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.
September 1st, 2005 at 3:09 am
Hello,
I am from New Zealand. One day I was looking on the CBS website when the sunkissed travel icon came up. It said that i had won a discount on this 17 day holiday for being the 1,000,000 person to access the site. It gave me a transaction number and a phone number to call. If sunkisstravel is a scam, how come they can get through on to the CBS website?
September 1st, 2005 at 1:52 pm
Just to let you guys know floridatouristbureau is now going by floridatouristbureauinc
September 1st, 2005 at 3:50 pm
Interesting document from the Norwegian authorities
http://www.forbrug.dk/fileadmin/Filer/Markedsf_ring_og_jura/DCO_to_the_FTC.pdf
September 1st, 2005 at 4:34 pm
Wow Peter, good catch on that one!
In summary, the Consumer Ombudsmen from the Nordic Countries of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland have contacted the Federal Trade Commission and cited concerns over the international business practices of several “American companies” that have been discussed here, including:
This is extremely good news, not only because it will further curb any ongoing malpractice, but also (for those who feel they have already been defrauded) because it provides more evidence which can be presented to credit card companies to show their responsibility for the debt, which will be necessary if the travel companies fail to reimburse their customers when such action is appropriately demanded.
September 2nd, 2005 at 8:30 am
Dear Jacqui and Michel
We are a family from Denmark.
We have also dealing with this organisation HolidayFloridaUsa. We also saved all the evidence that we immediately wanted to cancel our trip and we have returned the package, but we still haven´t got our money back. Have you got some tips on how we may get our money back ?
Thank you
September 2nd, 2005 at 12:21 pm
Sorry Lone Rye Nielsen. I dealt with Sunkissed Travel and not HolidayFloridaUSA. Not that any of this makes a difference I guess. We’re all equally frustrated and I’m yet to meet a happy customer/satisfactory solution/fully refunded “winner”.
TO: Peter: Indeed well-spotted. I believe other ombudsmen should jump on the bandwagon.
September 2nd, 2005 at 4:06 pm
Hi all of you. I m from Spain and I ve just receive the winner message in my computer five mins ago. 1201.00 pounds Travel Shopping Spree… a confirmation number… but not very clear promotion for me, no legal coments nor details.I ve tryed to find info in internet about this guys /Expertholidays.com/ and I did. Thanks for the information you all gave here with your comments. I ll not call to this guys of expertholidays and I ll forget the message.
best regards.
September 2nd, 2005 at 8:43 pm
I come from England and this women phone us out of the blue saying we won hoilday in USA. But we had to pay £558 and wanted know too much. She sound like she came from USA
She even gave me a web address http://www.celebrationpromotions.com
September 2nd, 2005 at 11:22 pm
No word yet from the FBI man (ref). I contacted my mothers bank today and because she paid using her bank account debit card they would refund the money as long as the transaction was in the past 4 months!!! Good to know, trouble is it was 5 months ago!! Oh well!!!
The bank in question is Natwest. Hope this info helps someone.
Got a call from Royalty last night and pressed 0 for a laugh, got some guy on the phone who started work for them 2 weeks ago. After talking to me for 20 minutes he was going to his friends house today to look at this site on his computer. He said the turnover of staff is massive. He seemed genuinely appalled at what I told him.
This site is fantastic Rich, its saving many unfortunate people lots of money.
September 2nd, 2005 at 11:34 pm
Rich,
I know its a free country but can you please ignore US citizens posts, it appears that he is probably running one of them, if he dosent give ALL his details there must be a reason for it!
Gareth