The world primary care body has again been targeted by a phishing scam in time for its upcoming conference in Lisbon.
The World Organisation of Family Doctors (WONCA) has recently announced information regarding a phishing scam targeting members of the WONCA community.
The scam emails were made with the intention to impersonate trusted members of the WONCA 2025 Scientific Committee and the WONCA secretariat.
Claims to offer discounted flights and hotel bookings to the WONCA World Conference in Lisbon were used as covers to request transfers of money to a personal bank account.
WONCA has confirmed that the impersonating emails are in no way legitimate and have called for those who have received such emails to report instances immediately.
This is not a new occurrence with a similar phishing scam happening last year in the lead up to the organisation’s 2024 conference in Dublin.
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In the last scam attempt, the phishing scam operated via a scam site impersonating the WONCA domain for conference ticket sales.
As found by The Medical Republic, the scammers failed to keep the ticket sale prices consistent, charging up to roughly four times the price of an authentic ticket price.
While the conference is targeted primarily at GPs from European countries, WONCA’s past conference in Sydney has brought some Australian members into the scam’s potential proximity.
WONCA has advocated for those affected or potentially suspicious to report the emails both to WONCA and their respective email domains.
