CHATSWORTH, Calif.—According to Colleen Jolly, the driving force behind PoleCon, the international convention dedicated to exotic dancers and pole teachers and exercisers, there have been several scams lately targeting PoleCon.
One scam claimed to have gathered personal data from PoleCon attendees and was selling it. Another scam involved someone calling people and asking them to confirm their "reservation" to the event. There may be others that Jolly doesn't know about. People who were contacted include people with publicly available email addresses (such as listed on their own website/social media) or vendors who have their business names listed on the PoleCon website.
However, Jolly wants everyone to know, PoleCon is a small business. It is run part-time by one person: Colleen Jolly.
"PoleCon has always been transparent with attendees and not-yet-attendees," Jolly stated in an email to supporters. "We cannot control spammers and scammers. We have reported, emailed cease-and-desist requests, and now, after significant attempts to hack the PoleCon website, we have updated our hosting and security firewalls."
Jolly stated that subscribers' personal data can be found in two places: Constant Contact, which sends emails like the current notification, and Wellness Living, the organization's payment processor/scheduler.
Neither of those platforms (which are much bigger businesses with significant investment in security) were at risk in the latest hack attempts which focused solely on PoleConvention.com (including its blog), Jolly noted.
"If you receive a phone call, email, DM or other contact from someone saying they are with PoleCon who is not Colleen Jolly, please contact us immediately," Jolly stated. "This may not stop those folks in the future but it does help us publicize on official channels that there is a potential scam happening."
Jolly also announced that there are no new updates on the status of PoleCon 2021, currently scheduled for August 2021.
"We will make the decision to hold the event or not based on the laws and situation present in NOLA in June 2021," Jolly advised. "If we are able to hold the event, we will have a short call for workshop leaders, seminar leaders and performers starting in June. We'll keep you informed monthly via this newsletter and regularly via our social media channels. Until then, stay safe."
