Canada West Ski Areas Association: Fraud & Scams impacting Ski Industry

Unfortunately CWSAA is receiving reports of increasing scams. Two very different scams have been reported to our office recently:

1. Emails being sent to CWSAA members, offering conference delegate lists.

2. Lift ticket scams through Facebook marketplace, Kijiji and similar online classified services.

Phishing Scam emails which may appear related to CWSAA

CWSAA has been made aware of some emails related to the CWSAA Spring Conference that are not legitimate and do not originate from CWSAA. One recent email offers the 2023 CWSAA Spring Conference attendee list for a price. This email appears to be a phishing scam. Unfortunately schemes like this are becoming more common and we would like to provide you with some information to help prevent falling victim.

CWSAA membership and delegate information is confidential. CWSAA takes your privacy and security seriously.
Please note, during the conference registration process, the following question is asked of delegates “Would you like your email included on the attendee list?” Attendee lists (for those that opt in) are only shared directly to conference delegates from CWSAA. There is no cost for conference delegates/sponsors (who are CWSAA members) to receive a copy of the Conference attendee list.
CWSAA does not provide attendee lists to outside agencies, and does not use a third party to distribute any conference related information.
CWSAA independently runs the Spring Conference with internal staff. All official conference emails will come from a CWSAA.org email address, and are usually distributed through our newsletter service called Mailchimp. There should be no other businesses contacting you related to the Spring Conference. Some emails may appear to come from CWSAA email addresses or names, however it is important to check the actual email address originating from.
We suggest adding the following main CWSAA email contacts to your address book and safe sender lists, to ensure you continue to get legitimate emails from CWSAA: marketing@cwsaa.org; office@cwsaa.org; ceo@cwsaa.org.
CWSAA’s list of members is published on our website, however, it only notes the names/links of our members. The membership directory with contact information is not published publicly and is available only to CWSAA members.
Do not reply to any suspected fraudulent emails, or open any links.

Lift Ticket Scams

Some CWSAA ski area members have reported new or increasing instances of fraudulent transactions involving online lift ticket purchases.

Many of these schemes involve a suspected fraudster selling discounted lift tickets through online marketplaces such as Kijiji and Facebook Marketplace. Some of these scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated and guests may arrive at a ski resort thinking they have a valid lift ticket.

Ski areas may wish to communicate with consumers that they should only purchase online lift tickets directly from the resort's website or their authorized ticket retailer. Purchasing lift tickets from online marketplaces like Kijiji may seem attractive (too good to be true) but has a high probability of being fraudulent.

www.cwsaa.org