I received a letter yesterday from US
AIrlines. What a scam!
From
Deceptology.com:
“I recently received a letter. It
said that I "qualified for an award of 2 roundtrip tickets... The retail
value of this award is up to $1,298.00."
My address was handwritten on the envelope in blue ink. There was no return address. It was sent from Phoenix, Arizona, with a letterhead that says US Airlines.
I did a search for "US Airlines" and discovered this web page (usairlinesletter, at the conveniently named "usairlinesletter"), which said it is "The Unofficial Site About the Letter from US Airlines".
Usairlinesletter tells me:
My address was handwritten on the envelope in blue ink. There was no return address. It was sent from Phoenix, Arizona, with a letterhead that says US Airlines.
I did a search for "US Airlines" and discovered this web page (usairlinesletter, at the conveniently named "usairlinesletter"), which said it is "The Unofficial Site About the Letter from US Airlines".
Usairlinesletter tells me:
Have you recently been the recipient
of a letter from US Airlines or any other airline company that offered you free
or complimentary tickets?... grab your chance to avail them as it will cost you
absolutely nothing.
One problem, though. There is no airline called "US
Airlines" . . . . “
Anonymous says:
The reason you received the travel award is actually based on your
travel purchase history. There is a travel agency in your area doing a
travel-related promotion so they are trying to reach a certain target audience
that travels... and due to your purchase history, your name fell into that
category. (Keep in mind that a travel-related purchase can be anything from
those little fingernail clippers and tweezers you bought in a 'travel' pouch,
to the purse you bought that rang up as 'luggage' the other day.)
The letters you all received are coming from a company called Vacation Tours USA, a marketing/advertising company that is hired by different travel agencies throughout the US. They work with about 10-20 agencies in 27 different states to help promote their companies and lure 'travelers' into purchasing a travel club memberships. They have purchased information on COUPLES between the ages of 30 and 70 who have made some sort of travel-related purchase within the last 12 months. (You can thank Equifax for providing them with your information!) Vacation Tours sends out their mail pieces accordingly and they are purposefully written to mimic the real US Airways so that people will actually respond to them.
People call in about the tickets thinking they have won them but the catch is, in order to claim the tickets, you have to sit through a 90 minute sales presentation for a travel company in your area. The presentation is usually half marketing/ half comedy, it's actually a lot of fun if you like to travel. There are no high pressure sales techniques used at the presentation because they are hoping that you tell your family and friends about them and possibly use their services to save you money on future travel. So no big deal, right?
Wrong! You would have to be a member in order to use their services and the membership fee is $4,000+. You literally spend MORE using their services than what you would if you made your own travel arrangements. But what about the "free" airline tickets you earned for sitting through their 90 minute presentation? Well, you will be given a travel voucher that has to be redeemed within a year of the day you got it. The travel voucher claims to work with ALL the US Airlines, they are good for two round-trip airfares. You have to pay all of your taxes and fees at the time of the flight, and the only restrictions are the blackout dates. The blackout dates are 7 days before and 7 days after a holiday which means means 316 days of the 365 days out of the year, are blacked out! There are so many hoops to jump through and so much paperwork to fill out that by the time you actually find a date that isn't blacked-out, the vouchers are null and void because it has been over a year since you got them. Only 2 people out of a 100 actually get to fly, which makes this operation legal.
The letters you all received are coming from a company called Vacation Tours USA, a marketing/advertising company that is hired by different travel agencies throughout the US. They work with about 10-20 agencies in 27 different states to help promote their companies and lure 'travelers' into purchasing a travel club memberships. They have purchased information on COUPLES between the ages of 30 and 70 who have made some sort of travel-related purchase within the last 12 months. (You can thank Equifax for providing them with your information!) Vacation Tours sends out their mail pieces accordingly and they are purposefully written to mimic the real US Airways so that people will actually respond to them.
People call in about the tickets thinking they have won them but the catch is, in order to claim the tickets, you have to sit through a 90 minute sales presentation for a travel company in your area. The presentation is usually half marketing/ half comedy, it's actually a lot of fun if you like to travel. There are no high pressure sales techniques used at the presentation because they are hoping that you tell your family and friends about them and possibly use their services to save you money on future travel. So no big deal, right?
Wrong! You would have to be a member in order to use their services and the membership fee is $4,000+. You literally spend MORE using their services than what you would if you made your own travel arrangements. But what about the "free" airline tickets you earned for sitting through their 90 minute presentation? Well, you will be given a travel voucher that has to be redeemed within a year of the day you got it. The travel voucher claims to work with ALL the US Airlines, they are good for two round-trip airfares. You have to pay all of your taxes and fees at the time of the flight, and the only restrictions are the blackout dates. The blackout dates are 7 days before and 7 days after a holiday which means means 316 days of the 365 days out of the year, are blacked out! There are so many hoops to jump through and so much paperwork to fill out that by the time you actually find a date that isn't blacked-out, the vouchers are null and void because it has been over a year since you got them. Only 2 people out of a 100 actually get to fly, which makes this operation legal.
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