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.
August 31st, 2006 at 6:38 pm
Carolyn say’s:
Try contacting the Attorney General’s office, they will help you.
They will tell you what you have to do. They will send you papers to fill out and return to them with all the information you have and any papers you have pertaining to Calypso Cay. Good Luck! Carolyn
Carolyn
August 31st, 2006 at 8:11 pm
This is the kind of Crap that gives the legit companies like us a bad reputation and make it so difficult to do what we do. As you will all learn, not all travel companies are scams, and not all people who advertise by fax or email are bad people. We do all we can to protect our clients and to make sure that they receive all as told and promised. I hope these guys get what they deserve!
August 31st, 2006 at 10:06 pm
Hi Jay, you seem to have a gripe with people communicating information about their rights and how to ensure they are upheld, which would be silly, so I’m sure I must be misinterpreting your “kind of crap” generalization.
People communicating openly and honestly about their rights and their attempts to discover and enforce those rights should be encouraged - it helps ensure the good travel companies can stay in business by alerting the authorities to dubious business practices of scam companies at the earliest opportunity.
Do you think this is a good thing? I think probably you do, but are trying to respond from both sides of the fence, so your message is becoming ambiguous.
September 7th, 2006 at 11:51 am
I live in Adelaide South Australia. I too have just been ripped off by these b******s $900 which I too can’t afford. They were going by the name of ‘bestvacationsworld‘ and said we had won $1101 and to call 1800 157 243 to collect.
After ringing them they requested credit card details and described a dream holiday going to Florida with free passess to Disneyland, also going to the bahamas for 3 nights and a cruise on a cruise ship for a further 3 nights.
I told them I didn’t want the holiday but would like the $1101 that they said I had won, they told me that would be fine and that they’d put it in my credit account.
After hanging up I then got suspicious and rang my credit card company and found out what had happened. Is there any way you can possibly help me get my money back pleeeaaasssee?
September 15th, 2006 at 12:31 pm
I live in Australia and I am glad I have found people with the same problem. I too got scamed! Calypsocay got me and I have been trying for 12 months to get my money back - I am a single mother trying to put myself through university. How can they be so dishounerable we should get an Current Affair investigator television programme to confront these people for us or wack them with a massive lawsuite from combined SCAMED people - People unite! I say and lets get our money back.
The web site for Calypso Cay has the wrong phone number on the front page but when you log in there is the correct number and they have two different customer service numbers - not suprsing one of them leads to a dead end also. The contact person for my refund is apparently lsevilla@calypsocay.com. And this was the latest excuse for not contacting me with an update of my refund.
> Dear Mrs. Phillips,
> We are experiencing severe thunderstorms and expecting a hurricane. Our
> phones have been going in and out as well as the computers. Please
> forward your inquiry in writing via fax. I do not have an answer or
> update regarding your refund. I do not handle refunds or issue them in
> this department. Please forward your inquiries to my vendor relations
> manager lsevilla@calypsocay.com for updates and status. It was turned
> over to him for follow up. Any inquiries regarding the refund should be
> sent to him.
>
> Thank You,
>
> Lisette Del Rio
> Customer Care Department
> US Toll Free: (800) 824-1533
> UK Toll Free (0800) 091-0919
> Australia Toll Free (1800) 092-368
> Direct: (407) 997-1732
> Fax: (407) 997-1729
> 2921 A Vineland Road
> Kissimmee, Fl. 34746 USA
> Hours of Operation: Mon-Fri // 9:00 am - 5:00 pm EST
Gee a 12 month Hurrican who wants to go there for holiday anyway!
And lsevilla@calypsocay.com should be sacked for not doing his job proberly.
Amanda
September 20th, 2006 at 10:19 pm
I was also told I had won a “fantasic” holidy (via a pop up on my computer), a freephone number was given, the travel company: sohovacations.
I called the number, and was subjected to 1.5 hrs of hard sell where I was told I had to leave a deposit of around £580 (I cant remember the exact amount) I wasn’t sure, and this is why the call was so long. I was also put in contact with the”manager” who said I could pay half but tried to discourage me, telling me what (I know now) were lies. After this I did reluctantly give in my card details after a chat with my husband and a sleep, I phoned back the next day to inform them of a change of mind and that I wanted a refund for at least half the amount, the abuse I recieved from the guy on the telephone, and then I was put in touch with a manager I spent over 2 hrs on the phone now fighting to retrieve some of my money.
I was then told (after much fighting and arguing) to call back at a certain time which I did and again had to fight for around 1 hr. After this I think he clearly could see I wasn’t giving in, he quickly agreed to give me a refund and slammed the phone down.
I did get the refund back for half the amount but was fooled/scammed out of the other half, I do feel extremely silly as I dont ususually fall for anything like this but I had a young daughter and was exited by the chance to take her to Disney, I did get back half the amount but no holiday to Disney.
September 27th, 2006 at 10:35 pm
I fell for this scam. I managed to get my credit card company to reverse the payment marked “disputed”. However, because I had given the 3 digits on the back of the card they said they had to honour the transaction. They had received other complaints. I was sold the holiday under the impression that it was being promoted by my credit card company - therefore this was mis-selling. Having thought I had said goodbye to my money - holiday and tried to live with the fact I had been so stupid ~ I received a telephone call this week saying that as I had not taken up the option the Manager of Calypsocay didn’t want to disappoint those customers of VIP Holidays, who were only an agent, here comes the catch! I would need to part with a further £210, as the offer has been improved over the last 12 months and increased in value! Wow!! Very plausible, pleasant Chelsey in the Finance Department! I can look on the website. Could she put the same credit card details through to hold this offer open for the further time period. I said no as that card and all my others have been cancelled. That put a spanner in the works - as how could I pay?!! She referred to her Manager and even tried to put the transaction through but it failed - ahhh! I will now try and get a refund and contact the credit card company again and pursue them. No doubt there will be others taken in. Next step Esther Ranzen and Lyn Faulds-Wood!!! They are very good.
September 29th, 2006 at 3:40 pm
beall of this is true sunshinetravelescapes-black diamond marketing-bestusa vacations-fla travel-go broadcasting-all one company-principal players Joseph p maher and Japheth Paramananadam-check them out on sunbiz.org
September 29th, 2006 at 6:45 pm
owsley here again-4525 vineland rd orlando fl tel # (1 of them)407- 9-999-0000 sunshine travel escapes bestusavacations (a subsidiary of Black Diamond Marketing) they will lie and tell you they are simply a Fuffillment center.(try sunbiz.org and do some research on these companies include Traveler Information Network,FLA travel,Go Broadcasting which is the name on the door at the vineland rd–also look at Interstate Welcome Centers–check out the names Joseph p Maher r and Japheth Paramanadam (on sunbiz.org)—bestusa has 3 sales offices in orlando,7800 southland blvd #112,another on the 600 block of wymore e rd,and another on Lee rd-call Sophie and her coworkers at the Dept of Agriculture for the state of florida–call Richard Burnett at the Orlando Sun-Sentinel (a reporter and ask about his articles)–call your your bank and immediately cancel or dispute any and all purchases from these companies (the charges on your credit card will not even appear as the company you purchased from) START WITH YOUR BANK OR CREDIT CARD COMPANY—YAY BOAKES
October 3rd, 2006 at 3:06 pm
My question to you all is, did you give out all your credit card information? the number and expiry date? They have no way of charginig a credit card without all the information? I just got a call and was half a sleep but part waythrough asked only for my expiry which i gave and then red flags hit me. im going to the back in a bit to cancel the card and get another one. If they have my whole number just to be on the safe side.