Ameri-scam.
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.
681 Comments
Interesting document from the Norwegian authorities
http://www.forbrug.dk/fileadmin/Filer/Markedsf_ring_og_jura/DCO_to_the_FTC.pdf
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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
Thanks for the feedback and update Gareth.
I feel duty-bound to remind readers that any comment about the identity and affiliation of “USCitizen” (and their motive for remaining anonymous) is most welcome, but that such comments are (sadly) pure speculation.
Whilst ignoring “USCitizen” may be an easy answer, it won’t help curb the telemarketing, nor will it stop the lies about having won a dream vacation, however, if “USCitizen “is in some way involved (as Gareth suggests), then their opinion may provide valuable insight to those that have been missold vacations.
In light of this I have repeatedly asked “USCitizen” whether he/she disputes several very simple statements regarding these issues, but have yet to receive any direct answer.
Personally I am very pleased that “USCitizen” has chosen to comment because it has provided the perfect illustration that none of the content herein is intentionally biased. Apart from having to censor “USCitizen”s initial inflammatory racism, but after that, I’ve been able to publish what little opinion he/she has managed to convey.
Dear Ombudsma. I got a telephone call that i have wone a holiday (with celebrationpromotions.com) with 50% discount and I was a lucky winnner, in Febuary this year. I paid £400 for this holiday using my debit card from abbey bank. This holiday was gauranteed to last for 2years. I have been tying to contact these people and cant get through I just saw this message about the scam and wondering what can I do to get my money back. Please let me know asap what I can do to get my money back.
My name is Lane Geyer and I am General Manager for Sun-Kissed Promotions, Inc. (dba Sun-Kissed Travel.) I have worked for this organization since day one and feel it is now time to clarify some issues posted here.
Since our start five years ago we have traveled thousands of people with no problems and with great feedback on our service and accomodations. We are not a scam. We have always been fully registered and in full compliance with the State of Florida. We have always complied with all State regulations. I am the one who handles these matters and can assure you that I do not take these issues lightly.
We use only the best resorts and offer a vacation package that has great value for the money. Can we please the demands of all the people all the time? No. Some have unreasonable demands. An example is Jacqui B. There is more to her story than she has written in comments here. I know because I’ve been involved in this matter. Yes there are scam vacation offers in Florida. The list on this site provides some of them. Balance truth with reality.
Well I am very grateful to this website, as it has saved me from a lot of grief…I hope! We were surfing the net when a pop up appeared alerting us that we had won travel money in pounds, and if we phoned within four minutes we would recieve a free trip to the bahamas. We were given all the same info about a trip to florida, in fact we were informed that we had won ‘the grand prize’which involved a number of destinations. We were then asked to verify that we had a visa card as this offer was only available to visa card holders. She said the offer was run in conjuction with visa. After providing her with our details and visa card number she then put me on hold to verify our card. She said she was unable to at this stage as they weren’t answering the phone ( apparently we had run
very early in the morning ). There was never any mention from this person that they would be charging us and that we had automatically purchased this package…unbelievable! We were told, we would receive the package in the mail telling us all about it. The phone number provided by herself was also disconnected as I rang it as soon as I got off the phone! At this stage I had major reservations, so I ran my credit card company immediately to have my card suspended. Sure enough, the next day funds of close to $3,000 had been attempted, way more than the price they had quoted! Luckly for us, they couldn’t access them due to the suspension. The next day we permenantly blocked our account and had a new number issued. Wow, that was close!
The title they came under was floridatouristbureau.com
Question. Even though they haven’t managed to access our funds, do we still need to email/ring/write a cancellation letter for something we didn’t agree to?
Hi Trudie,
I’m always cautious about giving advice and prefer to share my opinion and let folks do whatever they want with it; however…
Your experience sounds like the worst of anyone that has yet commented; and given the circumstances in which you find yourself (and the fact that your credit card company will be able to confirm the attempted fraudulant withdrawl), I have no qualms about urging you to:
1. contact your local police immediately to obtain a crime number.
2. then contact the DOACS an make a formal complaint against the company.
3. as your case progresses, keep us all informed.
Dear Rich
Further to my message of 21st August regarding this scam, I am delighted to say that at long last I have received a refund. This was after writing to the American version of Trading Standards, the BBC “Watchdog” programme and anyone else whom I felt might be interested. I had been checking my account balance almost daily since 6th June, sending countless e-mails and making innumerable phone calls. So perhaps my persistence paid off; on the other hand an official body may have taken up the cause and is putting pressure on these companies to give people their money back. I hope other people will take heart from the happy end to my 3-month saga and realise that it may still be possible to get their money back.
I am very grateful to you for your website.
Many thanks.
Dear Sheila,
It’s great that you got your money back, but did you ever think that if the company was not legitimate then you would not have gotten that money back. So you have caused grief to a company that is legitimate. You have caused them a lot of extra work. If you received the package they had to pay shipping charges, they had to pay the phone calls, plus pay an employee that most work on commission which means that they will now have that deducted from their pay. The more things that happen like this is going to put LEGITIMATE companies OUT OF BUSINESS!!!!Hopefully your not taking money out of single mothers mouth with kids. U.S. Citizen
In Sheila’s initial message she said:
This sounds like the initial transaction was fraudulent, yet USCitizen is praising the legitimacy of the company for making the refund and suggesting that Sheila has done something wrong by wanting her money back.
USCitizen is also implying (through the introduction of “single mothers mouth with kids” [sic]) that Sheila (and anyone demanding a refund) should feel some kind of guilt; apparently suggesting that ethical and moral codes of business conduct are inapplicable if you happen to be a single parent.
Dear Rich,
My last post said Dear Sheila NOT Dear Rich my chap if i wanted comments from the peanut gallery i would have asked.
To Everyone on this Site
Please be aware there are legal consequences for talking negatively about a company that is legitimate. You can do a GOOGLE search and
find out. So be careful what you say.
U.S. Citizen
P.S. By the way Sheila is a big girl
As a rule of thumb, you are free to talk about absolutely anything that happens to you, and you are free to discuss the opinions you have formed as a result.
Note to USCitizen: if you wish to comment about an article on this site, then you may expect your comment to be read and responded to by anyone, your “peanut gallery” comment and your other general aggression only serve to belittle any useful contribution you might be able to make.
Dear Rich,
Get ready to be really busy answering a lot of comments because I am contacting every single company listed on here to let them know they are being talked about. I see one company that I contacted has already responded.
U.S. Citizen
Dear Rich,
But to say a company is a SCAM when it is legitimate is NOT LEGAL to
say.
U.S. Citizen
Whilst doing a little background reading yesterday I came across this document. It’s the European Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (multiple languages).
It clearly states that misleading and aggressive commercial practices are unfair, and gives extended definitions for what constitutes misleading and aggressive practice.
An example from Article 5, Point 2b:
Personally, I’d say that lying about having won a holiday is likely to cause (and has caused) such distortion. I could continue quoting for many more paragraphs because the content is just so relevant.
If you’re unsure whether your experience at the hands of a company could be considered illegal, then this document is a most useful read.
Dear Rich,
Not all of these people have been lied to though. I myself won a cruise and was also offered a discount on a vacation package. Who in there right mind is going to spend airfare which can cost alot just to spend 3 days and 2 nights on a cruise. Come on BE REAL!!!
I opted for a discounted vacation package. Some of these people must be nuts if they think that some company is gonna give them a 2 week vacation for free. People here FREE and they think the whole thing is free. I also see some people on here said that they had won a discount on a holiday, so they were not lied too.
U.S. Citizen
Well it is with great dissappointment that my wife and I have also been scammed, after discovering no http://www.sunkissedtravel.com and then this website(we purchased a Florida holiday a few months ago). Coming from South Africa with a conversion rate of R7.00 to $1.00 it seemed affordable although not cheap, however the package looked good. All I can say is I hope the scammers at sunkissed can sleep well at night knowing that they have ruined a family’s dream holiday.
Hi S. Moore – the sunkissed website has moved (I have no idea why) to http://home.sunkissed.com
Also, someone claiming* to be the General Manager of Sunkissed (Lane Gayer) has recently commented on this article, so perhaps she’d like to say why the website moved.
* I say claiming because the email address that was given was not an “@sunkissedtravel.com” email address and nobody has yet responded to the message that was sent asking them to confirm their identity, however, this was over the weekend and the US east coast is still mostly tucked up in bed.
** Update the mail just arrived, Lane’s email address has been confirmed (though it’s still not an “@sunkissedtravel.com” address), however, I am inclined to believe it is “official” given that most communication that I have seen fom sunkissed appears to be done using AOL email addresses.
Dear S. Moore and Rich,
I just clicked on the http://www.sunkissedtravel.com link in your comment
and it worked fine for me. What are you a moron or what.
U.S. Citizen
http://www.sunkissedtravel.com is working again for me too.
USCitizen, I suggest you refrain from petty name-calling, it only serves to make your comments look childish and illconsidered.
http://www.sunkissedtravel.com went blank several weeks ago (i.e. a plain white page as opposed to a 404), and the site moved to home.sunkissed.com, but no immediate redirect was put in place to home.sunkissed.com. It appears likely that this is what S.Moore is referring to.
IN RESPONSE TO LANE GEYER’S MESSAGE: During June/July of this year I said many negative things about Sunkissed Travel. As regards factual incorrectness or later being proven wrong, I STATED as much. Eg: Sunkissed’s (“SKT” hereafter) website was down for days. Faxes and calls to the offices didn’t make a difference in non-communication either. I was also wrongly accused of breaking into SKT’s computer systems etc. I set the record straight on that too and still await proof or apology from Michele Taylor, owner of SKT. It is also TRUE that Jose Rodrigues called my home and behaved like a 9 year old who had his sweeties taken away. I even offered an affidavit in this regard. I also mentioned on various forums that I am a “disgruntled purchaser” of a holiday package I had “WON”, not the ENEMY. I was given an undertaking by a very pleasant fellow from SKT, Andi, that I would receive a copy of the recording whereby I agreed to pay SKT for my “prize”.
Now quite honestly, I do not feel like throwing more money down the drain by calling SKT yet again. I lost my buyer due to SKT’s unresponsive and most unhelpful manner. If Lane Geyer takes the time to look at my initial e-mails, I was merely providing tentative flight dates and enquiring as to availability. Even that proved to be too much of a hassle to a company that wants to “vacation the nation”.
I would very much appreciate Lane Geyer reading the letter addressed to the Federal Trade Commission by the Danish Ombudsman. Hopefully they will do the necessary to appease them.
For the last time, I confirm that I have a package from SKT, that SKT has agreed to honour the package, that I
‘lost’ the sale thereof due to their incompetence and/or lack of response to (initially) very polite enquiries and that due to all the bad publicity from MANY people internationally i.r.o. of SKT and its business practices, I strongly doubt I will find another willing buyer for the holiday package.
TO S. MOORE: I too am an SA Citizen (residing in Cape Town) and would love to hear from you. I am uncertain as to what is fact and what is fiction at this point. However, I can confirm that I received a response from the Better Business Bureau in Florida, where Sunkissed Travel responded by saying that they will honour the discounted package and assist should I want to transfer it to a third party. I’m most doubtful that a 3rd party would wish to purchase the package considering the experiences some of us have had – and this refers to various US sellers of travel. I already lost my only serious purchaser due to no website being up and running and no communication/confirmation of availability of accommodation being received for some three weeks (iro Sunkissed Travel). I must admit that I cannot now remember the exact period now but you’ll see it much earlier postings made by me. Take the vacation and come back home with a good posting for Sunkissed – that ought to do it!
Hi USCitizen, you’ve said on more than one occasion that you had a nice time on a cruise that you won, but you’ve not said with whom you travelled. Which company did you win your cruise with?
Earlier today USCitizen said:
As USCitizen suggests, savvy consumers are all too aware that you don’t get something for nothing in this life.
I’ll rephrase that: savvy consumers are all too aware that you don’t get something for nothing in this life, except when you win a competition.
It’s an important difference.
When people are told they have won something, that’s exactly what they believe. They believe that this is their lucky day. They dare to believe that magical things really do happen to nice people. They believe that they really are the 50,000,000th website visitor and they believe the nice sounding man on the answerphone who says they’ve won the Jackpot.
The “winning†aspect is part of what makes this a scam. This is not a competition, it’s a sales technique.
Even savvy punters get taken for a ride occasionally, and when that happens they like to know if they can get their money back.
If enough savvy punters contact their trading standards ombudsmen, and if the problem is widespread, then the ombudsmen act and international wheels get set in motion, as we saw yesterday.
It appears that an awful lot of people agree that this sales technique is unethical (not forgetting that its breaches national laws regarding do-not-call lists in many countries).
Dear Rich,
Why do you alude to the fact that you have a U.S. domain(boakes.org)
whilst living in the U.K. where it should be (boakes.org.uk)?
Maybe because you should not have it.
U.S. Citizen
I also have been scammed by this company sunshinetravelescapes were I”won a fantastic trip to Florida” they took money of my credit card without authorization, I returned the package instantly and being calling them almost every day just to be connected to an answering machine with a prommise they will call me back, I am still waiting for that call. I have figured out one way for them to call back is by sending an e-mail asking for additional informatiom about my holiday package, then they have called back now twice, at the first call I received, they prommised the money will be sent back into my account at “the end of the month” (July)still waiting, the second call, they simply hang up.
I have now little hope to get my money back.
If anybody can give me any clue how to handle this, mostly to prevent this kind of scam to happen to others but also make me belive that I can ever use a credit card again without being afraid to be robbed.
I do work very hard for the little money I have
Dear Rich,
Are you saying I was taken when I accepted the offer of a free cruise and discounted vacation? I don’t think so. When I was called I was told I had Won a cruise, which was correct. I was also offered a discounted vacation which was truly a discount considering the price on the inside of the hotels door. You see signs in stores everyday saying this or that is FREE if you buy the same item or if your purchase is of a certain amount? Is that wrong? In talking to some of these companies I have learned that some were offering a FREE CRUISE and a discounted holiday.
NOT A FREE HOLIDAY. Others were offering DISCOUNTED HOLIDAYS. Are you telling me that when a pop-up comes up and says you have WON a discounted holiday that that is a scam? I DON’T THINK SO. How are companies to advertise a special if it is not discounted. You are telling me that someone would click on an ad that said you have WON A FULL PRICE HOLIDAY. That wouldn’t make sense. You see pop-ups everyday on the internet YOU HAVE WON A FREE IPOD if you fill out a survey. I say if you are not interested then ignore the pop-up and ignore the phone call don’t press whatever # they say. It is wasting the companys time and money and your time. If you are one of the lucky to have recieved a FREE CRUISE or a discounted holiday and you can get a hold of the company, then the company is legitimate. Take the cruise or the holiday and have a good time, it’s not often that you get that chance. I wish there were companies offering holidays like that to go to the U.K but you wouldn’t find that because they wanna get every dollar out of you that they can. THATS WHAT I CALL A RIP-OFF.
U.S. Citizen
boakes.org
IP Addresses: 148.197.155.8
IP Country: UNITED KINGDOM
Reverse IP Lookup: IP hosts 6 domains
etc…
[rich says: The rest of this post contained publically accessible information regarding the registration of the boakes.org domain. Entirely irrelevant to the discussion.]
If you wanna reach Rich you can reach him here
2xGysF8D at privacyadvocate dot org
Dear James , you wrote this on june 28th and it says “at no stage did I give them my account details” then how may I ask can they take money from your account because without giving them any account info or authorization they cannot. Where would they get the information. So I think you need to get a life, because what you have posted then means
nothing. I would wager to say that this is probably just a bogus post.
US. Citizen
To Jacqui B.
Seems to me that you are just as bad as these companies on here, if you thought the package you bought was a scam and tried to sell it to someone else. God knows what you tried to sell it for. But it seems from your posts that you are a pretty unreasonable person, sorry to say.
And by the way i am not spanish nor african american and am not in anway affiliated with any of these companies that are scammers, just a concerned citizen that has a friend that works for a travel company that is not listed on here but is being affected by what is going on in here, because this site comes up when you do a GOOGLE search about travel, so now people think that all these companies are a SCAM and they are not. I also believe that a lot of the posts on here are bogus.
Also Rich seems to post only what he wants to post. I have asked him why he living in the U.K. has a U.S. Domain name.
U.S. Citizen
USCitizen is labouring under the misapprehension that .com, .org, etc are US domains. They are not; they are generic Top Level Domains which can be registered by anyone, anywhere in the world.
There is a US specific domain, and it is “.us“.
Hi Finn,
I think following the steps outlined here is still a good approach, because it ensures that the DOACS and your credit card company are aware of your problem. It’s wise to also include in the letter any details about the phonecalls and emails you have been exchanging in the mean time.
USCitizen asked:
Err. No, I merely asked:
USCitizen also said:
No. Let’s imagine a sun-block manufacturer has a two-for-one offer and a shopper walks into a store, then they might pick it up. There’s nothing wrong with that offer.
Note that:
I think perhaps its time to go back and re-read the first story I wrote. In it, I describe how my unlisted, do-not-call registered number was called. When a company calls my number I pass on the details of that company to the TPS, so they have a log of companies that are ignoring their do-not-call list – that’s what I wrote about.
After a lot of comments on my website, I became curious and looked around the internet to see what other information was around. I wrote the second story (above) about how there appear to be links between the company that called me and other companies that have previously been using similar sales tactics, I described how these similarities were based on matching websites, phone numbers, and addresses.
That’s all the articles said, yet people started to comment, saying they were worried and concerned and that they couldn’t afford the holiday they had been talked into buying.
People started to send me messages asking for help in cancelling the contract – I simply don’t have time to answer every message, I’m writing up my PhD at the moment, so I wrote two more articles:
USCitizen continued:
No I am not. See above.
USCitizen continued:
Not in many cases. See above.
USCitizen continued:
The lack of interest of anyone who is on a national (FEDMA recommended) do-not-call list should be blatantly obvious. These lists have been ignored (see for evidence the 30+ TPS registered people who have commented on this site) so in terms of wasting people’s time, the guilt is entirely on the back of the companies that ignore the do-not-call lists.
I’m not quite sure why, but USCitizen has gone to the trouble of extracting an email address from the domain information for this site and posting it on this site.
An alternative (and I would have thought more obvious) method of contacting me, is to use the “Contact-us” link that features at the top of every single page of this website.
USCitizen wrote:
Perhaps USCitizen would care to explain this assertion by posting a link to the relevant “google search (or searches) about travel”. I’ve tried a couple and this site does not feature in the top 100 results, for example:
USCitizen continued:
As far as I am aware, none of the posts are “bogus”. Most people (apart from USCitizen) have provided a real name and a real email address.
USCitizen continued:
I have answered that question, even though it is outside the topic of this discussion.
All readers should be aware that off-topic comments (and anything illegal like inflammatory racism) are unlikely to make it through the moderation process uncensored (if at all).
Keep up the good work Rich. USC, you are boring me with your repetitive drivel, we have got your point but you still keep on repeating yourself, give us a break. Yes I accept that not all these companies are scammers, what concerns me are the ones that are. These scams have been going on for months now; maybe you could put your time to better use like exposing these con men instead of defending them.
To U.S. Citizen
I have also been scammed by Sunkissed Travel. I know they claim that they are a legitimate company but they don’t follow their own terms and conditions so they are not serious in my opinion.
This is an extract from their terms and conditions “You may cancel this contract without any penalty or obligation within 30 days from the date of purchase or receipt of the vacation certificate, whichever occurs later…..â€
I tried to cancel the contract the day after the purchase but they told me that it was impossible and that I had accepted this during the recorded verification process. So what is this if it’s not a fraud?
I have made the steps recommended by Rich. I have contacted the DOACS and filed a recorded cancellation letter with a copy to my credit card company, to the Swedish Agency of Consumer Service and I have also reported it to the police.
Sunkissed Travel is aware of all this and yet they keep on offering things like
“4 of the following:
Sky Card — This $100.00 Gift Card is good on all major airlines. It is good on domestic and international flights. It guarantees the lowest published available airfare.â€
They even offer an “Extended use of your Vacation Holiday for up to 3 years†so I can sell it to my daughter when she is old enough to travel alone.
Yesterday I got a letter from the DOACS in which they confirm that they have asked the business to respond to the allegations.
Well, let’s go to the point. I have a Vacation Package worth $1100. You can buy it if you are interested. Just leave your credit card number to Rich so he can forward it to me. Don’t forget the four digits on the backside of the card. By the way, I am willing to give you a $100 discount if you make a quick decision.
I totally agree with Simon. I too got scammed by HolidayFloridaUsa back in july when denmark was the target.
I never gave them permisson to withdraw money from my account, they assured me they only needed my credit card details to verify my person.
The day after I spoke to my brother who lives in Florida, and he told me I had most likely been scammed.
I tried to cancel my reservation over the telephone, but they told me I could not cancel because my package had already been send. I then asked for the trackingnumber and name of the shippingcompany and the guy I spoke with (Ken), got really angry shouting “I do not have to put up with this” and hung up on me. I then followed the steps put out by Rich.
Two months has gone since they made the withdravel (598euro), and I still have not seen either package or refund.
Fotunately the lawdepartment of my bank has taken over.
USCitizen it is quite obvious that you do not know the laws here in scandinavia. You do not have to be on a do not call list. It is illegal to call someone in their private home, if you want to sell something. You can only call companies.
Would you please stop harressing people in here, and find a better way to spend your time. In your own words, get a life!
Correction.
I just checked my account, and the money has been deposited yesterday, not from HolidayFloridaUsa off course, but from my Visacompany(PBS). I just hope that PBS will be able to put some pressure on these companies, to put them out off buisness.
Hi Christina, that is great news, I’m delighted to have been able to help.
To US Citizen
You are really just a waste of constructive space on this blog, USC. Be constructive. If you are slightly more literate than I’d care to imagine, you will note that I, in good faith, attempted to sell the package, i.e. I did not think it a scam at the time. It was only upon attempting to obtain suitable accommodation dates (for the buyer) from Sunkissed Travel, that I thought they were a scam, as they ignored my correspondence/fax/phone msg for weeks and their website was completely blank for days – as was confirmed by them in writing.
Wouldn’t you be crapping yourself when you’ve expended an amount of ZAR6000 and suddenly there’s no record of the company and they ignore you? Think about it…
If you go to the trouble of reading all postings, including some snotty ones (about the treatment I and others have received) from Sunkissed employees who felt the need to do so, you will note that I (amongst others) also kept everyone here apprised of new developments, including positive ones. I have already said that in their correspondence to the BBB they give an undertaking to honour every “leg” of my travel package, including transfer thereof to a third party.
What part of this did you not understand?
Let me say this in lay terms…
As regards your comments made a couple of days ago re single mothers … I am that single mother you dimwit. Neither I nor my child goes hungry – not that you’d show any concern with your lack of maturity. That phrase generally is a figure of speach – just so you know.
In my opinion you are a snide little twit with nothing better to do with your time. You insult Rich and you insult people who raise valid concerns and comments on this blog. If you do your homework properly before going off on a tangent, you will post constructive, read-worthy remarks here and also note that some of these complaints even have HAPPY endings.
I’ll be so glad if you choose to not respond. I’ll be damned if I’m going to waste my time mud-slinging to and fro with you. I have more pressing things to do.
As that single mother you so loathe… I am also fostering a seven month old baby girl who’s mother is a crack whore. Why not find me a buyer for my holiday package so that I can afford to buy a stroller and other much needed items for this poor baby who didn’t ask to be born. I’m relying on the goodwill of friends and family at this point. I am not a hero or a martyr, I’m just another mum who can’t standy by and watch…
The government will, some months from now, provide me with ZAR366,00 per month as a ‘child support grant’ for Angelina’s upkeep. This barely covers nappies (diapers as it’s know to you)for one month. Her day care costs: R1 000,00per month. Doctor’s bill yesterday : R275,00.
So before you dare to judge any of us again, pull your finger out of your ear and get a life, man!
i have also been conned by this company [sunkissedtravel.com]. purchased a package 3june,tried to cancel next day been trying ever since.i have rang them on numerious occasions,someone will call you back ,after youve been on the line for 30 mins.no one calls you back.no response to emails ive sent.i am disabled cant afford to lose this kind of money or pay phone charges this is costing me.i would be gratefull for any help with this matter
I just received word that starr-getaways.com has cloned itself and is now also accessible through the new name of myholidayexperts.com.
It looks like the page redesigner remembered to change everything but the page title, which still says “Welcome to STARR GETAWAYS!!”. Oops.
This is much the same kind of refit as happend to the amerivacation site when it was also used by FlordiaHolidayUSA.com and DisountHolidays.com