Received an incorrect review from a conference (a review for a different paper). What should I do?

Question

I've submitted a paper to a computer vision conference (a top one), and recently recieved reviews from the reviewers. An issue was that one of the reviewers provided an incorrect review (i.e., a review meant for another paper than ours).

At the moment, I do not know which Area Chair (AC) manages my submission. All I can do is to contact the Program Chair (PC). Should I contact PC about this before submitting my rebuttal (i.e., responses to the reviews)?

The context is that my advisor told me that if I contact PC for this reason, it might be interference. So I was kind of scard and this is why I ask a question here. Also, it might not be completely obvious to others that the review is an incorrect one (althoguh it is completely clear to me).

Answer 1

I do not know which AC manages my submission. All I can do is to contact PC.

Therefore...

Should I contact PC about this before submitting my rebuttal

Yes, or more broadly: use whatever contact information you have for the organizers. There is no point in rebutting an editorial mistake.

Answer 2

My advisor told me that if I contact PC for this reason, it might be interference.

Your advisor is mistaken. If you had contacted the Program Committee chair trying to influence the refereeing process - yes, that would have been inappropriate. But it is actually very common for authors to contact PC chairs, for a variety of reason:

• Problems with the paper submission system.
• Delays in replies.
• Requests for clarifications regarding the call for papers.
• Questions regarding the submissibility of papers
• Requests for deadline extensions (not saying that these are granted though...)

so it's not considered inappropriate in general.

Also remember that program committee chairs typically don't referee/review submissions themselves, so you're not contacting the person who's reviewing your work, nor interfering with that review.