Open Forum

Speaking as a vendor, I find cold emails incredibly unprofessional. In my experience, business is built on relationships which are built on authentic shared interest - not an email blast. I do not represent a museum and I also have seen an uptick in spam for museum related services.

Is it possible there is an option in AAM to Hide our emails in our profiles?  Like LinkedIn, it would be great to have the option to share our contact information with others when we decide to and not to the entire membership body.  This would help (but not completely eliminate) spam.  I say this because there are bots that can find your email even if you made a post years ago with your email showing.

One suggestion - remove your email from your signature line here.  It just makes it a tiny bit harder for them.

Meghan

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Meghan Gardner
Creative Director
(781) 270-4800
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Hi everyone,

We're sorry to hear about these emails you're receiving (our staff also receives what feels like dozens of cold emails daily for various products and services). I think you all are describing two different types of emails. Before I comment on those, I want you all to know that we value your privacy and that you have entrusted us with your contact information. It is AAM's policy not to sell or rent email contact information. 

Bots crawl the internet looking for email contact information so if your email address is listed anywhere online (your company or museum website, personal site, etc.), that could be why you may receive cold emails. If you believe your email address is being sourced from Museum Junction, you can double check your privacy settings in your profile (click on your icon in the top right corner) and ensure your contact information is set to only display to "my contacts," "members," or "only me" (the default setting is "only me"). 

Separate from these cold emails, are emails from scam companies who contact some of AAM's Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo attendees and exhibitors, claiming to offer our attendee lists. This is a common occurrence with large industry conferences and trade shows in recent years. Again, it is AAM's policy not to sell or rent attendee email contact information. Any vendors who are entitled to attendee lists as an exhibitor or sponsor, do not receive contact information as part of that list unless the individual attendee has directly opted into providing it when they register. No company is authorized to distribute or sell any email lists of attendees for our events. AAM is not providing these lists or generating these messages. If you receive an email offering to sell you a list of AAM conference attendees, do not respond to it. 

More info about common attendee list and housing scams.

Thanks, all, for your diligence and the opportunity to clarify AAM's policies as it relates to your contact information and privacy! 

Hi, Natanya!

Can I suggest that for future conferences, you warn vendors about the scams for housing and attendee contact lists? The solicitations started soon after I registered; and the phone calls about the housing made it sound like they were officials from AAM arranging THE housing for the conference. Fortunately, they kept calling me at bad times, and eventually I got online and got an AirBnb around the corner from the convention center for a lot less than the prices they were quoting me. But I thought they were officially part of the AAM conference.

And the offers to sell me the attendees' list started WELL before your official email with the offer to get either the pre-conference or post-conference attendee list.