Staying Safe: Recognizing and Reporting Scams

The safety and privacy of the PyData St. Louis community are important to us. Unfortunately, scammers may sometimes pretend to represent community groups or their organizers. We encourage everyone to be cautious and report anything that seems unusual.

PyData St. Louis organizers will never contact you to request passwords, verification codes, financial details, government identification numbers, or other sensitive personal information. We will also never ask you to purchase gift cards, send money, or pay an organizer directly.

How we may contact you

Official PyData St. Louis communications will come through one of these channels:

• Our official Meetup group
• Our official PyData St. Louis email address
• Our official Discord community

A message that mentions PyData St. Louis but arrives through another channel should be treated cautiously. Keep in mind that scammers can imitate names, logos, and email display names, so the appearance of a message alone does not prove that it is legitimate.

When in doubt, report it

If you receive a suspicious message—or have even the slightest doubt about whether a communication is genuine—do not reply, click any links, download attachments, send money, or share personal information.

Please forward or report the message to stlouis@pydata.org. Include a screenshot or the original message when possible. We would much rather review a legitimate message than have a community member take an unnecessary risk.

If you have already shared sensitive information, immediately change any affected passwords, enable multi-factor authentication, and contact the relevant financial institution or service provider when applicable.

Thank you for helping us keep PyData St. Louis safe, welcoming, and trustworthy.