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.
July 15th, 2005 at 6:04 pm
I too was very tempted by this now obvious scam but luckily give them no bank details. The warning bells relly rung out when after deciding it was a scam and told them I couldn’t afford half of the £598 = £299 (per person) as a deposit they said…
“what could you afford now then sir, most people jump at this oppertunity” I have scanned over the MANY MANY posts here and noticed that the website I was given below is different to most in the posts:
http://www.expertholidays.com
This points to the usual scam of companies constantly changing their names to run from commitments they have made.
I hope something is done about this growing holiday offer/competition problem in general
July 18th, 2005 at 4:22 pm
I really would like to meet thise people! That a person/persons can have a great filling about themselfes, sorry my spelling! Haven´t been writing in englies for many years. we thougt that we had won???? You will get wiser for the mistakes you make, but not richer? Are there anyone in the states I can e-mail or write to about this?? Maybe there are somebody who nows where to find them?
Amerivacation.com
just hang op, don´t fall for the trick, like i did!
They toke 898 euro from me, How stupid can a person bee???
Best of luck too all of you
Rene Denmark
July 24th, 2005 at 4:35 pm
I am from Sweden and received the same message 3 days ago. I got very surprised when I heard it and had to listen 3 times to see if I got it all right!! And yes, a free cruise and a free call number indeed. But, I immediately felt that something was wrong and tried to look the number up. Couldn´t find it anywhere in any directory for sweden on the web. Therfore I started searching the net for a clue or an answer. that is how I found your website and for that I am thankfull. I wont even bother to call the number. I will however try to notify proper authorities about this. Thank you for enlightening me regarding this so called free cruise to the carribean!!
August 7th, 2005 at 2:36 am
Just to let you know that I also ‘won’ a holiday in Florida. It didn’t interest me much, but thought my daughter who lives in Canada might enjoy it. After reading this Website and thinking about it a bit more - and finding it difficult to log on to the Amerisuites Website, I decided to cancel. I rang the number given and the woman assured me that, if I
decided not to go through with the package, I had 30 days to change my
mind.
The $598 US has already gone through my account, but was not
showing the payee at this stage. I sent an email to the mob at
Calypso to cancel (I did eventually get through to their website and the email address is given there), and although I never heard anything back
from them, the money did not go through my account, thank Goodness.
My guess is that the company is legitimate, but that the savings are not. The place in Orlando is right by the airport, and doesn’t look that great.
anyway.
I shall certainly be more careful in future. Best of luck.
August 8th, 2005 at 5:31 pm
well now they ar in sweden !! i just had the same call you have won blah blah.
glady my boyfriend put the phone down
August 11th, 2005 at 12:46 pm
Hey, same scam happened to me today and I am in Sweden. The telephone rang and it was an automatic message asking me to dial ‘9′ to claim a prize so I did and got transferred to a TOM DEVITT who claimed to work for Sunkiss Travel. He was very defensive and well trained and knew how to get information of you. I knew it was a bit odd and when ever I tried to ask more questions like; How did you get my number all the way in Sweden? Why are you offering me this great cruise and this great hotel ‘just right across from Disney World’? He gave me a long argument on how it is cheaper for his company to advertise this way blah blah blah. He then tried to butter you up by telling you all about this great trip then asked me for my credit card expiry date which I wrongly gave it to him to see what his next step would be. I then grew a bit impatient and was worried this call to America could be costing me money instead of the tollfree number claimed. I then asked him ‘When will I get my tickets to America?’ Tom then said they don’t give away flight tickets and was in the middle of some great explanation when I told him to F off! and that I will be posting everything today on the internet to warn others.
August 17th, 2005 at 9:35 pm
Hi all,
I too was accosted by a pop up window proclaiming that I had won approx the value of £1,000 for a holiday/cruise to florida, disneyland, the bahamas blah blah blah… foolishly I called the ‘freephone’ 0800 number and gave a girl called Laura with an american accent my claim number. Laura stated that she was a rep of Calypso Cay Resorts and went through the whole yarn of what would be included, and at the end of that 10 minutes, announced that the offer was a fantastic 80% discount and would ‘only’ cost £298 per person, thats £589 for 2 and the option to include 2 other people for free thrown in.
There it is, i thought. I had stated my skepticism to this Laura a few times during the call and she giggled and brushed aside my concerns throughout.
She just needed my credit card to make the booking. I told her that I’m not in a position to pay for anything on my credit card as my account is in arrears, besides I thought I’d won something for free. I should have hung up at this point but she swiftly interjected with ‘thats ok, I need your card so that the promotion you’ve won can be registered and your winning 80% discount will be guaranteed…’ the jist was I could always call back when my card had cleared and they would at that time (with my authorization) go ahead and make the transaction, should I still be interested in the ‘prize’. Laura assured me that my card will not be debited that day or any other until I called back and gave autho.
I didn’t fully trust but the holiday sounded yummy and ideal for me and my partner after a stressful year.
I gave her my telephone, address, and mindlessly my credit card details, but I knew (or rather hoped) any transactions would decline. Laura then passed me to a rep called Troy with a british accent, who then repeated everything she had said for another 10mins, and then he put me through to another called Israel for ‘a time recorded final verification’. Israel then proceeded to reel of a series of statements concerning the deal to which I was to answer ‘agree’ or ‘disagree’.
I carried on with this CHARADE for another minute or two, disagreeing with most statements which threw him completely. I then said ‘Wait, I’ve been had, this is a scam isn’t it? (Ya think??). He replied, ‘no it is not’, and then hung up.
I called visa who informed me that the holiday company had tried to debit my account for two lots of 0.87 pence at 15:33 and 15:45. I asked visa if Calypso could try again at a later date to take the money off my card when the account had cleared and was informed that I had given the company the authorisation to take money from my card whenever they chose to by giving them my card details.
Needless to say I cancelled my card there and then. I’m not usually this silly but under the circumstances I got off lightly.
Caz
August 23rd, 2005 at 12:16 pm
Hi, I live in the Netherlands, and i just got a similar call. I got an answering machine, and i had to dial a 9 to collect the cruise i just won. I got connected with sunkiss travel from orlando, florida, and of course i didn’t believe i really won something so i asked them a lot of questions, but they assured me they didn’t save my number in a database and wouldn’t call me again, and they wouldn’t pass my number to other companies. They were just a travel company and i won a cruise. I have them a number of a cell phone i don’t use anymore, and they started asking me questions if i would be able to collect the cruise, they asked my age, and if i was married, and after that they asked if i had multiple credit cards, so i said i didn’t, and he said that that ws unfortinate and i couldn’t collect the cruise. They couldn’t explain very well why i needed a credit card to collect the cruise, and after saying bye and stuff they hang up :S :D
August 25th, 2005 at 9:08 pm
Well, now they’re in Denmark as well. Just got off the phone from mr. Tom Dewitt from sunkissed travel. Glad I googled him in the meantime and only got to give him my expiration date. I don’t know how you market your travels in the states, but in Denmark this is a very rude form of trespassing. I’m still very angry! Good luck everybody.
August 27th, 2005 at 8:59 am
Yahoo! I’ve won the Jackpot!!!!
Yes I had won a “Free Holiday”, you can guess the rest, that was on the 13th May, but with the help of some information from one of the people posting info on this web site (I can’t remember his name) he gave me the website address of the “Florida Consumer Services Dept.”
They have an electronic complaint form to fill in which I did at the end of May. They replied that they would contact the company (Amerivacation) in due course but that it could take up to 60 days and they cannot enforce any legal proceedings. It is now the end of August and have just had a letter from the Consumer Services informing me that the company are refunding the “package” as of 5th August. As of yesterday I hadn’t recieved a penny, but today Lo and Behold, my Mastercard Statement arrives with a refund. Justice prevails, not only that, but they have paid back more than I actually paid them!
For all of you wishing redress contact: http://www.doacs.state.fl.us/onestop/forms/10000.pdf
Good Luck, its worth a try!