tags: Scams
Ameri-scam.
May 23rd, 2005, by Rich.
Warning: apache_lookup_uri() [function.apache-lookup-uri]: Unable to include '/pics/2005/ameriwho/beachball' - error finding URI in /home/www/boakes.org/htdocs/mods/plugins/boakes-depicticon.php on line 65
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 20th, 2005 at 3:48 pm
Hey Rich, keep up the good work, a few more developments, it would appear celebrationpromotions.com are back doing the rounds, although when you click on their website you go to destinationsforyou.com and title of the web page is Celebration World Resort.
Also around the South Manchester/Cheshire area a company called Sunshinetravelescapes.com are calling delighted customers with news of their “vacation of a lifetime”
Oh and it’s now 112 days since I was promised my refund from Robert@amerivacation.com or calypsocay.com who have now reduced the size of their mail box to stop my email bombardment to them.
September 20th, 2005 at 8:20 pm
I may be one of the very few people who actually received a refund this week from Amerivacation after being conned into buying a holiday package. It has taken me from 12th May to obtain this refund and I had just about given up. After numerous phone calls, emails and letters, I followed the advice about writing to cancel by quoting the Florida Consumer Law to them. I received my refund twelve days later.
I was amazed to say the least. I also wrote to the Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services and sent copies of all my correspondence to Amerivacation. Whether this helped I don’t know as I have not received any reply from them yet. I still can’t believe that I actually did get a refund (albeit minus £14)and that they actually did what they said they would (even if it took over 3 months for them to do it!)
September 21st, 2005 at 10:04 pm
Hi everybody,
what I wanna know is quite simple: did anybody go on vacation with sunkissedtravel? I bought the package and I am planing to go in two months and after reading all this… Will I come to Florida and there will be no hotel booked……
September 21st, 2005 at 10:27 pm
Any lurking sunkissed veterans out there? Note: if you’re going to break silence, you’ll probably end up being asked all kinds of questions about total costs, flighs, hotels, missing nights, taxes, how much you spent, how easy it was to get the dates you wanted, etc. etc!
Spela, I assume you read this already.
September 22nd, 2005 at 10:35 am
I have begun a process to cancel an offer from Royalty Holidays, has anyone heard or dealt with them already???
Their address is texas although they are offering holidays in florida, does the florida state statutes cover this as I have sent the standard letter of cancellation from the boakes.org address.
Any suggestions??
September 22nd, 2005 at 11:21 am
Hi Oonagh,
you can use this search to quickly discover each mention of the company.
There’s definitely been one successful cancellation.
Rich
September 22nd, 2005 at 2:55 pm
Saved by my creditcard’s excess limit!
SunkissedTravel’s discounted holiday offer is like putting a financial gun to your head.
Let the buyer beware.
September 22nd, 2005 at 7:18 pm
Hi
Thank you for this website. It lets me know I’m not the only one out there, who falls for these scams… An hour and 30 minutes after hanging up the phone, I called my bank to close my card!! Now I’m just hoping that they didn’t empty my account during those 90 minutes…
This was by the way Starr-Getaways and the Danish Government has a website alerting us not to fall in…
I’ll keep in touch to let you now how fast they are
TC, Denmark
September 23rd, 2005 at 6:53 am
Help!!!!!!!!!!! (Travasaurus)
September 23rd, 2005 at 9:29 am
Hi Rich,Amerivacation on Yahoo now goes back to the HolidayFloridausa.com website,same phone number, different address but still nobody to answer the calls or return them.
Check out the guarantee page where they say that Florida state law only offers a 3 day cancellation period but they will “generously” make this up to 30 days, very nice of them, that means they are now 85 days overdue on my refund.
Its good to see that somebody has received a refund from Amerivacation or Amerisuites or Calypsocay or HolidayFloridausa or whatever they will be called next week, maybe it will be my turn soon!!!
I have to say that even if this matter gets sorted out and somebody offered me a “legitimate” free holiday of a lifetime in Florida with no hidden extras i would have to tell them to put it where the “sunshine state” dont shine.