Friday, May 13, 2011

You're Offering What?

It seems like just as soon as one phone/mail scam is closed down, another takes its place. The scam I'm warning readers about originally was all through the mail but is now using phone "telemarketers"--and I use that word very loosely.

I received a call today telling me that I had won a free 2-night cruise to the Bahamas. (A quick call to a friend in the neighborhood brought out the information that she, too, had gotten the same call.) Given that we were supposed to take a cruise this past winter and had done a lot of research on cruising I wouldn't have been all that suspicious. However, the first tip-off was the supposed name of the cruise line. There is a major, well known cruise line called the Royal Caribbean Line. The phone caller said they were calling from Caribbean Cruise Lines--not the same line at all. In point of fact there is no actual cruise line called Caribbean Cruise Lines.

To get to the point, if someone calls and offers you such a cruise just hang up the phone. And do not under any circumstances give these people your credit card number. For more information, go to http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=4035

Please remember the old saying: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't.

1 comment:

Miami Al said...

I know people running this promotion.

You can absolutely get on the boat for just paying taxes. They absolutely WILL try to up sell you. Obviously, these discount "free cruise" offerings to not have Kosher meals on board as a standard like the real lines have.

Regarding your credit card, I'm not going to say that nobody is underhanded in this business, but nobody doing this WANTS chargebacks. Just so you know, Visa/Mastercard/American Express charge the company an investigation fee if you charge something back, and if they have a high charge back percentage, their rates will go up and they might get dropped.

Now, that's the company.

The individuals answering the phone? They are unskilled laborers, with TREMENDOUSLY high turn over, few of these sales agents will be there for more than a few weeks. They get paid weekly on deals brought in.

Do unethical ones lie and say you agreed to something? Absolutely. The people working here are the dregs of the telemarketing industry.

However, there ARE packages like this and you can set sail cheap with them.