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.
November 3rd, 2005 at 7:14 pm
please will you tell me how to get though to sunrisetravels.us as the phone no 08082346559 is engaged all the time and i can find the webb site
November 3rd, 2005 at 8:06 pm
Hello Marylyn,
the website http://www.sunrisetravels.us lists two numbers, one for the UK and one for the US, I’ve just tried the UK number and it was indeed engaged. I then tried the US toll-free number 1-800-361-4140 but that gave me a disconnected tone.
There is a third number listed on the website which is 001-972-250-9001 and that number got me through to a generic customer service answering machine asking me to leave a name, number, and a convenient time to call - per haps you shuould give that number a try.
Their address appears to be located within:
3201 Skylane Drive, Carrolton, Tx - 75006, USA.
In case you’ve not seen it, this comment discusses sunrisetravel.us.
Apart from that, that’s all the info that there is on the web, so let us know how you get on.
November 4th, 2005 at 8:08 pm
Hi! So glad this website is here. My partner and I were considering buying one of the described orlando/bahamas holidays from a man on e-bay. He said he has lost his job so was selling it cheap, but now I’m more inclined to think he knew it was a scam and so wanted to pass the buck to someone else. There are quite a few of these holidays selling on e-bay at the moment, so beware!He gave us the 0800 number to contact but we got no answer, always saying the mail box was full. The company was VIP Holidays. Thank again for making me aware.
November 8th, 2005 at 2:04 pm
Has anyone booked with a company called sunshinetravelescapes.com?
4525 Vineland road, Orlando, FLA. Scam or no scam? I think you web site is a great resource and has me thinking there may be no hotel when I get there. Thinking about cancelling. Please reply.
Thank you, Elaine
November 8th, 2005 at 2:58 pm
Hi Elaine, this article describing the Travel Voucher system may help you understand what you’ve bought.
SunshineTravelEscape’s website is refreshingly candid about what you’re buying, especially their guarantee, so if what you bought was what you wanted, then only you can make the decision regarding your holiday.
November 8th, 2005 at 6:52 pm
i have also lost a payment for a holiday my family will not be going on.
has anybody got any advice to help me try to get a refund?
November 12th, 2005 at 1:44 am
xxx ripped me off.
I purchased a vacation package from them for alot of money. I was under the impression that my cruise was part of the cost. Not only was I charged again for my cruise, but after I flew over a 1000 miles to the US. I was lied to by xxx. They never paid for my cruise with Discovery and told me that it was cancelled by Discovery Cruise lines. Naturally I was very upset so I proceeded to contact Discovery. They told me that they were never paid for the cruise. xxx NEVER paid them and they lied to me. They never paid discovery.
I have saved alot of money with other travel companies, but with xxx I was Ripped OFF. Period
November 12th, 2005 at 6:57 pm
Nick, your message reads too much like a venting for me to publish it with the name intact. You’ve obviously been significantly let down so I suggest you contact the DOACS and register a complaint about the company. This may (or may not) not help your case, but it will ensure that there is evidence of previous customer dissatisfaction that the DOACS can use in future cases.
November 14th, 2005 at 11:30 am
Hello Rich and fellow-readers,
If you don’t mind, I wish to post here a message left for me and some other customers (on the Ripoff Report’s website) by Jose who was previously employed by Sunkissed Travel. I obviously cannot say for certain that this message was left by Jose or someone posing as Jose, but I’ll paste it here all the same as he seemed to know the names of some other dissatisfied customers.
[NB: This is an abridged version - it if youre interested enough to be coming here regularly, pop on over to Ripoff Report for the full message - here is the jist of the note. - Rich]
If this is in fact Jose Rodriguez, I can only say thank you for your honesty and recognising that all is not well with your previous employer.
November 14th, 2005 at 2:44 pm
I purchased a holiday from “Royalty Holidays” for £500 in August. The moment I got off the phone to them I realised it was a big mistakeand tried to cancel the transaction with my bank. Unfortunately, because I purchased it with a debit card I was unable to. I was told by the company that if I sent back the package with the letter of cancellation they were sending me I would get my refund within 7-10 days. I am still waiting for my refund. Whenever I call up I just get told different dates. Is there anything I can do to get my money back. I have tried contacting trading standards in the UK but they said it is very difficult since they are based in the UK and I used a debit card. Is there anything I can do. Please help!