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.
April 7th, 2006 at 3:21 pm
I have recieved two phone calls from the same number as the person below: 08444 823333 in the last week. The first one I missed, but the most recent I answered, and they then promptly hung up. I googled the number and found this websitee, but that was it. I still have no idea who it was. I’m just glad they hung up! I know what I’m going to say next time they phone…
April 7th, 2006 at 7:28 pm
I too just received a call from a very similar number of 1-972-490-0000 today, telling me that I won a trip to the Caribbean, “to claim your prize, please press 9″. Being naive, I did, and all that happened was the phone kept ringing. I then hung up and tried calling the number back. After calling the number, I received a message telling me the number was not working, I hung up and that was the end of it. I looked up the number on 411.com and it came up as a Ron Parr in Texas. I guess they were probably looking to get my credit card number maybe? I’m just concerned that I will have a bunch of long distance charges on my next phone bill?
April 8th, 2006 at 12:37 am
Hi
I dont know if this makes a difference or not but I am from Canada Nova Scotia and
recieved a call from Dallas Texas a phone number 1-972-490-0000. They said I won a trip and to press 9 …they are lucky that they got my voice mail and not me on the phone cause
they would have got blasted. For one, I dont do anything to do with on the phone.
Second, I reported them to the better business bureau. Third, no matter where you live
dont give in to these phony phone calls. Its as simple as that. They would have got a run for their money had they have called me. I would have speant an hour on the phone
giving them false information. This is a message from me to them if they even read these posts. Suck it…..
Not a dallas cowgirl….
April 11th, 2006 at 10:57 am
got a call from 001 972 490 000 My 2 year old daughter answered it and hung up before I gotto the phone……. Smart girl that she is ;-)
Lookd up the number and found Ron Parr in TX.
April 12th, 2006 at 4:16 pm
we just discoverd that the company that got oure mony from visa is sunrisetravels. aresortweek is a royalholiday is sunrisetravel. still hoping to get oure mony back
April 12th, 2006 at 8:02 pm
The scam is working hard in Holland!!!!!!
I got the notorious automated call, then, after pressin 0, got connected with a very rude guy who yelled at me for not saying my name immediately, when I yelled back that in essence HE called ME, he calmed down and we exchanged names. Then he went into the happy-winner salespitch, and after a while asked me to go to my computer to look at their website. Earlier I took note of thir company name ‘Royalty Holidays’, so when I sat down I googled it up, and voila, the second site was this, where I am writing this log! THANK GOODNESS! having scanned the info herein, my major objective was just trying to waste as much of their phone money as possible! When we go to the credit card number issue, I refused to give it, claiming that I only give that info via secure internet lines, so he offered to transfer me to a secure agent with a secure phone line, and when I kept politely and consistently refusing all, he almost sent me to hell…Oh boy, was he upset, he even mentioned how much of his time I have wasted. Hihihi…
A few hours later I received an e-mail with confirmation numbers and authorisation codes, names, address etc. of another person in Holland. I quickly called him - it was unfortunately too late, he has given all his info already. Looks like my e-mail address accidentally stayed in the system of the calling agent, looks like this person was his next victim…. The e-mail came from: info@aresortweek.com.
April 12th, 2006 at 8:20 pm
To enter their website you need a promotion code. The one that was given to me is INT5757 (case sensitive)
http://www.royaltyholidays.com/INT5757.html
Some pages of the site are missing, and one of them has an address in Manila printed on it. The comments page…
April 18th, 2006 at 4:35 pm
I received a phone call this morning from Ron Parr in Dallas, Texas, phone number (972)-940-0000. I traced the call through my phone company, and alerted them that it sounded like a scam. I would do that to help the police catch this guy, if anyone also gets this phone call…especially if they call more than once. Anywho, it would be interesting to know what their scam is, but no clue, as I didn’t get any farther than the chick from Nova Scotia! The bastards woke me up! Anyway, something should be done to investigate this guy!
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
April 18th, 2006 at 4:53 pm
Remember - as the adage goes - if it sounds too good to be true then it probably is…
April 18th, 2006 at 6:14 pm
I live in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and just received a call telling me to “press nine to receive my free vaction”. Everyone in Canada that receives this phone call should contact phonebusters.com and report what happened to them. Phonebusters track phone and online scams and if they receive enough good information they may be able to help police prosecute some of the people running these scams!
This service works closely with the RCMP, OPP, the Competition Bureau of Canada and the Canadian Government. Just visit the website, and on their contact page they list their toll-free number, mailing address and email address.