Scam email ends

As with all emails if you have never entered a competition how could you have won? Also the email isn't directed specifically to me rather it's adressed to my email name — never a good sign! These kinds of scams are generally easy to avoid. Just ignore them! Also because they invariably offer you a free holiday, vacation, or similar your spam filter can readily be trained to weed them out. Because of this the email scam itself is becoming less of a nuisance.

To keep you informed, however, here are the major variants on this scam:

• The Time Share Promotion — You are offered a steeply discounted vacation, but as part of the deal you must listen to a sales pitch for time shares. Many people report that they end up spending a lot more time at sales pitches than was promised when they signed up for the vacation. In some situations, they also report very heavy-handed, unscrupulous, and even dishonest tactics by the sales agents.
• Free Plane Tickets — You are told that you have won free plane tickets, perhaps even including vacation destinations such as Hawaii. The catch? You must book your hotel, and perhaps even purchase some or all of your meals, through the company which is offering the "free" tickets. The cost of food and accommodation are inflated to include, and perhaps exceed, the cost of your "free" air fare.
• Free Holiday Package — You are in fact flown to your destiation for free, but you are booked into a dirty, uncomfortable hotel with lousy food. You may even be told that if you check out you will not be able to use your return ticket. Your choices are to stay in your miserable accommodation, or to pay an exhorbitant "upgrade" fee to get into a reasonable hotel. (You could buy your own return ticket, but airlines usually charge a premium for last minute ticket purchases and almost always charge a premium for one-way travel.)
• The Disappearing Travel Agency — You are told that you have won a wonderful trip, no strings attached, but that you must pay certain fees to secure your reservation. Typical fees claimed are for port charges, airport security fees, or room taxes. After you pay the fees, perhaps hundreds of dollars, you never hear from the agency again. When you try to call their number, you find that it has been disconnected and the travel agency has disappeared from the face of the earth - with your money.
• The 'Limited Time Offer' — You are offered a spectacular travel package, good only for a limited time, but you are told that you must make an immediate and substantial deposit to lock in the deal. After you pay your down payment, the travel promoter will tell you that the dates you want aren't available, and will stall you until the offer expires (or the promoter disappears). You do not get your deposit back.
• Vacation Discount Cards or Certificates — This is mostly played out in the US, where you pay up front for the discounts, but find that there are so many restrictions on when you can actually obtain the discounts that you can't take advantage of the offers. Or you discover that the few hotels which accept the card or certificate only do so at "full rate", and that even with the "discount" you pay as much or more as any other vacation traveller.
• 'Become a Travel Agent' Offers — You pay a fee to "instantly" become a travel agent, with promises of huge travel discounts. As the credential isn't real, no discounts are available.
• The Disappearing Discount — You purchase a discount package, but every time you try to book your trip you are told that surcharges and additional fees apply.

There is also a new web-based version of this scam. This is where you navigate to a site and a pop-up appears on your screen talling you that you have won a holiday in the Bahamas (or a cruise, or whaterver). Only, to retrieve your prize you have to call the number listed on the popup within the next three minutes. You call the number and generally a female voice with an American accent answers telling you in an excited and breathless tone that you have won the promised holiday.

The woman talks very quickly extolling the virtues of the package and eventually asks whether you wish to accept the holiday. You answer 'Yes' as you are excited at the prospect of the trip. It's only now that the woman mentions some figures that, at first, don't seem to have any connection to the holiday prize and you're asked for your credit card details. Still excited, you give your card details and the woman tells you that you are 'locked in' to buying the holiday. On hearing the term you begin to have a number of doubts and realize that you have not actually 'won' the entire holiday.

You ask to withdarw from the holiday but the woman refuses. Eventually, if you really insist you may be put through to a 'manager'. The manager may agree to a reduction in the amount you have to pay but then tells you that you will have to listen to a recording of the company's terms and conditions and that you will have to listen to the entire recording or you will have to pay even more to the company.

Basically the company are using high-pressure tactics to extort as much money from you as possible. You will also find that if you attempt to contact the company again they will have 'disappeared', taking your money with them.