I had a strange experience this morning, and thought some other readers might be interested to hear about it:
Last weekend I went an event where I signed up for a chance to win a free cruise at a table inside.
What a great surprise it was this morning to be called and informed that I had won an 8-night fantasy vacation. Although I had a hard time believing I had actually won, the odds of winning among a few hundred people didn't strike me as astronomical, and the employees stationed in the above mentioned event seemed to represent a perfectly legitimate cruise company.
The phone rep painstakingly went through the details of the vacation: 3 days in Orlando, 2 nights on the cruise, 3 more in Orlando. Orlando isn't my version of paradise, and a glorified gambling junk not my ideal form of transportation, but given my delightful entry-level job, even free bread baskets are enough to get me excited. Tack on all meals included, spa packages, car rentals, and a 2 for 1 airfare, and the phone rep was dealing with a very happy winner.
I almost missed the minor catch: The representative kept on quoting a two-ninety-nine' fee necessary to secure my reservations, which I interpreted as $2.99, but came to understand as $299. And oh, how concerned my friend was that I had sufficient funds to afford this fee! It got weirder by the minute:
Sales rep: I see that you wrote down you use a Visa on your entry form?
Me: What? No. I use a Mastercard. [Note: The entry form never asked for credit card info]
Sales rep: I see. What is the full name on the card?
Me: [I say my full name]
Sales rep: Great! What's the expiration date?
Me: Ummm..[I say the date]
Sales rep: Now, just for security purposes, what are the last four digits of your card number?
Whoa there, cowboy. I very sweetly said I would prefer to get a confirmation email first and be given more time to make my decision. I mentioned the word scam.' The rep informed me that our entire phone call had been recorded without my knowledge, and that I could access the recording at any time. I protested again, and he assured me that because I was paying by credit card I was completely protected from unwanted charges. What? He transferred me to his supervisor, who repeated the whole song and dance to me, even as I googled the words cruise ship scam.'
Here's what I found: which with minor variations closely matched the details of the Bahamas Celebrations cruise.
Further searching revealed that their site, www.floridabahamascruisevacations.com is under GoDaddy's Private Domain Registration. Since I work at a domain name registrar, I know enough to understand that keeping a domain name owner's identity secret is a great way to mask fraud.
Lesson of the day: Just because a company is listed as a legitimate sponsor in a legitimate event in a legitimate venue, with real-live legitimate human beings as representatives, does not make the company itself in any way legitimate. Go ahead, give them a call at 1-800-231-1298 or 718-530-9134 and ask what they have to say for themselves. Just make sure you've got your credit card in hand!
Allison
New York, New York
U.S.A.
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