Holiday scam - Credit Card Fraud?

Uncle_Cuddles

Latest is that we called the UK number we were given and surprisingly someone answered. I wasn't there but my wife got quite upset when trying to explain and the lady she spoke to was very dismissive with a "so what" attitude, infact when my wife explained the rep claimed he was calling from Barclaycard she said "so what, you bought it didn't you". Eventually she said we would be getting the vacation pack through the post and we could cancel it then. And within a week it arrived, via Fedex I think, and it was clearly typed on the front "not to be returned if not accepted by the addressee" (or something like that). The package was basically a DVD and a load of vouchers for holidays, with instructions on how to book your holiday. There were also instructions on how to cancel, which was basically return the complete package for a full refund. In the meantime, my wife went to the police, but they said the credit card company should deal with it, however, if the credit card company did not help they did tell us that we could ask to see a fraud officer.

We sent a strongly worded letter saying things like we would take it further, asking them to refund the money within two weeks or we would take further action. It has been over a month and we have not heard anything so we are going to contact the credit card company again.

So I doubt we could claim section 75 because they probably did supply the package to be able to obtain the goods/services we paid for. However, we have return the package and asked for a refund.

As an aside, within a week, my wife had a phone call from someone who said they worked for "the world banks" and could get a refund for her, and they knew the exact amount, who it was, etc. He also said that there was a charge of £59 for processing the refund. My wife put the phone down at that point.

duggie1982

Uncle_Cuddles wrote: »

As an aside, within a week, my wife had a phone call from someone who said they worked for "the world banks" and could get a refund for her, and they knew the exact amount, who it was, etc. He also said that there was a charge of £59 for processing the refund. My wife put the phone down at that point.

Probably the same company offering the refund so there is no comeback but managed to get £59 for their troubles

tinlizzy

My husband also fell for the spiel from this company. I walked in on the conversation about half way through. I then told the representative we did not want to proceed with the "package" and to sent info in the post before we took up any offers. I then ended the call as my husband had assured me he had NOT given any card details!

Within minutes the company rang back to say the transaction had already taken place and the only way to get the money back was for me to go through a recorded telephone call "agreeing" to the transaction. I patiently explained we did not want the holiday but was told that was the only way to reverse the charge.

I reluctantly went through the recording but changed the name on the card to both of us instead of only his name. They did not ask his permission for me to give the details!

As soon as I got off the phone I logged on to the bank account and found they had indeed taken £613. I contacted the bank but was told the only thing I could do was cancel the credit card which I could not do as the representative had warned me that was the only way we could get a refund. I then lowered the credit limit immediately and have been trying to get the money back since 22nd November 09.

Luckily for me the Bank has now put the transaction into dispute but it is a very long process. Calypso Cay has tried every trick in the book to stop me having the money back. The latest ploy is to say that we have not returned the "PACKAGE". Luckily enough I made sure we had a proof of posting which I have emailed them today.

I would advise anyone not to make the same mistake my husband made!

gnaril

Hey peeps the good old Calypso Cay,

Just a few points-

CHARGEBACK- Non receipt of service.


Calypso Cay will refund if cancelled within the 30 day period, Their calls are all recorded as I have seen items represented with people claiming "oh its fraud" and the merchant provide transcript- recording of the call that you can dial into to hear the person giving all the card details etc etc etc.

We deal with these guys quite often- I havent came across anyone thats actually been able to use the so called service these guys offer.

Contact your bank
Advise them you have been charged for a service which you have not recieved.
Provide a letter to your bank giving the facts and what they "offered to you"
Include a copy of any documentation you receive from them.
You will need to resolve with the merchant firstly- so "try"contacting them if you are unable to them simply state this on your letter.

Chargeback done reason code 4859 rs1 or Reason code 30

Easy as that- Move on with your life and dont get bumped with cold callers and giving your card details out to any Tom - !!!!!! or Harry that calls you.

Register with TPS( i think) or just dont speak to any of these sales people.

The sad thing is it catches a lot of elderly people out and there is nothing worse than to take advantage of them.

All the best peeps

cooltt

PRECISELY why women should stick to washing the dishes.

Uncle_Cuddles

A quick update. Good news, we eventually got a refund! My wife called Barclaycard a month or so after we sent the package back and asked for a refund. We hadn't heard from them, so Barclaycard said they would write to them requesting that they respond to their letter in writing within two weeks or they would do a chargeback. And surprise, surprise, they refunded the money. Well, less about £30 for movement in exchange rates and £10 charge for exchange (not sure if that was Barclaycards charge). Anyway, we consider ourselves lucky because we had not heard of anyone else getting anything out of them.

Don't give up!!

vet8

cooltt wrote: »

PRECISELY why women should stick to washing the dishes.

You're living dangerously. :eek::eek:

jonnehbabeh

My wife has just taken a phonecall on her mobile from a woman called FABIANA of Calypso Cay Resort. Fabiana said that they are "re-activating their list of customers who had not taken their holiday that had been pre-paid via her credit card ($1200), some 4-5 years ago". She proceeded to offer a 12day, 3 center break of Orlando (5 days), Bahamas Cruise and stopover (4 days), Daytona Beach (3 days). All this for the "RE-ACTIVATION FEE OF $499".

Luckily, my wife asked this Fabiana to hold whilst she asked me for an opinion on the opportunity. I spoke with Fabiana and asked her for website addresses and resort names so that I could do some research before committing to anything.....GOOD JOB WE DID!! I also asked for a contact telephone number and was told that they cannot receive incoming calls......alarm bells starting to ring! She said she would call back in half hour and when I told her I needed more time to do my research she tried to push the "this offer is proving very popular and there are only 14 places left and she didn't want us to miss out" argument, then followed this up with she was finishing in 40 mins and wouldn't be able to call back after that. I told her we'd take that chance and do our research before anything. Then she said an unusual sentence, she said "make sure you type in the web address box the correct site name. DON'T GOOGLE THE NAME OR SITE AS IT WON'T GIVE THE CORRECT DETAILS, IT'S NOT LISTED WITH THEM".
Naturally, the first thing I did was google it and straight away up came this site warning of the scam. needless to say, after reviewing all the comments we decided NOT to proceed with this company.
Fabiana called back right on cue half hour later. My wife asked her for the credit card number that they had on record and the first six digits were read out to her......these are NOT the first or any of the digits on any of her cards so we knew we were safe. My wife asked for a refund as we did not intend to persue this opportunity on offer to which Fabian answered "what, after 4 years?!! You only had 30 days from initial payment so No".
We expected this anyway from what we had read on this forum previously. We were asked why we didn't want this fabulous holiday of a lifetime? My wife said we had read reviews from previous users of their resort and found them to be lacking and unflattering, not the best. This was met by the explanation that the management had changed and everything was fine now - my wife replied that the last review was from 20th January 2010, 5 days ago so we doubted very much that her statement was true. Fabiana gave up and we hung up.
THANK YOU MONEYSAVINGEXPERT website for saving us from making a very costly mistake through ignorance. We hope that more and more people will see this and learn from it. DON'T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU ARE TOLD - IF SOMETHING SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, IT PROBABLY IS!!

Mr.Mulla

gnaril wrote: »

The sad thing is it catches a lot of elderly people out and there is nothing worse than to take advantage of them.

True. It is mostly elderly people who are caught by these holiday scams or any other scams out there. And most of the time, they would willingly give out personal information or would agree to anything they are offered without them knowing that it is fraudulent.

I am actually not wondering how these scammers were able to get a hold of your credit card numbers. Some banks don't have a very good security measures when it comes to verification especially if these people use the ip relay service.

sallyhug

My daughter, a single parent on benefits, was phoned on an 0800 number by a company called Calypso Cay telling her that she had won a holiday through her bank.
They told her that all she needed to pay were the taxes which were £600
She does not have a credit card but they took the details of her debit card.
As soon as she told me I told her to phone her bank and cancel the payment. This was a couple of hours after they called her.
The bank said the payment had already been requested but because it was Friday night they couldn't do any more until Monday.
She only fell for this because is emotionally fragile right now.
What can she do to make sure the payment is stopped?