tags: Scams
Ameri-who?
March 7th, 2005, by Rich.
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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.
June 6th, 2005 at 5:02 am
Charles H. Bronson, Commissioner, Florida Dept of Agriculture and Consumer services. 407, South Calhoun Street, Tallahassee, FL 32399-0800.
June 6th, 2005 at 6:17 am
The original article by Matt Rudd is here. After feedback from many readers last week, Sunday Times Travel Editor, Brian Schofield (who I spoke with this week) filled in some of the investigative blanks with this article in yesterdays edition.
June 6th, 2005 at 8:54 am
Claire,
On http://myfloridalegal.com/pages.nsf/4492d797dc0bd92f85256cb80055fb97/8140f2cf06fc01b785256cc900693171!
you can read the following:
“You have a right to cancel your purchase and receive a refund within 30 days of the date of purchase or receipt of the vacation certificate whichever comes first.”
Since your credit card was charged you did ‘purchase’ the vacation package. Within 30 days you should notify your credit card company that you wrote a cancellation letter to Amerivacation and include a copy of this cancellation letter.
June 6th, 2005 at 4:05 pm
Well, they have now reached Norway, and are going through our Phonebooks. I foolishly pressed 9, being very suspicious. I got through to a lady, who asked for my name and phone number. I gave my name, and then I asked what this was for. She said I had won a holiday. So I gave her my phone number… and she hung up on me. Ohwell, no “free” holiday for me! *lol*
June 7th, 2005 at 12:59 am
Had 3 calls from these peole in the last week or so. I don’ care though as I’m going to call them 10 times for every time they call me.
One call was especially interesting - I pressed 9 as usual and then spoke to them using the soundboard.
After the woman hung up the line failed to disconnect properly. I left it connected just to cost them more money and afer 5 minuts or so Iheard a ringing sound and could hear them trying to scam someone a few streets away, then later on someone else etc. Seeing as it their responsibilty to disconnect the call I left i going for a couple of hours and accidently listend to maybe 10 calls or so. Each number they called was progressively larger, - so clearly the radmonly dialing numbers starting from the lowest.
The good news was that they didn’t sell anything in that time and even had a complaint. The guy who complanined was told in no uncertain terms that they never cold call people and that they were calling him becasue his credit card company had told them to!!!!
June 7th, 2005 at 10:44 am
Love the phone call Noo Noo!
June 7th, 2005 at 3:08 pm
have had £703.18 taken from my credit card by these people. credit card company are aware of these scammers but tell me they havent actually committed a crime yet. i need to make the reservations first and if they dont follow through i can get my money back!!!! have tried numerous amounts of time to make reservations but they just hang up on me!!!!!!!!!!!!
June 7th, 2005 at 3:36 pm
who pays for the call once you press 9?
noo noo “Seeing as it their responsibilty to disconnect the call I left i going for a couple of hours”. By pressing 9, did you start a ‘new’ reverse-charge call from you to them?
Does anyone know who ends up paying the call costs if you press the requested number during an automated call?
June 7th, 2005 at 7:46 pm
I concur with asking to be added to a ‘do not call’ list, politely. They have stopped calling me every day. In fact I haven’t been cold called for nearly 2 weeks.
June 8th, 2005 at 8:10 am
Well I can report a MAJOR development to my story (see above). After writing to Amerivacations on the day after my call (sent Airsure) and to my Credit Card company cancelling my “order” I sat back to wait.
About a week ago, while I was out, DHL tried to deliver a package. As nobody was in they left their usual form. I phoned the local depot and quoted the number and asked who it was from. When they confirmed it was Amerivactions (or whatever they were calling themselves at the time) I informed them that I was in dispute with the company and I was refusing to accept the package. This they accepted without demur.
This morning I received a letter from my credit card company confirming that they had credited my account with the FULL amount!! I think I must be the first person on this website to successfully get a full refund.
If anyone wants copies of the letters I sent drop me an e-mail at boakes at phoward dot co dot uk and I’ll be happy to help. I think the secret is to forget modern technology such as e-mail & telephone and rely on good old fashioned paper letters!