Canadian telemarketing scam?

pete

So i answer the phone the other evening only to be greeted by a nice girl calling from Canada (Toronto I think she said) wondering would I complete a "vacation survey". I did my usual "sorry, too busy - sure you can call me back." routine and hung up thinking how weird it was that someone from Canada would be making international calls to do surveys.... and thought no more about it.

So this evening I ring the ma for a chat, and she tells me she had a call from Canada the other night.... Now that's some coincidence.

Being a much nicer person than me though, she stayed on the phone and chatted to the girl. Sure enough, she was asked questions about her vacation habits. But then conversation turned to if she had a credit card or not (thankfully, she doesn't), and I believe touched on lotteries for a while. From what I could gather the nice Canadian girl then lost interest & ended the call (the ma wouldn't have the greatest memory these days).

The call definitely came from Canada (the caller ID prefix was recognised from calls from relatives in Toronto) & the line quality was a bit ropey.


Anyways if she ever calls back (the Canadian, not me ma) i'll try to get more info.

So.... a scam?

Anyone else had this call?

casper-

Huh...that's interesting. I've certainly never heard any news stories when I was back home about companies trying to scam people overseas. For that matter, it's practically impossible to reach any company in Canada from Ireland with the numbers they give you.

Then again ... Toronto is practically part of the US so that might explain it

pete

Looks like Canada has a bit of a rep for this sort of thing...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/1977396.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3257912.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/3113956.stm

http://www.iowaattorneygeneral.org/latest_news/releases/dec_2003/impound_mail.html

http://www.kcstar.com/item/pages/business.pat,business/3acca60d.506,.html

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/intlalrt.htm

casper-

Woww ..... i had no clue. Apparently it doesn't make the news at home very often

BendiBus

I got a call from Canada, claiming to be from Ramada hotels. I'm always cutious about these things so I answered their telephone survey.

It was 2 or 3 nights later they phoned back saying I'd won a 2 week vacation for 4 people in Florida. After about 10 minutes waffle, I was told all I had to do was pay a couple of hundred Euro per person in administration fees :rolleyes: End of conversation!!

I've no idea if this was a scam or just a 'genuine' hard sell. I might contact Ramada and find out.

l3rian

probally a scam BendiBus

i have heard of a couple of these type of calls lately, most people are too smart to give their credit card details, dont even give the name of your credit card bank, as this gives them more options + the 1st 6 numbers of ur cc

pete

Just got another call from them. Imperial Vacations i think she said.

Hopefully she got the "Uhhh no thanks." message.

oh and apparently as "their way of saying thanks for completing the survey" I could have received a 2,300 euro travel voucher.

No, really.

dahamsta

Longer you keep 'em on the phone, the more it costs them. Record a tape of yourself going "uh-huh" and leave it by the phone.

adam

Sarsfield

hey Adam, I was just about to suggest the same thing.

I got the calls from Ramada Resorts (I think that's what they called themselves). I happily listened to the details of the lovely holiday I'd just 'won' knowing exactly what was coming. But my thougths were that the longer I wait, the more I'm costing them!

I hope they call again. I'll quietly put the receiver down and leave the caller to talk to the lampstand beside the telephone

casper-

LOL..They called us us yesterday ... and I was wondering who from 416 would be calling me

ednwireland

yep i got this kept them on the phone for 20mins or so so and told them at the end i didn't give credit card details over the phone to peopel who ring out of the blue. mind you at least they didn't get annoyed when i wasted 45 mins of a door to door accident insurance salesman (the policies re basically worthless) i basically waste their time if i have the time because if they think they will get a sale they will sit for ages. really p*sses them off when you blow them out at the end. funny how i've had none call since

pete

sorry to dig this one up...

got a couple of calls this morning from someone claiming to be a "Gabriel O'Callaghan" from the "european consumer group" looking to speak to me (she had my full name)... Gabriel had a fierce Fillipino accent, so i told her she had the wrong number. About 2 hours later she called back, but the wife refused to put her on to me until she explained what she was calling about, & 'Gabriel' promptly hung up on her.

Trouble, is now I'm curious about what wonderful offers i've missed out on...

masterK

I got the call from Ramada Plaza Resorts, I thought it was a Scam so did some research on the web, they are not connected to the Ramada hotel group.

It is a scam, do a google search for "Ramada Plaza Resorts" and you'll see the results for yourself. I sent an e-mail to consumer affairs and only got a reply from them about a year later to say that they would investigate the matter.