IT’S THE SAME OLD CON JOB
The offers used to come when you opened your mail or answered your phone: You had won the chance to take a fabulous luxury vacation! If you took the bait, you got taken alright, but hardly on vacation. Those same travel scams now come to you by fax, e-mail and Internet. In fact, a report from the Federal Trade Commission says that travel and vacation fraud ranks as one of the top-10 online scams, according to the findings of a year-long international law-enforcement study dubbed Operation Top 10 Dot Cons.
Internet travel scams are no different than their low-tech counterparts. But the study is a good reminder for consumers to repeat what they already know: If a travel deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Here’s how to recognize a con job, no matter where it comes from:
1. The scam offers you a lavish vacation for free or for a ridiculously slight fee. Perhaps you’ve been told that you’ve won a travel prize in a contest you don’t remember entering, or that you’ve been “specially selected.”
2. You can’t get specific details about the trip until you send money or give out your credit card number.
3. You are asked to send funds, perhaps by overnight express, in order to “claim” your trip; you may be told that this is to cover document delivery charges, taxes or handling fees.
4. There is an urgency to “accept” the prize or offer immediately, with no time allowed for you to decide.
To lodge scam complaints or obtain additional information, contact
Federal Trade Commission: 877-FTC-HELP; or at www.ftc.gov.
