Astar Travel informed my daughter this morning that she was a lucky competition winner, of a trip to America for four people. Only in the next sentence to tell her that she had not won a prize that she had to pay a further US$900 approximently. Not completly understanding how she had won a competition that she had not entered, she started asking questions.
It was at these question that the man on the phone started to get agressive. I then took the phone from her, as she had hung up on him several times and he continued to call her back.
I informed him that my daughter was under finaical pressure and was not intrested in the trip. He continued to say that she was obligated to pay and could not change her mind. I was now extermely suspicious and flat out asked him if this was a scam, at this his aggression increased.
He had manged to previously get my daughter to confirm her credit card number with him, which he already had. She had tried to give him the wrong number but he corrected it for her.
He then told my that the money had already been taken from her account and if she did not want the tickets they would be sold and given to charity, with her US$900 being a donation.
I warned my daughter that this sounded like a scam and whilst i kept him on the phone, she was to use the landline phone and call her bank. She did this and they blocked it immediatly, no funds were withdrawn.
I have reported it to the police and to consumer affairs. I would like to thank this site for conforming my suspicion.
Gloria
Adelaide
Australia
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