tags: Scams
Ameri-scam.
May 23rd, 2005, by Rich.
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Two months ago I wrote a short article about a telemarketing call that I received from AmeriVacation. It has very quickly become one of the most viewed pages on this site, and also the most commented upon, by many people who are worried that they have been conned.
With just a little digging I’ve started to unearth some more information on AmeriVacation, and some “companies” that appear to be related.
It appears that AmeriVacation is only the latest front. They set up a website, to appear legitimate and then cold call people, anyone whose number they can get using an automated calling mechanism (which is very simple to do with a computer). They then sell a package that is not what it appears to be and then make it very difficult to obtain a refund.
Sadly the people that get scammed are often the most vulnerable people who can least afford to lose such a large amount of money.
Through my digging I discovered a little about the history of the scams, and a little about how they’re all related. What follows is a brief review of the links so that others may pick up the trail more easily.
The currently active websites (which can be linked through identical wording, identical phone numbers, IP addresses that resolve to the same physical machines, etc) are:
- www.amerivacation.com
- www.expertholidays.com
- www.yourvipholiday.com (bad press) (more)
- www.flbahamastravelhome.com
- www.mydiscountholiday.com (bad press)
- www.doublevacations.com
- www.affiliatedtravelnetwork.com
- www.brilliantholiday.com (bad popup press)
- www.destinationcenter.net
- www.myffc.com (bad press)
- www.mydiscountholiday.com
- www.floridaholidayusa.com - discovered July 2005
- www.holidayfloridausa.com - discovered July 2005
- www.sunrisetravels.us - discovered August 2005
- www.imperialvacation.com - discovered August 2005
- www.5starholidays.net - discovered August 2005
- www.floridatouristbureau.com - discovered August 2005
Now, anybody that sells a holiday from Florida, or sells a holiday to Florida must be registered. The last entry in the above list , “mydiscountholiday.com” claims a Florida Seller Of Travel License Number of ST35170. In fact, this next list of sites all claim to have that same license number.
- www.mydiscountholiday.com (bad press)
- www.usafamilygetaway.com (bad press)
- www.sandyvacationsllc.com (bad press)
- www.floridabureauoftourism.com
- http://www.destinationsforyou.com
- http://www.celebrationpromotions.com
Another useful thing for linking companies is the address, several of these companies have used “600 North Highway 1792, Suite 120, Longwood Fl 32750″ including:
- www.yourvipholiday.com
- www.usafamilygetaway.com addres link also mentioned here
That link is important because without it these appear to be two separate groups of companies, when in fact, it’s one big cloud.
The next link in the chain is the phone number, all the sites below are connected because they use the same UK freephone number 0800-917-7462. What’s especially nice is that three of them have also decided to share testimonials too!
- www.windsorvacations.com
- www.myvacationschoice.com
- www.vacations-paradise.com (bad press)
- www.sohovacations.com -bullshit testimonial (bad press)
- www.centuryvacations.com - bullshit testimonial
- www.firstclicktravel.net - bullshit testimonial
- www.usafamilygetaway.com
The other address in use is “7632 Southland Blvd, Orlando, FL 32809″ and this is used by:
- www.myffc.com
- www.mydiscountholiday.com
- www.brilliantholiday.com (bad press)
- www.destinationcenter.com
Currently www.destinationcenter.com looks like a bit of a sales force advertisement. However, by looking at the caches on google and web.archive.org, it’s apparent that it was also used as travel sales site (hence I got the address match above), selling these same packages - i.e. not just a coincidence, this was the same outfit.
So, who’s behind it? Well, according to this story, it all comes back to to a Altef Hemani (aka Alex Hemani), who has a history of such scams.
His name is as good as mud on the internet, so he’s tried to combat this by buying a few websites and and writing eulogies about himself.
Each of those sites, incidentally, is owned by the same company: Travel Express Investments 385 Center Point Cir, Altamont Springs, FL 32701.
What’s especially interesting is that the administrative contact for the domains is Arif Rajan who may be the same business man whos only newsworthy moment until now was that in 2002 he was was questioned and released without charge regarding money laundering for terrorist organisations.
Sources
Naturally the information I’ve been able to gather and present here is all freely available to the public. Please feel free to check, corroborate, dispute, disprove or otherwise extended it through your own investigation.
I have found the following resources most useful:
- http://whois.net/ which provides information about the owners of domain names.
- http://sunbiz.org/ which provides information from the Florida Department of State regarding companies, and the persons legally responsible for those companies.
- http://www.doacs.state.fl.us/ the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which regulates travel in Florida.
August 3rd, 2005 at 9:45 pm
I by chance today riecived an opportunity to get a very cheap trip to Flori-da - Bahamas - Cancun for 4 people at just EURO 728 for 17 days.
The travel angency is called Sun Kissed Travel. Are they reliable!+
August 3rd, 2005 at 10:08 pm
hi, i wrote my story on the 30th June at 6.46pm. Since then i got back in touch with my visa company and they advised me to write down word for word what they had done and what had been said and send it to the visa company along with anything else they had sent me, all there was a poxy booklet which was suposed to be tickets ‘celebration Promotions’ said. I then photo copyed the booklet and my story and i also put different web sites like this one for the visa company to look at and that was part of my proof that it was a scam. Two weeks later i recieved a letter from my visa company saying they had creditede my account with missing money and they are claming back from that so-called company! my advise is dont give up get in touch with the bank and write down word for word of what those tw**s told you, it might take time but well worth it in the end! I am still recieving phone calls from companys like this and i just tell them to pi*s off before they can get a word in edge ways! isnt that what they do and you’ve been had before you know it! Good luck to all the people who are going through the same thing and i hope i have been able to help.
August 4th, 2005 at 9:06 am
Hi Pete, thanks for your message, can you please clarify what part of the service you are describing as “reliable!+” (because if you received an opportunity today, you’ve not tried to take the holiday yet, so you’re probably talking about something else).
August 4th, 2005 at 7:59 pm
I was surfing the internet earlier today when suddenly a window open up telling me that i won a vacation package for 4 person to florida worth 1804 euro. i give them all my particulars including the tel. # of my work. After which, i called the tel. # that they told me to call to confirm about the prize that i won. The lady who answer the phone was very accomodating, i asked a lot of question including the reason why i won such a thing only by simply surfing the web. she told me that it is a promotional thing by the company. At the end of our conversation, she asked me if i have any VISA or MASTERCARD because i need it to qualify for the promotion or else i can`t get the package that i won. But since i don`t have any of this card i didn`t give any number. My question is, can they do something against me by giving them all my particulars especially the tel. number of my employer? I`m very very worried right now after learning about this scum.
August 6th, 2005 at 10:56 pm
Has anyone out there ever got a refund from royality holidays.com, after being cold called?????? Please help me!!!!!!
August 7th, 2005 at 12:39 am
They’re trying to scam people everywhere, for example, see this report from major regional Dutch newspaper Leeuwarder Courant. The persons involved in this article were very lucky because they hadn’t used their credit card for a while and therefore attempts to get money from their account failed.
Babelfish translates the article as follows:
August 7th, 2005 at 10:31 am
Hi.. They took about 920 dollars from me in March. I´m so stupid.. something popped up at my screan and I called the damn number.. I spoke with about 6 different people so my brain was pretty messed up also everything was of course on english.. I gave them my visa card number,
yes I know it was stupid, but I haven´t been out of Denmark for 10 years so you could say anything to me at the time and I would buy it.. I went on http://www.travasaurus.com and saw all the wonderful places I would go.. Yeah right.. My sister was a lot more clever than I. She told me to close my visa card because it was a scam.. I closed it but they were very fast..A week later I got a package from them with some papers with some photos of hotels and beaches.. I don´t think I am the first to fall for it, it was very proffesional.. I spoke with the police and because it was from USA they couldn´t help me.. Lucky for me my bank believed me and I got all my money back.. But those people that does things like this probably tortured animals when they were kids..
Nina Wedderkopp (Denmark)
August 10th, 2005 at 12:21 am
Hi Everybody,
I’m Daniel (21yrs. The Netherlands)
I just got a call last night, I allready knew what these losers
were up to. So I waited and after pressing the “9″ I Laughed at the
guy who was about to talk to me. I hoped to hear them call other
people as he ended out conversation. But that didn’t happen.
The number was 08000234721 and it was free.
I discovered the following;
if you call them at this number past 12pm GMT you’ll hear a tape
that will tell you what time it is. So what i did is this;
I took 3 cellphones without any credit on it, and called this
number, I left the phones on for 4 hours. I’m sure this did cost
them some money, at least 80 cents per minute.
Maybe it is a good idea that all of the people here who want to
do these scammers some damage do the same as i did.
The more people that will join me in this, the more money it’s
going to cost them.
If you join me, let me know; mafgozer@hotmail.com
Or if you want to ask me something, feel free to e-mail me.
Greetings, Daniel Maters
ps; I hope all the victims will get there money back,
thumbs up to the webmaster of this site.
August 10th, 2005 at 2:00 pm
Michel, which Dutch television show are you talking about ? I would be really interested
to catch that item…
August 10th, 2005 at 2:14 pm
One thing to add - I just got off the phone from BT and they said not to press 9 as it charges an international premium rate call to your bill.
I asked why BT charged for this scammed premium rate call even though they know it was an illegally-operated scam but she just came up with a load of waffle and didn’t answer me.
Hope this helps.
Oz.