations are taken from the following website :

http://www.c4iconf.com/node/416

Also, what they call "previous events: "2. Bahrian 2018-ICMBT" there is a picture "6th one" the year in the slide is 2014 not 2018, which means that the picture is taken from another conference. Finally, I made research about the majority of the conference committee, there are no informations about them.

Noorul Amin I join Rob Keller, avoid this conference.

Please do inform us. We are confused about this conference.

Still, we do not find any relative and reliable information. I advise you to avoid it.

Aftab Tabasam

In the light of all the comments against this post, it is strongly advised to avoid this conference. you may read the comments for a better insight. Nevertheless, everything is pointing towards the fakeness of this conference. So, I would suggest you to not to throw your money away.

It's a scam. I have confirmed.

It seemed fake. As I have tried to ask Dr Hatim but he has vanished now.

The same here, no response from the mentioned Saudi speakers, and UK company for registration payment is new one....

very sad

Saudi academicians also involve in fraud.

I last communicated with Prof. Hatim on May 2, 2023, now his wa is not active. web ICAR 2023 is also inactive