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 13th, 2005 at 3:46 pm
Hi!
I’m a 23 year old Norwegian girl who has also incidentally bumped into travasaurus\SunKissed Travels. Only I did not get a call, but a pop-up on the net telling me I was visitor number 1 million to the site I was visiting. Then I was asked to click the pop-up and call a number, giving a Security Number that was posted on the following site.
I called the number and talked to a very nice guy, who ensured me after my countless questions to whether they were kidding me or not, told me very sincerely that it was no joke, and it was their way of advertising. “Nice advertisement,” I told him.
I had won a trip for 4 people, and with some money included that I could spend on what I wanted. I had to be 23, he said, to cash in the prize, and I was 22 at the time (this spring), and he told me to call them back when I turned 23. I haven’t called them back yet, I decided to check them up thoroughly first. I’m still checking. Just thought I should tell you about my experience!
Ane
September 13th, 2005 at 4:26 pm
Hi Rich, still no sign of my refund, after cancelling on the 1st June, they dont even bother replying to emails or answering the phone and I now find the Amerivacation website is up and running again, although under constuction, wonder how much comes from optimalClick.com?????
September 13th, 2005 at 5:39 pm
Hi Simon,
My undertanding is that Discount Holidays LLC (aka AmeriVacation) were previously contracted to the Calypso Cay Resort with a brief of selling vacations.
It appears that Calypso Cay may now have taken over the AmeriVacation site, and changed the front page so thit it only displays the simplest of contact details. The rest of the AmeriVacation pages are still there - it’s just that the front page no longer links to them.
You can either look in your browser history to see where you’ve been before, or use this Google search to tell you what the pages are (were).
September 14th, 2005 at 10:10 pm
Still waiting for my refund from Royalty Holidays, on the 7 Sep 05 they promised it would be in my bank account in 3-4 working days, guess what, I’m still waiting..!!!!
Come on Royalty Holidays keep your word…!!!!!
September 16th, 2005 at 1:01 pm
Hello there,
I have just been trapped in such a mess a few minutes ago…when the guy asked me to give a credit card number in order to block the reservation, I just asked: “why do I have to confirm something now, when you just told me a second ago that I have 12 months to take the package or not…?” Then the conversation switched to another guy who asked me if I could not charge a company credit card (hey, I do not want to be fired!)…smart, but not so smart! Then he asked me “do you trust your bank? Because you know they do not want to lose money…”
I said “yes I do trust my bank, but I do not trust a guy far away (where, actually?), when I am in Paris, France and when he asks for a credit card number for something that is absolutely immaterial and very hard-sold…”
I asked them to send the package and the contract to my home adress, I will let you know when I have it…okay, I am just pulling your leg!
More seriously, I hope the bad guys will be jailed someday.
September 16th, 2005 at 1:25 pm
Hi again, I forgot to tell you about the names…
The first link I was redirected to was: http://www.sunkissedtravel.com, that appeared to point to http://home.sunkissedtravel.com/
I had a guy on the phone that called himself Leon Shindoll.
Bye.
September 16th, 2005 at 2:56 pm
travasaurus oferd me the same as to all of you but i dont have
23 years of age so i cant collect the reward.
September 16th, 2005 at 7:28 pm
Still waiting…..!!!!!! I spoke to John Miller tonight at Royalty Holidays. He stated that my refund was processed on the 15 September, I told him thats funny a Carol Edwards told me the night before that it had been processed on the 14 September. It had better be on my account by next week or every complaint site and agency shall know that Royalty Holidays are not trust worthy at all. We shall see, its up to them…!!!!
September 17th, 2005 at 7:24 am
I was called by this “company.” I’ve been trying to cancel the vouchers but only have a couple of days until the 30-day “look-over” period expires. My information came via FedEx, and I thought, after reading these pages, that there may be a tracking system. I’m a cyber toddler, so don’t know hat to do next.Should I call my crdit card company? Who do I report this to–AOL, the police, FedEx, or to whom? This Sunrise Travels literature came from Carrollton, Texas with both: 800-361-4140 CST # and 0-808-234-6559 #’s. If anyone has had dealings with them (legitimate or scam), or can give me a bit of advice, I would be forever grateful. Susan
September 17th, 2005 at 8:49 am
Hey, good luck Neil, hope you get your money back. I’ve only been waiting for 109 days for my refund from Amerivacation or Amerisuites Vacation Club or Calypsocay or whatever the hell they are called this week. I understand they are “busy” as their telephone message says everytime you ring them and guess what, they never return your call when you leave your name and number. “Busy” avoiding people who are hacked off with them. I have resorted to bombarding them with at least 20 emails a day but still no result. We live in hope. Best of luck buddy.