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 23rd, 2005 at 1:20 pm
just found out that i have been conned by celebraionpromotions.com the phone number given is the one you put out. number 08009177462 i have been trying it to find out when i can book the holidays but cant get through so i tried to find out through the internet. i found your site with the scam. anyway of getting back the money ??? i paid in full. i feel like a jerk now.
September 24th, 2005 at 12:02 pm
It seems Sunkissed Promotions Inc alias Sunkissed Travel is an existing travel agency with a licence located in Orlando. I found the name of the business in a recent business list of Orlando [PDF].
However, I could not find ‘Amerivacation’ in this list. So, I believe that we can conclude that everyone who was contacted by ‘Amerivacation’ was the victim of a scam operation because Amerivaction is also supposed to be located in Orlando.
AmeriVacation
7800 Southland Blvd. Suite #120
Orlando, Florida 32809
September 25th, 2005 at 8:44 pm
A lot of people have wrote about ameriscams and my wife also got into trouble with this from Sunkissed Travel.
As a matter of fact we got our money refund in less than a month (Eureka!) though but after lots of emails, letters, facsimiles, phone calls and finally even contacting the Florida Agriculture and Consumer Services. They did respond in less than two days and I really want to thank them for their help to refund our money.
To everybody out there, be persistent and you will get it back!!!
September 26th, 2005 at 6:28 am
Hi Dan,
To inform you we just managed to get our money back from Sunkissed Travel. That is hopeful. Just be persistent and follow the steps as boakes.org tell you in one of their links.
It took us by the way a lot of phone calls, emails, letters, facsimiles and even contacts with the Florida State Agriculture and Consumer Services. Trust me, it is worth contacting them. They got back to me the next day by letter.
/Another swedish guy.
September 27th, 2005 at 8:19 am
I am still awaiting my tape-recorded verification from Sunkissed Travel.
I am happy to see that obtaining refunds have become much less painful.
The address given for Sunkissed Travel on the Orlando Business List does not match the Tamarac address provided on their website and on their correspondence, but I do believe that they have more than one branch, so it’s all looking good.
September 27th, 2005 at 9:18 am
Hi there, could Lorna who posted on the 20th September please let me know which address and what phone number she used to get her money back from Amerivacation as i have 4 different addresses and 5 different phone numbers, none of which ever get answered, thanks.
September 27th, 2005 at 6:48 pm
Hi again
Just want you all to know that they didn’t get my money…
So at least they are over 90 minutes to collect…
They still haven’t send me that e-mail they promissed though, even though I should have received “within an hour”… I hope they have forgotten me!
Saved by this and other great internet sites…
September 28th, 2005 at 4:24 pm
Hi there, after I hang up the phone and thought, well what an fool I have been, not looking for your holiday yourself but let the holiday look for you………..and a destination you do not want to go to I cancelled immediately with the sunkissed travel over the customerservice e-mail since all the others given were not working. I instantly got a positive reply, cancelled at no costs, the rest is the credit card company’s business.
The working e-mail adress for Sunkissed is: joseqamgr@aol.com. If you believe or not - it got through. We have to be honest, the whole is our own fault, not hanging up the hook after 2 minutes.
September 28th, 2005 at 10:20 pm
Just wanna thank everyone for helping me lose my job at Sunkissed Travel, the Longwood(Orlando) office is now closed.
With all your negativity about a legitimate company look what you have done. If I knew where you all worked, if you lame people even do work I would be on the phone to them about your actions. JW
September 29th, 2005 at 12:47 am
Hi John - I’m sure everyone reading your message will no doubt extend sympathies to you at this difficult time, and I dare say some will be disappointed that your tone has turned negative, but I’m sure they’ll see your predicament. Your comments regarding this whole curious affair have been constructive (until this last one) and interesting, so I don’t doubt your ability to find alternative employment, and I’m sure everyone will wish you every fortune in this.
Readers may remember one of JohnW’s previous comments which said:
I’d held back from posting John’s original comment, and also edited the above text because to publish John’s stated intention would have rendered it unfulfillable.
John’s said he was going to “go undercover”. Here’s the original message, in full:
At the time I had no reason to believe that John hadn’t “just moved to Orlando”, but I also had no reason to overtly trust him. It just seemed sensible to hold back on that message if John was “gonna go undercover”.
From John’s message today, it appears he may have accepted a position with Sun-Kissed Promotions Inc. and not Eastern Pacific Holdings as he originally stated.