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.
June 19th, 2006 at 6:58 pm
I live in Canada & I was just contacted by Royalty Holidays stating I “won” a free trip to Floriday. I only had to pay $599 USD. Wait, I thought it was free? I asked again & again who he was with, to which he finally told me Royalty Holidays. He even gave me the web site address & told me to look at how legitimate it is, as I was asking what the catch was. So I Googled them while I was on the phone with him. Then I told him the search resulted in scam warnings. He started yelling that I was supposed to type in the ADDRESS, not a SEARCH! Gee, silly me… He promptly hung up on me. That might work for someone else, too. I’m glad he told me to look them up on the web!
June 22nd, 2006 at 6:42 am
I got the call today about the free trip but hung up promptly. No one gets anything for free like that. It is interesting to see that there are so many people out there who aren’t cynical about things like this.
People who make scams like this need to be in prison. I wish more was done to punish it.
June 23rd, 2006 at 10:34 pm
I am from nova scotia canada and I just recieved a call from royalty holidays telling me I had won an 1100.00 plus discount on a vacation to orlando/ bahamas/ fort lauderdale/ and other resorts . I figured it was a scam so I played along to make them waste their time and when i refused to disclose my credit card info. they even passed me to a supervisor who tried his best to reassure me that it was a safe thing to do because the transaction was being digitally recorded for my safety ( I could not see anything safe for me when they were the ones doing the recording ). to say the least he was really pissed after half an hour of of their best scaming tricks and made no sale ! If it sounds too good to br true then it usually is …
June 28th, 2006 at 8:25 pm
Hi, I’m a Canadian who just today realized how truly horribly I got scammed. Less than a month ago, I recieved a call from a Royalty Holidays sales rep in conjunction with Visa, they told me I had won a vacation package, and explained how great it was to me. I was still not completely convinced that this was a good idea, so I told them I didn’t want to give out my credit card info over the phone, so they reassured me that the charge wasn’t made to my Visa account until after the 30 day period, during which I could cancel the package risk free (as in I would not be charged anything so long as I sent back all of the documents they sent me within 30 days). I recieved the package from them the next week via a DHL carrier and looked it over, the documents themselves seemed alright and the only cancellation fee that they were informing me about was if I cancelled a trip I had already booked if I chose to keep the package. I decided that I probably wouldn’t use it and it would be a waste of my money, so I sent it back via Canada Post, and all was fine and dandy. Yesterday I picked up a message on my phone saying “This call is for Miss Sherisse Bigland, this is Anita Lowe with Royalty Holidays, I’m just calling to let you know we have recieved your package and your refund is being processed, also to let you know you will me charged a hundred dollar cancellation fee, thank you.” *click* OK, what?! I understoon when I accepted this thing that I would not be charged anything, and I already paid to send it back to them, $100 is a lot more than nothing, I have to say. Today I called them and talked to a customer service representative, who was a little more than rude, I was trying to find out exactly what this cancellation fee was for, and she kept cutting me off, and then told me that if I didn’t stop interrupting her and let her talk she would hang up on me, which she did as soon as I tried to ask for a letter from them stating that they would actually be refunding the amount for the original package. So, I called back, and just my luck, I got the same horrible cow again, this time I clearly stated that I wanted a letter saying that they were refunding all but $100 of the original amount, and she told me that they don’t send out letters. So, basically when the money hasn’t been put back on my credit card in a month, I have no proof that they were supposed to and no way of getting that back. Then I asked what the cancellation fee was for, and she told me that they have to pay people to put the package together and the DHL service to deliver it, so they charge me $100 for that. After telling her that I had been told explicitly that it was risk free and that the documents sent to me never mentioned anything of this cancellation fee, she told me that I was only being refunded $399 of the original amount and to have a good day. Now, I called Visa and they have told me that they will help me with this, but they don’t know what they can do about the $100, other than try to dispute it. So, long story short, I will never be accepting anything like that ever again.
June 29th, 2006 at 1:37 pm
Well,
They are still at it. My call said I had just won over 1,000 points on my visa or MasterCard and I qualified for a trip for only 25% of the cost.
I just kept asking questions and finally the said, “I’m tired” and she hung up. She kept talking about the scam vacation and I kept talking about the points. She did say that I “won” the points, just from my regular use of the card!!
Oh boy, they are getting worse and worse.
By the way, I found this site and started reading the reports online while she was on the phone. I was going to ask her about some of these reports, but she hung up on me before I had the opportunity to ask her about these.
Oh well, maybe they will finally black list my phone number … do you think?
Enjoy your day. Be aware, be smart.
July 4th, 2006 at 7:15 pm
wow…telephone scam exists all over the world
this morning my sister received a call from this “calypsocay”
vacation resort company, so the guy gives a bunch of offers, she ran it through me and asks me if its a scam or not, so i listen to the guy chitter on about how amazing and lucky we are to be “randomly selected” for this “prize”
the deal was $598 i believe, with a bunch of other offers that i don’t even remember anymore.
anyhow, so my sister gets me to check out this company, i searched it upon google, everything seems to check out, websites, bunch of pictures, contact informations. while i was looking for clues that whether this is a scam or not, my sister handed them her credit card number, but she decides to use a card that had a limit on it, so it didnt go through, and the girl just told her to “go get another card so we could finish the transaction.” cover blown!
so she cancelled the registration, and later cancelled her credit card, while the lady hesitates to say ‘yes’ when my sister asked whether or not if they’ll erase all her credit card informations.
just as it ends, i found this site, so thanks! for confirming this.
best of luck to you people out there
dont get scammmmed!!
July 13th, 2006 at 7:07 pm
Just wondering what carrier they used to bring you the information about the trips. I think i was also scammed and i am MAD. I don’t want to leave my name, cause i’m embarrassed.
July 14th, 2006 at 7:30 pm
My question is, What can be done by someone who got scammed by Royalty Holidays? They refuse to credit my Master Card after I returned the Holiday package. Now I cannot contact them because their phone is always busy (likely no longer in service), anf they do not respond to e-mails. What agency in the US deals with this kind of fraud?
Please let me know so that I can take some action.
July 16th, 2006 at 7:03 am
Received a call from Calypso Cay. Absolute scam, wanted credit card details etc. Very pushy, said I wouldnt have enough on the limit, still wanted details anyway. Offered website http://www.bestvacationsworld.com what a dodgy peice of shit that is, no links, no way to contact, no details of company. Stay the hell away.
July 17th, 2006 at 2:49 pm
Hi all
I wrote in a while ago about Royalty Holidays, who had sold us a holiday package and then refused to refund us after we cancelled within 14 days, (before they had even managed to send us the brochure package.) It took months of phone calls, emails, and finally we realised that the company will simply avoid refunding you any way they can, to the extent of calling up and promising a refund, if only to get you to stop asking for one. They never actually process a refund, they just keep telling you they will, so that you leave them alone for a while. They get especially attentive if you start to talk about hiring a lawyer to look into this, but they still never process a refund, unless they think they can charge you a fee instead (which they never mention).
So - what you need to do is get on to your bank/credit card company as soon as possible and raise a dispute over the payment and then keep following up with your company. It has taken us six months but our credit card company has now fully refunded the amount to our card, finding in our favour during the dispute.
Don’t waste your time with talking to Royalty Holidays, just send them a registered letter (and keep a copy) explaining your situation and detailing why you want a refund, so that you have “made a valid attempt to resolve the issue with the trader.”
They won’t answer you, but at least you will have done everything required, and it saves you on telephone charges.
Do make a complaint to the State Attorney General’s Office too, as the more complaints they receive the worse it looks for Royalty Holidays’ company register. Unfortunately this means they’ll just close down and rename themselves so that you don’t recognise the same scam under a different name.
Whatever you do, don’t give up trying, I know how hopeless and angry I have felt these last few months, and to be honest, we had come very close to giving up and had nearly resigned ourselves to losing that money, so you can imagine how excited we have been these last few days since getting the news (even now I don’t quite believe it, I’m getting my bank to confirm the details of the dispute in writing so I can frame it or get it printed on a t-shirt or something.)
So if you have just reached that first point of realisation that you are dealing with a company that simply works on a different sub-basement level of basic human principles to the rest of us, then it is time to get very mad and then get to work. It will take a long time, numerous emails, phone calls and letters, and there is no guarantee at the end of it, but you simply cannot let people like this get away with manipulating our good faith and trust, without any repercussions.
Good luck to everyone out there trying, and please, keep trying.
cheers