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It’s now a year year since I received “that phonecall” from Ameri-vacations, congratulating me, and falsely proclaiming that I’d won a holiday, and hit the proverbial jackpot.

During the subsequent twelve months, the related articles have been requested more than 25,000 times, by well over 6000 people. Happily, many of those people discovered the articles whilst they were still on the phone to the telesales representative, before handing over enough credit card details for any fraudulant transaction to occur.

Particularly pleasing is the fact that many of those who have bought their “prize” in haste (only to realize the full cost of their purchase after the phonecall) have managed to get a full refund. What’s more, the DOACS should have plenty of good information from those who have reported their disgruntlement.

What’s also promising is that because more people are aware of their rights and demanding refunds:

1. the time taken to discover disreputable companies may be reducing, and
2. the profit margin for such companies reduces with every cancellation. With fewer people prepared to just give up and accept the loss, the scam becomes less lucrative.

Above all, it’s been the comments that have made the articles worthwhile. Comments by scammers, friend of scammers, victims who’ve lost money, victim’s who’ve got refunds, and even (one year on) a commenter who went on one of the holidays and confirmed my previous observation that it’s “just a hotel booking” and not the holiday of your dreams.

What’s surprising is that one year on, the daily readership of the related articles continues to increase, so either:

1. the scams are continuing, or
2. telephone sales by reputable companies who subscribe to do-not-call lists are being undermined by the disreputable companies that just call anyone they feel like.

All in all it’s been interesting. Who’d have thought that writing an article about a phone call could help so many people?