The American Spectator

I had the following email forwarded to me which raises two key questions:

Dear Friends in the climate community.

Lee Schipper and I are writing to alert you about a group of criminals who have been targeting the climate and environmental communities through email messages announcing fake conferences.

The most recent of these scams is an email (which has NOT been circulated on our lists) announcing the following “event”:

Global Warming Conference Invitation

Fake> This is to announce the call for papers for the Global Warming Volunteer Group Conference
Fake> & Expo 11(GWVG Conference & Expo 11), 4th - 8th February 2011 at Crown London
Fake> Hotel,  45-51 Buckingham Gate London, SW1E 6AF United Kingdom.

The scam offers free airfare, but asks you to submit a deposit for your hotel or registration, usually by a Western Union money transfer, whose recipient cannot be traced.  

These scams are very sophisticated, using all of the buzz-words found in legitimate conference announcements:

GWVG Conference & Expo 11 welcomes conceptual and research-based papers covering sustainable innovation, technology, product and service design and development. Papers focused on low carbon solutions and sustainable innovation related to the following topics are particularly welcomed:

· Global Warming and Climate Change and the Oceans
· Sustainable Environment, Health and Development
· Remote Sensing and Global Surveillance
· Water Resources Management
· Carbon & GHG Management

Some of the scam emails claim association with the United Nations….

And so on it goes. Now, first: what in the world would make hucksters think that global warming activists are the type that would fall for scams?

And, second: how could anyone tell the difference?

UPDATE: Meanwhile, Sen. John Kerry invokes the Tucson shooting to pitch his windmill agenda (really), and I’m somehow brought into the blame game for that event. These people are completely cracking up.