Major holiday scam involving Florida telemarketers

Let me put it this way.

No matter how smart you or I may be, can you be sure they couldn't take your mother or father for a lot of money ?

If that happened to my mother I wouldn't tell her that she deserved it for being stupid.

I help people. The moral is simple - do you help someone who is in trouble or not ?

I know I may get up the noses of some people, but I asuure it is my intention only to get up the noses of people who try to rip off consumers, and that's why we're here.

I have copied a very good and sensible guide someone else has written.

I'll include the link and copy it below.

http://www.ripoffreport.com/Travel-Agencies/Universal-Action-Tra/universal-action-travel-if-you-88cf3.htm

Your Rights
According to Florida State Law “You have a right to cancel your purchase and receive a refund within 30 days of the date of purchase" after which, “the seller has 30 days from the time of receipt of your notice of cancellation to send you a full refund". [source] [corroborating source]

The law exists to regulate Sellers of Travel to and from Florida, as well as Sellers of Travel whose place of business is in Florida - it helps to maintain the reputation of Florida as a welcoming vacation destination and protects the citizens of any country by forcing licensed sellers of travelto follow strict rules, including the ones about refunds; so the suggestions listed here are valid from any country.

Action 1 - Call
Call the number you originally dialled.
Politely and clearly state that you are calling because you wish to cancel a contract.
Ask them to confirm the company name and address to which you should send a cancellation letter.
If the person on the other end bluffs or prevaricates, remind them that Florida State Statute 559.933 is quite clear on your right to a full and prompt refund.
If they verbally agree to send you a full refund, accept this happily, but you should not stop yet because if they were to forget to send it, or lose the note to say that you'd called, or had a computer crash, (etc. etc.) then you'd have no evidence that you called within the 30 day cancellation period.
Action 2 - Write
Write a letter of cancellation.
This is a generic letter template.
Send the letter by an international recorded delivery service.
From the UK you could use International Signed For.
Sometimes the companies will state that “you have to return the package", this is usually just an obstruction tactic, but if they insist, take photographs (and scan or photocopy) everything that you return (example).

Action 3 - Complain always
If you you're unhappy about the experience and wish to air your grievance, then please do. Lodging a formal complaint will quickly raise the profile of your scammer so the DOACS can monitor them better: 1-800-HELP-FLA (435-7352)

Complain to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (who regulate the selling of travel in Florida) using this form.
Inform your “local" national press so that others do not go through the same experience.
In the UK there is the BBC's Watchdog Programme
In the Netherlands, there is Opgelicht.

Action 4 - Write to your credit card company

Write to your credit card company and tell them that you are seeking a refund from the vendor.
Explain why you feel the company misrepresented itself.
Include a copy of the letter you sent to the vendor.
Use local legislation if necessary:
If you're in the UK and the vendor refuses (or is unable) to provide a refund, then the Consumer Credit Act 1974 section 75 is your fallback. It makes the credit card company equally responsible for any misrepresentation, so should attempt to claim the refund from your credit card company.

Action 5 - Help Others
If you succeed in getting a refund, using this or an alternative method, let others know by describing your success below, I'll modify the above steps as appropriate.

Personally I would ring your card company at the earliest opportunity to firmly request cancellation of the transaction having discovered the fraudulent nature of the transaction.

Bear in mind the Florida Statute that all Florida travel agents must comply with.

You may not know a number to call if they cold called you and didn't tell you one which makes it easy. The caller broke Florida Statute Law.

I'd follow the other steps, but calling your card company is a priority. On no account allow them to join you in a conference call with your card company. Make both parties know that that would break your card companies legal duty to keep your financial affairs confidential.

This is all a confidence trick, and from my examination, quite a common and successful one, performed by many US companies and individuals in the Florida travel field, many of whom are connected, and others, by that I suspect are 'copycats'.

It should be quite easy to 'kill off' this practice, but there is a reliance on the inertia and resistace of card companies to accept claims and chargebacks, and it's part f the confidence trick to try to persuade the cosumer that he has no right to make a chargeback or claim. This is not correct.

Let me give you an analogy.

You go into a retailer and buy a computer using your card, let's say, and you take the box home and when you open it, it isn't what you thought you were buying and it doesn't work. Are you entitled to claim from your card company ? - Of course you are. You just follow the procedure. The principle is that banks should only provide Merchant Trader Facilities to reputable persons who are in the market to provide a 'bone fide' product or service. The minute they start misrepresenting what they're offering, then they are acting outside the agreement with the provider of their Merchant Trader Facility, who are obliged to take responsibility.

The fact that the caller will invariably state that you have 'won a prize' immediately puts them in conflit with Florida Statute Law as competitions are strictly regulated. No retailer has the right to pass a charge to your account if they have used misrepresentation to obtain your details.

The pronblem wouldn't exist if banks took more care over who they give these facilities to, and there is no greater impetus for change than ensuring that all claims are pursued vigorously as victims are entitled to do.

The list of companies and organisations involved is very large, and I'm compiling a list which will be posted in this thread with a list of consumer complaints aginst them as evidence. Meanwhile I'm looking into their backgrounds.

I hope that many consumers will avoid falling for this confidence trick by searching online before they hand over any details and that others will be forewarned and not have anything to do with companies like this.

I've been looking in to this more deeply and I'm amazed at how widespread this is. It's almost as if this type of 'marketing' is seen as legitimate in Florida. It all appears to stem from timeshare marketing and some 'enterprises' have removed the part where a service is provided at all.

It no longer works so well in the USA after much litigation, which appears why they have changed focus to Canada and the UK. I agree that by providing a short clear method to obtain 'chargebacks' or refunds from card companies is the quickest and most direct solution. Trying to close down the companies is like trying to deal with ants by stamping on them.

It's clear to see that these 'enterprises' have devised what they see as a 'bullet ptoof' tactic by recording that consumers have willingly handed over their card details. However, one thing could unlock their ruse and that's the UK Distance Selling Regulations. It's a bit of a long shot, because leisure and accomodation are excluded. under certain conditions, but it's unlikely that US 'enterprises' know what those condition are.

I'll do some research on the subject, as to whether they can be applied, which relates to whether the holiday has dates applied to it and also whether it being a foreign company has an effect.

DSR gices you a 7 day cooling off period, so as long as you realise the mistake quickly enough (and that's when most people realise they've been had, it's the ideal solution, for UK victims anyway.

Let me do some research first.

For anyone interested these are the Distance Selling Regulations

http://www.out-law.com/page-430#When

and this is the part that defines what is exempted from them.

.............contracts for the provision of accommodation, transport, catering or leisure services, where the supplier undertakes, when the contract is concluded, to provide these services on a specific date or within a specific period.

These people operate from carefully worded scripts, but I doubt that they are crafted to comply with UK consumer regulations, so I need to check from all my bookmarks what they cover. Then it's just a matter of seeing if the fact that they are abroad reduces the entitlement to make a card chargebacke/refund.

I've even found this link for Canadians

http://www.havenport.com/Law/dsmlm.htm

Canadian direct selling and consumer protection legislation can permit lengthy return periods, sometimes enforceable via mandatory credit card charge backs, if paper and online ordering contracts and other procedures are not correctly prepared and executed.

The scam may be as much in making consumers believe that they have no recourse, as in getting their credit card details in the first instance.