Firstly I'm in Dublin, Ireland. About a fortnight ago I was called by a lady from http://www.imperialmajesty.com / who let me know that geographically I'd been chosen to be in with a chance to win a cruise. I asked where my details were gotten from and was told that there were three possible sources which she named and I promptly forgot.
I was to help her with a survey about my holiday habits and that it would take about three minutes. I was asked where my last holiday was, how much I paid for accommodation etc and what credit card I used, this I told her and all was good.
This evening I received a second phone call to inform me that I'd won this cruise and various other things. Being a cynical old man I was very disbelieving of this. I put her on speaker phone and I and my fiance were listening to all of this. Now this lady called herself Jodi Walsh, employee no 156 and my winning number was 2202293. I was not jumping for joy and she then said that she'd to speak to her supervisor and will call back in approx ten minutes. I got online then and googled Imperial Majesty Cruises and found this site.
Sure enough, Jodi called back in ten minutes. I and Ruth were listening to her on speakerphone while Jodi explained that this was our only chance to take up this offer or she would have to call the next person on the list.
I've been working in sales for nearly ten years and she was very good indeed, she was using all the tricks in the book. She then went on, similar to other examples on this site, to tell us that it was in fact for four people and she will send us information, after however, we provide her with $295 and our credit card details.
At this point I interrupted her to ask had she heard of usacomplaints.com, she said she hadn't so I explained that while we were off the phone we checked it out online and found hundreds of examples of fraud claims. Silence.
I then asked was she online and could I have her email address so I could email the urls and we could talk about it some more. She proceeded to give out the url above, I interrupted her then to say I wanted an email address. She did not have one.
Jodi then began to get a little aggressive and said she's just doing her job and she could move on to the next person on the list if we didn't want to play ball. I asked what would she think in my position, confronted with literally hundreds of cases claiming rip off about this exact alleged scam.
And the unbelievable thing here is that she asked us about our holiday again as if she did not hear us!!!
I said we've been through this already what about the claims of fraud? She then made her excuses and said she'd phone the next person on the list.
I don't think I was going to fall for it, but only because of my profession and training.
I feel sorry for her and others I could hear in the background who perpetrate this scam for a living, they must be being eaten up inside.
I'd also like to say thank you to previous posters on this and other sites alerting me and others to this scam, many thanks and go raibh mile maith agaibh.
Sln,
Ruadhr
Ruadhri
Dublin
Ireland
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