Your Holiday Getaway.com

OliviaB_2 · 5 January 2011 at 6:14PM

Got a phone call this pm from this Company saying that I had won a free cruise from Visa and it was valid for 18 months no restrictions etc however and this is the scam they ask you for your full name on the card and number to verify your Visa details and then put you on hold. Whilst on hold they try and withdraw a huge sum of money from your account without your prior knowledge luckily my card didnt work, when he came back on line he said he couldnt process my Visa and I asked why he needed to? He replied because I had to pay for the taxes, what taxes I said, oh the taxes for the free holiday, I pointed out that it was free therefore I was not liable for taxes and he had not made this clear at the beginning which if he had done I would not have wasted all this time as I would not be interested at the price £675.00!!!! I later found out from my bank when I cancelled my card they had twice tried to withdraw funds of wait for it...... £722.10 and then £352.85 so I suggest to anyone out there beware of YOUR HOLIDAY GETAWAY.COM AND A CHARMING SMOOTH TALKING MAN BY THE NAME OF GABRIEL STEVENS if that's his real name. Quite fancied a trip to Cancun, Florida and Daytona am fed up with the cold... Oh well will keep looking at travel brochures instead and dreaming.

Alan_Bowen · 5 January 2011 at 9:55PM

A warning to everyone, never ever give a credit card number on the telephone when someone you have never heard off calls and tells you have won something. A win means not having to pay, in my 30 years of holding a Visa card, they have never offered me so much as a free cup of coffee let alone a free holiday. It looks as though it is linked to timeshare, you have to be over 28 for example, thanks for the warning

lanax · 13 January 2011 at 6:34PM

Indeed, I have just had the same call form the very smooth gabriel stevens!!, played along to see what exactly they wanted and when I declined to tell him any of my credit card details he hung up- how rude!! Frankly just glad to have wasted 10 mins of his time, which is ten minutes less he has to prey on someone who might fall for his clap trap!!

devilray · 20 January 2011 at 7:12PM

I too have just had this phone call. Thank you for your post! While I was 'delaying' the call I made a quick search and came up with this. Thanks!!

:T

semitac · 20 January 2011 at 11:45PM

I to got a call from the so called holiday offer of a lifetime.

Luckily I withheld my number, after which he hung up the phone.

Is there anyway we can get this website blocked or hacked.

kpickeri · 16 February 2011 at 2:13PM

My 84 year old mother fell for this on 21st December, and has now lost £742 to a very nicely spoken American!! Michael Smith, he quoted her mastercard details from her Halifax card so she thought he was genuine, and gave him the 3 digits from the strip! She contacted the Halifax straight away as she realised what she had done, they said they would close the account and issued her with new card, since then they have attempted to take further money from her as for whatever reason Halifax had not closed the account. Apparantly there are a large amount of Halifax customers that this had effected, does that mean there is a security breach on their stored information somewhere?? She received another phone last night from the same company and his name was David Andrews, same nice american voice, and really well spoken. I have warned her on so many occassions not to give out information to anyone, but he caught her at a bad time! I hope someone can catch these people who pray on the elderly and vulnerable.

jerseyman_2 · 23 March 2011 at 4:16PM

I had the phone call yesterday they said I had won a holiday on my visa bonus points . the only poeple that have my land line number is the Halifax bank while they were talking to me they said they had my card details, which card did I think I had won the bonus points on what was the expiry date while asking me all this and passing me on to a so called legal team they withdrew money out of my bank on my debit card,I suspected something was not right so ended the phone call and phoned my bank and explained that they had all my card details and asked for them to be confirmed and if that it was the card I had in my possesion by the expiry date, they did not need the numbers just the expiry date, at no time did I give them permission to take any money from my account.I phoned my bank the Halifax straight away after putting the phone down.
My bank the Halifax informed me they had taken 3003.99 from my account I asked if they could stop the payment and was told they could not and that this company had over ridden the bank authorisation to get the payment,I asked if the account could be closed to stop them taking the money only to be told they could not close an account while a payment was going through, and all they could do was ask for the money back 15 days after they get my money as if they are going to give me my money back once they have it,I thought the best thing was to stop them getting it in the first place.
I was given a customer service number by this so called holiday company,I have phoned it and they said I would have my money back in 72 hours we shall see ! I told them they should'nt have it in the first place that I had informed my bank and the fraud team were now involved.
I dont feel safe any more with the Halifax and their attitude to this sittuation,my freind had the same phone call and she allso is a Halifax customer with the same sort of Bank account she put the phone down on them.
The phone number for Your Holiday Getaway customer services is

0013028570302 Try it you may be lucky and get your money back you can but try.
Best of luck

heharim · 5 May 2011 at 4:00PM

I now no longer feel so special or wanted by my credit card company

who yourholidaygetaway.com did not know but could verify my details by taking my credit card number, date of birth, blood group, favourite type of soup etc etc etc

What gave it away as a scam is - my credit card companies do not have the phone number on their records for me as it is a newly installed line:eek:!!!!

So friends beware - they talk it up but will take you down!

Alan_Bowen · 6 May 2011 at 11:43AM

I had the call last week telling me I had been awarded a free holiday to Orlando, Daytona Beach and Cancun. I said I wouldn't set foor in Mexico if you paid me, he said many Brits felt the same way and I could go somewhere else instead. I asked the price, 'its free' was the reply. Then the 'con' began, the prize was awarded by my Mastercard or Visa, which did I collect more reward points with? In fact I don't collect reward points with any credit card but played along and said 'mastercard' Excellent, all I needed to do was to confirm my details as they appeared on the card, as they had the details already. If they had of course they wouldn't have to ask and not surprisingly, credit card companies are not giving away free holidays to anyone, let alone everyone. When I questioned why they needed card details, the phone went dead. Never, ever give bank or card details to someone you have never heard of for an unknown, unbooked holiday.

The scam begins with an automated call telling you that you have won a holiday and to 'press 9 now'. Don't unless you want to waste your time or lose your money

GilliW · 9 May 2011 at 9:17PM

My mum, aged 88, was scammed by this company in January of this year. She lost £724 from her bank account within 30 minutes of passing over her debit card details to a very charming company rep who told her that she'd "won" a holiday for four people. I have now managed, after 4 very long months to get a refund. I thought it would be helpful for people in a similar position to know that within the small print there is provision for a refund to be made provided all the holiday documentation, + to be on the safe side the DHL envelope it arrives in, is returned to Your Holiday Getaway within 30 days of purchase. In addition, the "holiday" is not open to people aged over 68 years. I returned all the documentation via DHL with a covering letter stating that my mother had been tricked into passing over her debit card details and that at age 88 she hadn't been eligible in the first place. At first Your Holiday Getaway tried to get me to accept the holiday instead of my mum, but I politely declined the offer! I also enlisted the help of the Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services, Division of Consumer Services, 2005 Apalachee Parkway, Tallahassee, FL 32399-6500. They were very helpful in putting extra pressure on the company by way of getting them to complete an affidavit stating that the company undertook to make the refund. I also regularly telephoned the Customer Services Department at Your Holiday Getaway (tel: 001 302 857 0302) to hurry things along -although since it took 4 months to complete I'm not sure whether "hurry" is the operative word! The long and the short of it is that my mum has recently received a refund of £650 - slightly less than what she paid out but, since she fully expected never to see the money again, she isn't complaining. Just shows you that with a bit of tenacity and a phone card with plenty of credit (for all those times when you're being passed around various departments) you can get a result.

stubbyd · 16 May 2011 at 5:03PM

I just had a call

Being the curious but cautious type I pressed 9 to hear more. The conversation lasted as long as it took for me to ask what company was behind this - the chap (no name) said Visa and I asked "so you're from Visa then"....

The dial tone came next - boo. I wanted to waste more time

Your Holiday Getaway.com

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