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.
July 18th, 2005 at 9:41 am
In response to Rich’s message posted under mine (7 July 05): I confirm that http://www.sunkissedtravel.com went blank for some days. Then it was suddenly back again. You will note that it’s been rerouted to http://home.sunkissedtravel.com. Why jump web addresses I wonder… Sunkissed Travel lists the Radisson Hotel & Resorts Group as one they use. I contacted the Radisson. Here’s their reply:
—–Original Message—–
From: cs8002@radisson.com [mailto:cs8002@radisson.com]
Sent: 10 July 2005 01:52
To: jacqui@arbitration.co.za
Subject: Re: EMail Us Comment from Jacqui Burger (KMM3707844V52995L0KM)
Dear Ms. Burger,
Thank you for taking the time to write.
We appreciate your recent message.
Our apologies for the problems you are encountering with Sun Kissed Travel.
Radisson Hotels and Resorts does not contract with Sun Kissed Travel.
If you continue to have problems with this firm, please contact them via regular mail to:
Sun Kissed Travel
7110 N University Drive Suite D
Tamarac, FL 33321
For further information concerning this company, please visit the Better Business Bureau of South Florida?s web site at http://www.bbbsoutheastflorida.org
Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to assist you.
Regards,
Mark
Corporate Customer Service Specialist
DOES THIS MEAN I’LL BE STAYING IN A CAVE OR BE WITHOUT ACCOMMODATION if I attempt to cash in on this holiday? I’ve advised the lawyers who wanted to buy the package that I cannot sell it on in good faith as I’m convinced Sunkissed Travel is a scam. I’d hate to be slapped with a lawsuit for onselling bogus holidays! More interestingly, Jose Rodrigues responded to my message posted at Ripoff.com. He even offered to throw in ANOTHER bogus holiday for FREE. I left a phone message for him saying I want to discuss it. He left three sweet messages on my voice mail (I was out and about). THEN he saw the negative comments I’ve been posting on the net, and discovered that they’d been reported to the IFCC of the FBI (by me). He then called and told me that he was sending me NOTHING because I was “posting crap on this site and posting crap on that site about us”. He also said: “Get a life Ma’am!” and he slammed the phone down. I sincerely hope the operators end their lives behind bars if they are stealing our money… He called back a 2nd time and my lawyer boyfriend answered as I was taking out my contact lenses. He told Jose Rodrigues that I was indisposed and offered to take a message. The response: “Yeah, I’m sure she’s indisposed. Keep plyain’ man, keep playin’!”. Now as I see it, it’s Sunkissed playing with fire. We are merely unsuspecting fools! That phonecall was not worth making and it was helluva unprofessional. I posted the Radisson’s response on Ripoff.com and invited Sunkissed Travel to respond thereto, but alas, they’ve gone quiet… Do you think this tenacious little gal from Africa has struck a nerve??? The truth is out there… They can kiss my sunkissed butt.
July 18th, 2005 at 9:48 am
PS: I’ve attempted to contact each and every person giving a GOOD testimonial i.r.o. Sunkissed Travels and the e-mails all bounced back as undeliverable. Most of them were posted in the past 7 months, so no chance of the addies being outdated. Oh, and they are all web-based addresses. Easy to forge… Why would “satisfied customers” go to the trouble of responding to our negative remarks? It makes no sense and I’m still convinced it’s all fudged. I only managed to get through to addresses of fellow COMPLAINANTS. lol
July 19th, 2005 at 2:18 am
Dude, you read my mind like a book! As soon as I was called by ‘AmeriSuites’ they asked me if I was online and that I should go to my computer and look (go) to the website! (LOL) little did they [know] I whois’ed their site and asked them what the address was, none of them knew! Hahaha, Loooossseeerrrsss! Sadly they got my address and card details but I will change that ASAP! (Not the address) I also noticed the same thing with the names. But since I have a real name to go by, I am gonna find the chap’s new number and give him a piece of my mind!
July 19th, 2005 at 11:11 am
I am so fed up with this entire Sunkissed Travel situation. Jose Rodrigques earlier today e-mailed me me the link for, and suggested that I purchase Rip-off.com’s book. LOL. I in turn suggested that he attend a worskhop with http://www.mannersinternational.com.
I have now attempted to explain to Michele Taylor (president) and Mr Rodrigues in easy to understand lay terms, that all I wanted to do was get confirmation that the travel dates booked were suitable, pay the fees and get on with life. Instead this has turned into a fiasco.
Their TEN day delay in reverting regarding the flight details I provided them with, has cost me the sale of the package. (They purport to have a 24 hour turn-around time with enquiries.) It affected their credibility even more and directly affected my ability to sell it to a barrister (known as advocates in SA).
I’ve now received a response from the BBB regarding my complaint, and I quote hereunder Sunkissed Travel’s GM’s verbatim response to my complaint:
The GM makes no mention of the telephonic messages I left, nor of the facsimile I sent them. Were my telephonic messages and fax messages also blocked due to “security concerns”? I don’t think so! They only responded to my queries after I threatened to report the matter to the FBI. Funny that.
I still eagerly await an explanation from ANY Sunkissed Travel employee/president/GM regarding the Radisson Hotel & Resort Group’s response denying that they deal with them.
July 19th, 2005 at 2:26 pm
I feel as though I am starting to hog poor Rich’s website :-) Herewith, the next instalment of the Sunkissed Travel fiasco. I attach hereto Jose Rodrigues latest offering on Rip-Off.Com. I confirm that I posted the comments I saw here re SKT being VISA verified as well as their ex-employee’s message (David). They have failed to respond to either of those messages and I still hold my breath in anticipation of an answer to the Radisson’s message.
PS: I think Jose just unwittingly admitted that this guy did work for them.
Fortunately I too have freedom of speech, Mr Rodrigues. Should you prefer, I will request the host of this site to post a link to ALL and any written proof I have of my dealings with Sunkissed Travel.
I further confirm that I have written a suitable response to your message on RipOff.com and that I had in fact, corrected my statement of your website being blank (which it was) and subsequently confirmed that I had been contacted by Sunkissed Travel after threatening to refer it to the FBI. Said information was also updated with the IFCC, the BBB, etc.
I therefore fail to understand your reference to “false information”.
I reiterate my offer to Sunkissed Travel to withdraw incorrect negative statements posted on the internet by me, upon receipt of adequate proof of their inaccuracy. It is now up to Sunkissed to prove me wrong.
Jaqui Burger
July 19th, 2005 at 4:59 pm
Dear Jacqui,
I believe that I know why their website was a few days offline :-) . At first they simply claimed that the packages were non-refundable. Now they do recognize in their ‘terms/conditions’ that packages can be refunded within 30 days. It is interesting that when they began selling people those bogus ‘vacation packages’ they claimed, on the one hand, that cancellations were practically impossible. On the other hand, they claimed that cancellations could be arranged at high cancellation fees. They never recognized that people were allowed to a complete refund if they decided to cancel the whole deal within 30 days. Now at least they do seem to take into account the Florida State law.
‘Cancellation of your vacation itinerary will be accepted only in writing by mail. You have 30 days from the purchase of your package for cancellation. Once dates are confirmed, Vacation deposits are non-refundable. This vacation is sold in adherence with Florida State Law. Any cancellations of dates after 30 days will be subject to the full cost of the vacation and are not entitled to any refunds.’
I really urge everyone to act as I did and not waste time and money on phone calls but to send a cancellation letter right away.
July 20th, 2005 at 6:53 am
Hi,
We got a call yesterday from an American speaking lady who informed us that we won a holiday in Florida, with a cruise and a trip to Daytona and what not. My wife picked up the phone, so I don’t know if she had to press a 9. I’ll check that.
Since my English is a little more fluent then my wife’s she handed over the phone after about 10 minutes. I insisted to know where the lady got my phone number but she didn’t answer that question.
Finally she explained that we won a discount, not a complete holiday, and that I would have to pay € 898 in order to receieve the package with tickets and stuff. When I told her that I was not interested if we would have to pay trhat amount, I got the “promotional director” on the phone.
After repeating the question a few times he told me that my name came up from a draw out of “major credit card [VISA, Mastercard, American Express] holders”. I would have to register to receive my confirmation number and he asked me “my name as it appears on my credit card”. When I hesitated and asked if he was going to ask for my credit card number next, he thank me for participating and hung up.
They did mention a website I could visit to see what we won: http://www.holidayfloridausa.com ! Today I checked the internet and their site looks quite nice, but when I Googled for “holiday florida usa credit card scam”, this site was one of the first hits. I’m glad I didn’t give them too much information
The strange thing is, one of the first things they asked was our phone number. We gave it, thinking it wasn’t of any use to them. Can we expect trouble from that ?
What can I do to help stop these people ? Can I report this incident somewhere ?
Cheers,
Jeroen (Holland)
July 20th, 2005 at 8:34 am
Dear Peter
Thank you for your response. I unfortunately am way out of the 30 day period. I was happy to hang on to it, after they so masterfully pursuaded me NOT to cancel the package but rather give portions as gifts or sell it to someone else. The fact is, that due to their failure and/or refusal to respond to my flight itenirary (of the new purchaser) for ten days, cost me the sale. Sunkissed Travel and its useless employees do not seem to appreciate that sinking feeling one gets when you’re this close to selling the stupid package, only to find no website up and running and nobody responding to e-mails, phone messages or faxes for that matter. They claim that my messages were blocked due to “security concerns”. I’m not Bin Laden for crying in a bucket! I had sent a formal and polite message and merely wanted confirmation, upon which the man would have handed me the money and I could get on with life and not be out of pocket. Now I’m even too scared to take any parts of this vacation.
Do note how there are only complaints and bogus good testimonials on the net for Sunkissed Travel. All e-mail addresses for the latter are of course, INVALID. I can vouch for that. What I would LOVE to see, is someone posting a mediocre message, eg. “I went on the Florida/Cancun holiday and the hotel in Cancun was great but the one in Daytona sucked big time.” or even “The holiday was fab, but hells bells there were many hidden costs.” Maybe Sunkissed’s employees will read this and fudge a suitably convincing message and post it here or elsewhere on the net. LOL
If you look at my postings on RipOffReport.com, you will see that Jose Rodrigues of Sunkissed Travel says there that his 2nd rebuttal was his final response to my “slandering”. I can tell you why too: Rip Off has a new policy: they are now charging the defaulting/bogus companies for posting a rebuttal to a client’s complaint! It’s an excellent idea as all they ever seem to do is quote their Seller of Travel Licence number and some other useless blurb that really amounts to sweet-all.
July 20th, 2005 at 8:40 am
As for all of you who are attempting to find a suitable remedy from the BBB, see this excerpt from Ripoffreport.com. There are many of these and I too went to the BBB:
“It has been reported to the “badbusinessbureau.com” that,
the BBB encourages and solicits money from the very businesses they monitor! How could this be beneficial to the consumer?
Consumers have reported, the BBB DOES NOT report consumer complaints which are under investigation, even when they know the business is under criminal investigation and is about to be shut down. ……(see victim’s story down below)
What the BBB does, is give the business that is being reported the opportunity to respond. If the business responds many times this is enough to give the business a satisfactory rating, no matter what their response is!
Most BBB offices do not report any past history of a business, even when that business continuously victimizes different consumers. Even when the business just continuously satisfies each costumer complaint, you will never know of this information in the future. All you might know is, ….”they have satisfied their complaints.” ..GIVING THEM A SATISFACTORY RATING.”
July 20th, 2005 at 8:50 am
The plot thickens:
Many negative reports filed on ripoffreport.com for:
vacations123.com vacation Showroom travasaurus.com = Sun Kissed Travel = Brant@enter
You will note that the travasaurus.com website I’ve been making reference to, is linked to all of the above. Now WHY oh WHY would Sunkissed Travel, upon selling me the bogus package, request that I view their travel pack info on a site by a different name?
So Sunkissed Travel, what do you say about THAT?