Ameri-who?

March 7th, 2005, by Rich.

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Ameri-who?

I just got a wonderful telemarketing call …

Me:	Hello.
Me:	Hello?.
Me:	Helllllo?
Me:	[pauses]
Me:	Hello?.
Me:	Sorry I’m not receiving any audio from your end, so if you can hear me, hang up, or if you’re an automated dialler I’m just going to keep on so you pay for the call.
After just enough time for a generic answer phone message to have completed, a recording began to playback at me:
Recording:	Congratulations! You have just won the jackpot! Hi my name is Michael Smith from the Corporate Reward Centre in Las Vegas. You have just won the jackpot! Please call ring free 0800 091 0084 to claim your prize and matching your claim code: Jackpot. Again that number is ring free 0800 091 0084. Congratulations, and we look forward to speaking to you.

So, noting that my star sign is Inquisitive (with Curious rising) and knowing that 0800 numbers are freephone; I called them:

Kitty:	Amerisuites Vacations this is Kitty, how may I help?
Me:	Who?
Kitty:	Amerisuites Vacations this is Kitty.
Me:	Sorry, What Vacations?
Kitty:	Amerisuites, like America but without the ca and add Suites.
Me:	Oh, OK, I’d like to collect my jackp…
Kitty:	click beeeeeeeeep [Kitty ends the call]

My telephone number is registered with the Telephone Preference Service a UK body that regulates commercial phone spam, so legally they’re not allowed to call me, but they’re trying to force a loophole where commercial calls are banned but, they theorize, by calling it a competition, they can avoid prosecution.

So, not only has this company cold-called my TPS registered number, but they’ve also hung up on me, that’s just plain rude, I wanted to know who and what they are:

So, I called them, again:

Carla:

Welcome to Amerivacations this is Carla.

Carla proceeded to take my first name and asked for the number from which I’d called to check what prize I’d won. I gave her a false number. Surprisingly this had no ill effect because Carla came back and told me that I’d won £1301 towards a holiday in Florida, and that it was part of a prize fund allocated to 100 people and there were only 10 claims left on the fund - [irony alert] what luck!

Being a happy soul about this I mentioned that I’m in the UK, and that Carla didn’t sound local; she told me she was in Orlando Florida, and reiterated that this was a free call for me (just to make me really feel like I was special).

She then went on to explain that to claim my prize I’d need to pay the balance on a holiday in Florida at a Ramada resort near near Disneyworld - the package balance £598 for 16 days holiday for 4 - effectively an 80% discount.

The is is not a competition or a lottery, this company is selling holidays; there is no way to claim a “prize” without actually purchasing something, at which point they’ll discount the value of that prize from the purchase cost.

From the TPS website: “Under Government legislation introduced on 1st May 1999 and replaced on 11th December 2003 by the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003, it is unlawful to make unsolicited direct marketing calls to individuals who have indicated that they do not want to receive such calls.”

Carla also explained that they are trying to rekindle interest in America as a vacation venue. She also explained that they are able to make these amazing offers because they keep their costs low, which they do in two ways:

Direct Dialing.
Word of Mouth.

Well, by direct-dialling me, unlawfully, they’ve certainly got a little word-of-mouth advertising.

The comments below add a lot of detail and you might also be interested in this followup article.

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June Says:
May 25th, 2005 at 12:34 pm

A brief addition to my previous note. My neighbour has contacted the fraud department of her cc and they are now investigating. We have also contact customersupport at ameri etc., to be told by ‘Marcia’ that cancellation must be in writing to their address in Florida and that there will be a charge but that she couldnt say what the charge would be until all the paperwork was finalised. Will keep you posted as well as register compaints with appropriate people. GOOD LUCK ONE AND ALL !

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Dan Says:
May 25th, 2005 at 6:51 pm

Damn, I just had a call like this - and got disconnected - did not have a number to call them on so I am going to forget it

Thanks to Google I found this by searching on the American Reg No he gave me - ST35765

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Elsa, Norway Says:
May 25th, 2005 at 9:13 pm

I got this message on my pc at work today, rang the number from my mobile phone and spoke to Jennifer Scott and Antiga. I’m norwegian and not so good in english, but believd that I’d won a great vacation.Foolish enough i gave them my credit card number, but fortunately there wasn’t money to cover the 798 euro.They checked immediately while I was speaking! Now I’m scared that they will empty my account as soon as there is money!
I called them and told that I was worried, but a man called Charles Raila (he told me he was half norwegian and loved “lefsa” (a sort of pastery). He said that it is against the law to take money from my Visa without my agreement. I don’t dare to tell anyone about my foolishness. Shall I cancel my credit card? Do I have to tell my bank about this? Thank you for this site!

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Dave Jenkins Says:
May 26th, 2005 at 12:00 am

Two quick points:

(1) There is another 0800 number being used by “Corporate Reward Centre”: 0800 258 5028. This number was given in a voicemail message that I received today on my mobile number, which I’m pretty sure I’ve registered with TPS. A quick Google revealed that this number was used for a “Disney pass offer” in Nov 2003.

(2) It’s striking how many people on this forum are TPS registered. Has anyone received calls who is not TPS registered? I wonder whether these scammers are actually using the TPS register as their source! - As I understand it, the way TPS works is that it’s a list that telemarketing organisations can (indeed must) view.

Rich, you are clearly trying hard to be even-handed and to apply the principle of innocent until proven guilty, and that is admirable. However my advice to anyone considering dealing with this organisation is to base your decision on the weight of evidence presented here, which provides very many examples of the organisation behaving disreputably and none at all, that I can see, of it behaving reputably.

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Elsa, Norway Says:
May 26th, 2005 at 8:00 am

Now I’ve sent an email to amerivation and told them that I’ll never ever order any vacation from them (they said they would contact me later, or I should ring when I had money). I said that if they took money from my account I would pass the email on to BBC Watchdog, Federal Department of Agriculture and Consumer, governor JeB Bush and other authorities in USA and Europe… It will cost me money and trouble to cancel my Visa. Do you think that I have to? Can they just draw money from it? You who have paid for the packet, have you changed Visa-number in case they will take even more money from you?

116

David, Newcastle Says:
May 26th, 2005 at 6:56 pm

Unbeliveable !! I too am registered with TPS yet mysteriously received a phone call claiming I’d won this discount holiday and they left a nice message on my answer machine. I pressed delete as soon as I heard the computer generated voice.

I didn’t think anymore of it until a few days later when I spoke to my mother, also TPS registered, She proceeded to tell me that she had received a similar phonecall and had rang the number left. She spoke to a woman who gave a booking reference and everything after my mother had given out her debit card details. She is now £349 poorer.

She has now cancelled the card in question and the bank will be in touch with regards to fraudulent activity being carried out against her account. This will more than likely result in the police getting involved. Unfortunately there is little or nothing she can do to get a refund for the recording they have of her , if it exists, is as legal and binding as any signature on a contract. However, I do believe it may be possible to challenge the legitimacy of the “contact” if the company is indeed proved to be bogus.

Sorry ot have gone on, but this “campaign” certainly seems to be targeting people who have specifically gone out of their way to avoid being contacted like this. Anyone who receives a call from a computer generated voice should ignore it and report it immediately to OFTEL. With enough complaints they will act and shut the UK number down. The police should also be informed as this clearly fraudulent activity. The only other suggestion I can make is to take any complaints to as many consumer bodies in this country and in the USA as possible. Hopefully they’ll be inundated and have to take action.

117

vicky Says:
May 26th, 2005 at 9:08 pm

Here is a link for the better buisiness bureau http://www.orlando.bbb.org/. They will help you get your money back.

118

Tim Says:
May 26th, 2005 at 9:13 pm

I’ve been getting calls about 0800 0914766 recently and it’s really annoying me. I checked the number on ICSTIS and they say they are do not regulate this type of number.

Yes, I am TPS registered by the way. TPS has dramatically cut down calls, in fact it’s reduced them to about 1 every 6 months, until recently when I started getting these American calls. They all get recorded by my answer machine. I’ve got Caller ID and nothing has been registered and 1471 shows up nothing.

119

Tim Says:
May 26th, 2005 at 9:42 pm

P.S. 0800 0914766 is registered to Syntec UK Ltd according to ICSTIS. I looked this up on Ofcom’s site and there’s a load of documents with their name in it, mostly Excel spreadsheets (looks like Syntec have a lot of 0800 numbers perhaps?) plus one about some dispute between BT and a number of companies including them, but I didn’t understand it.

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