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 10th, 2005 at 8:29 pm
Hi there!
I live in sweden and just got a call from sunkissed. They said I had won a big vacation… Anyhow I got suspicuos after a while when he said I had won a discount.. And he wanted my VISA. But I didnt give him anything and I asked him to send this information by email because I didnt want to agree to anything by the phone! After a while he got kinda aggressive and told me “if you are so naive maybe you are not ment for this trip” something like that. Anyhow it all ended with him hanging up on me.
The thing Im worried about is my telephone bill. The voice said in the beginning that “You have won, press 9, we are paying for the call”. So im worried that this is a lie… But the man incisted a couple of times that they actually were paying for the call… But who knows? Anyone got a huge telephonebill? please email me if you have!
Thanks for this great site!
Is it possible to be billed or something by pressing a number on the phone.. I mean that voice mean shit.
Actually that would be something better for them cus they can really talk! And if they charge like 50$ a minute for the call they wont even have to ask for VISA card….
Im still a little worried bout my phone bill…
August 11th, 2005 at 8:04 pm
Hello !!
I’ve just been scammed! Sad 2 say I fell 4 it!! I’d just love a trip to USA, so naturally i agreed. Yes, I know: foolish!! What can I say or do? I will try to stop them from taking the money tomorrow as soon as the bank opens but maybe it’s too late anyway?? I just have to stop believing in a nice world! I feel so STUPID!! This harms my believing in other thing to! If I ever will win something I wont believe it and sure as Hell I will NOT take the chance again!!
I really believed that I for once was “the lucky winner”, so ridiculous of me! I do wish that I’d heard of this site before, but better late than never because they haven’t got all the money yet! My account didn’t hold so much money as they wanted so I said I’ll fix it tomorrow! But guess what: I won’t! I’ll get in contact with the bank and try to get the money back (approx. half the sum they want) and close the account and I promise my self (and u all..) that I will never fall for this again!!
best of luck to you all !! hugs from me to you in a cold and not so nice world) // Theres
August 12th, 2005 at 4:16 pm
The largest newspaper in Sweden, Aftonbladet, http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/nyheter/story/0,2789,684347,00.html
published an article about Sunkissed Travel alias Holiday Frorida alias Sandy Vacation today. The paper also recomends their readers to call +14-078300147 and congratulate the salesperson who picks up the phone … “Congratulations, you have won an all-inclusive trip to Amal, the Swedish city, famous for the movie Fuckin Amal …” ”Please give me your credit card number …”. I bet a couple of thousands already have called. The journalist who wrote the article did, for a whole day!
August 15th, 2005 at 5:46 am
Hi everybody,
The dutch television show I was talking about earlier is called “OPGELICHT” (which means something like “CONNED”). They will do an item on these scams that will be broadcasted either August 16 or August 23 (TROS, Nederland 2 rond 21:00).
Regards,
Michel
August 15th, 2005 at 1:14 pm
To THERESDOHLSTROM: You did not make mention of which travel company you dealt with. It would be interesting to know.
For those who don’t mind the long read, I appear to now have become a security threat. Cloak and dagger stuff I tell you. It’s laughable and insulting. Not to mention the poor grammar and spelling errors… (At least those who have dealt with Sunkissed can now contact this Sean guy @ the Radisson Group and confirm that they deal with Sunkissed. Cannot say why they previously denied dealings with Sunkissed when I spoke to them. I’ve not verified the correctness of the info so feel free to contact Sean Bohanan. The reference to the Florida Sentinel: no trace on their website of Sunkissed Travel. Maybe it is a very OLD article which has subsequently been pulled from their website. Decide for yourself.)
From: michele at sunkissedtravel.com
Sent: 12 August 2005 13:36
To: Jacqui Burger (AFSA)
Subject: Re: (Jacqui Burger re Sunkissed Travel)
First of all we have our contracts with the Raddison Parkway in orlando and Raddison World gate : contact sales manager Sean Bohanan 407-396-1900.
We are in good standing with all our resorts. Our testimonials were writen and we do not know why you cant get response from them? I have contacted most myself and gave them a thank you. We certainly have a data base of all our customers. I’m sorry if Jose handling things poorly, I will take your word that this really happened. However you have been threating our company, this is a security threat and we have sent all proper documentation to the legal department as well as local state authorities.
Since you have broke into serveral personal e-mails and have tried to access customers person information is illegal no more than us putting you home,cell, buisness information out on the web or on ads that go out all day. You would feel violated if we shared you person information to 1000 thousand people daily. We have no reason not to travel you or help you in any way we can.
I do not have to be registered with asata due to I have a state licence to sell travel. We have been in the orlando sentinel as one of the most respected discount travel providers. Im sorry if you feel you were not treated fairly. That is not our intention, as the owner I value my customers concerns and would like nothing more to handle everyone personally. I am very busy and try very hard to keep up with dozens of customers that what me. I have been in buisness since 1999 selling travel and send over 100 thousand families on vacation a year. Even Sears or Jc Penneys or any large company has some complaints its part of doing buisness. We have a 30 day money back refund policy and 100% garauntee or accomadations. You clearly have gone above and beyound to discredit my company ,my employees and have made many untrue atatements that are fraud in itself. You have tried to breech many people privacy and breech security by trying to hack into systems and operational terminanals that is a violation of the laws here and are being investigated.
We will do what ever it takes to satisfy our customers and try to make everyone happy. If you would like to take vacation we wil certainally honor you travel package, if you would like we can put out thier your verification tape that you did authorize the charge and you did except the terms and conditions of the package or we could not of charged you credit card. What is it that you want and what is it that I can do to help you?
It is my job to protect my customers information as well as thier respect and trust in my company. Michele Taylor
August 15th, 2005 at 2:22 pm
I just had a call from Royalty Holidays, offering me a vacation in Orlando and a cruise to Bahamas for four people at £596.00. Before we started the conversation they asked me for credit card details. I gave them a debit card which has about £100 so I thought it would be ok. They guy gave me his sales pitch and I was actually thinking about buying the holiday, when he put me onto a guy names ‘Herman’. He said , if I changed my mind, I could have a full refund. I thought that was very strange. Then I said I would need to call him back to get other credit card details. He asked me how much I had on this card and that I could just leave a small deposit. This was when I realised I had no idea who these guys were and could really smell a rat. He gave me the website details but anyone can knock up a website. He asked me to give him 1% of my trust, and said he couldn’t believe I had never done anything on the spare of the moment before. The more he went on the more I realised it was a scam. I managed to get him off the phone and found this website. I just cancelled my card. I can’t believe people can still get away with this kind of thing.
P.S I Live in Surrey, UK
August 15th, 2005 at 5:27 pm
I just got a call from these people, they said their callback number was 1-800 358 3537, and that their website was royaltyholidays.com
He said that I’d won and before he could do the preeeesentation, he’d need to check my age by proving I was a valid credit card holder, and he wanted to start with the 3 digit security code on the back of my card (duh!)
While talking, I found this very site, which led me onto http://www.800helpfla.com/sot.html
Stupidly, I started asking for details of their registration number - what I SHOULD have done was to plug my phone call recorder in, give him fake details, and drag it out for as long as possible. But I did ask a lot about the company, and he was getting quite stressed. After nearly 20 minutes, he told me that if I was not interested, he’d have to say goodbye. To which I bid him “happy scamming” and he hung up!
Well, it was 20 mins of his time wasted, so that was a start.
What questions SHOULD I ask next time?
August 15th, 2005 at 5:27 pm
Reference my comment dated on the 6 Aug 2005, concerning Royalty Holidays.
I recieved a phone call from them tonight, asking why I had compained on this very web site. The lady I Spoke to was a Jennifier Gronzales, she seem genuine, she went on to say that this kind of bad press could give the company a bad name.
I told her that I was concerned about getting my money back, if I choose not to take the holiday. Jennifer Gronzales, reassured me, stating that I could have a full refund if thats what I wanted. She asked me to read the pack-up and watch the DVD, that arrived at my house today before making my mind-up. I must admit that when ever I have called them I have got through straight away, and they seem genuine, I will keep this site
updated if I have any problems, however, Royalty Holidays so far have kept there [sic] word.
They can be contacted via email: cs@royaltyholiday.com or cs@royaltyholidays.com
August 17th, 2005 at 10:18 am
Hello guys.
I got message today from Travasaurus.com that I have won trip worth of 1804 euros.
Page just popped-up when I was surfing on inet.
The sender is marked as:
Travel Services
5575 South Semoran Blvd.
Orlando, FL 32822
Signatured by Richard L. Warner
If someone wants screen shot of page, I certainly can send it.
But have to say thanks for this page, all the ppl in here, for telling me this is scam.
Thank you.
Lauri
August 17th, 2005 at 10:23 am
That’s odd. The travasaurus website has been blank for a while now. Perhaps they’re not using a front page to make it look like they’re “closed”. Do you happen to have the URL of the popup?