Phone spam - You Have won a cruise!!11!!!

Chad ghostal

I got a call today from a number starting with country code 0016
( i assume i cant post the full number without being banned?)
it (computer voice) said i had just won a cruise and that i have to press 9 now to claim my prize ..
naturally i hung up, but i was just wondering has anybody else experienced this?
its the first time i've had this and was not impressed,

is this the kind of crap we can expect in the future?



Mods i checked other forums, its not directly related to broadband or any telecome so i didnt put it in irelandoffline or nets and comms..

kenmc

not heard it, heard of it a bit. dunno if pressing 9 makes you pay a large amount of money, likewise dunno if you just leave the phone down for an hour rather than hanging up does it cost them a fortune (would be nice), or does it somehow manage to bill your fone....
can imagine it's annoying though - esp if it's a bloody computer!

Clinical Waste

Yep, got this **** about 3 days ago.
Better not be the start of things to come or this may be the final nail required to ditch the landline altogether.

Have cable for broadband and 200 min a month free calls on mobile (for all Irish numbers and landlines in Aus, Uk, Canada etc) so I'm teetering on the edge of kissing Eircom goodbye forever.

s_gr

I got a similar phone call, the 001 is the prefix for a US number. I challenged them as where they got my number but they hung up. They called again a few days later, didnt answer once i seen the number. I am going to lookinto where they got my number. Hope this does not become a regular thing.

seamus

Probably one of those things where you dial nine, and your call is rerouted and charged to you at premium and/or international rates.

Chad ghostal

i googled the full number and only got a few results,
most of them were in a different language, and some wanring not to giver over your card number (whatever that means). .

seamus wrote:

Probably one of those things where you dial nine, and your call is rerouted and charged to you at premium and/or international rates.

thats what i figured...

is this kind of carry on illegal, would comreg or anyone else be able to nip it in the butt?

Chad ghostal

just curious what this has to do with mobiles or pda's??
(spam recieved on home phone...)

Chalk

sounds like an auto dialler,
illegal afaik, remember homers "send 1 dollar to happy dude" scam?

when you press 9 it puts you through to the guys running it,
they then talk you into giving them your cc number.

doubt its a premiun-rate type scam,
just standard phishing.

mik_da_man

I got this call also on my landline,

it is from a a company offering you 'Free' cruises in the bahamas and other things like holidays in florida.

THIS IS A SCAM and stay well clear from it!!

the guy was telling me about how great the cruise was but trying to get info abt my Credit card all the time just poping questions like "is it a Mastercard or Visa" and asking for the exp date in the middle of the spiel about the holiday.

Finally he asks me for my Credit card no and i ask him what for?
he says he wants to debit €900 for this "free" holiday i naturally decline!

And ask him what guarntee he has that i will get my holiday and he directs me to a dodgy site with a nice picture of a Guarntee
he says print that out it's all ya need!!

Did a quick google on them and got a lot of info pointing to a scam including that their Travel agent licence had been removed by florida state Govt on the 11th March!!

Asked the guy about this and he promptly hung up!!


As for the legality of the issue at the moment it is legal through a loophole.
It is illegal for EU companies to SPAM call people but US companies can do it ok!

Hopefully this will be sorted out soon as i know of someone who nearly fell for it even gave their card no but I was visiting when she was on the call and stopped it!

my .02c

Mik

leche solara

Something in the paper the other day about this. When you press 9 you are unwittingly dialling a premium rate number which is about €5 a minute. Even if you hang up straight after pressing 9 you are charged for a minimum 5 minute call. Comreg know about this but cant do anything as call is originating outside country

astec123

Interesting that they cant do anything when they can, all they are required to do it to get the number blocked on our end. Had the call twice now and its getting annoying.

http://mmm.eircom.ie/phonebook/
thats how they get the number, but its not hard for eircom and co to block them, no doubt that its pissing them off at the minute with complains so they should be blocking it.

Cutie18Ireland

got the same type of call last year! basically their claiming its a 5star holiday for the price of a 2 star so ppl go expecting the 5 star but are largely disappointed when they recieve a 2 star holiday u have a year and a half to book the holiday with them but on mentioning cancelling the holiday they extend to 3 years!! it cost €700 for 4 adults...

paulm17781

I got one to my parents landline. American woman's voice.

elivsvonchiaing

I know how this works... These people know banking law and understand the perimeters within which to operate.

One would think that several hundred customers complaining to their bank about this and eventually getting a refund (these people appear to the bank as legit merchants), would not make it worth their while; the bank issue a reversal.

However, if you look at the spot rate on the day, and your credit card statement, you might figure out that there is still money made here. I doubt if this is always the case.

I imagine risk analysts in treasury have identified that it is overall worthwhile. However, do they know that the group will suffer when people move their mortgages?

In my case €175,000.

They are Florida Travel Escapes a.k.a just look for this on google +SCAM.

The bank knows who they are!

Elivs

cor

Have got a few messages on my landline while I was out - message just says "PRESS 9 NOW" repeatedly.

cor

cor wrote:

Have got a few messages on my landline while I was out - message just says "PRESS 9 NOW" repeatedly.

same here, been getting them messages for a few weeks now.

LFCFan

got those Press 9 now messages on our voicemail a lot.

We also got called by a company in Canada trying to 'sell' us a 'free' holiday in Florida. Over the space of 3 weeks they rang 46 times. 40 of these were during the day when we were out but of course Caller ID gave them away.

BrianD

These cruise holiday things in Florida are a SCAM do a search on google anty you'll find it. I think it's Imperial Majesty Cruise line. They go through alot of red tape that makes it sound like its official and above board. One night they rang (after many missed calls) so I decided to see what the process is like.

The spiel is endless. You have won this prize that includes a number of items. He describes them and for each item there is a caveat - you will only have to pay for a deposit or something else. All of a sudden these charges add up to $1000 (excluding your flights to get there)!! He said everything would be sent out in the post etc etc. At the end he attempts to close the deal by asking for my credit card. I said I don't give it out over the phone and he just hung up! Poor guy, I had wasted his spiel! Apparently every aspect of your prize is terrible and you essentially pay deposits that are above the market rate of booking the whole thing online yourself.

What does annoy me now is that I am still getting voice mails at home from them but no missed calls are indicated. Are these guys able to go straight to voicemail on a land line?

Read this report about the same company who called me:
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff28294.htm

Read this report of one of the call centre workers:
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff53598.htm

BrianD

leche solara wrote:

Something in the paper the other day about this. When you press 9 you are unwittingly dialling a premium rate number which is about €5 a minute. Even if you hang up straight after pressing 9 you are charged for a minimum 5 minute call. Comreg know about this but cant do anything as call is originating outside country

This is an urban legend and is FALSE.

However, it is possible that you can receive a missed call from a premium number and you could ring back the number with out knowing the costs of dialing the number. This scam was perpetrated by a premium company here but bizarrely ComReg only fined them under the Data Protection act.

elivsvonchiaing

Further thoughts on this are:

1) These people need the banks to play ball with them for the scam to work again and again.
2) The banks aren't just doing this to comply with banking-law; if they were losing money the scammers would have a very short lifetime (with any particular bank); fact is they seem to last many months.
3) The banks aren't breaking any banking laws by trading with a recognized merchant - people will always have complaints about merchants; often to scam themselves.
4) The only way this will ever be stopped is if enough people get pissed-off enough about it to not accept it; and actually write letters - emails/blogs etc will change nothing.
5) These people could not operate in this way in the US; likewise Brussels should respond with legislation to combat this on EU-wide basis. This probably has to be changes to banking law. This should not cost the consumer anything and therefore will be in place in 2030 and will be long out of date

In a nutshell... Just don't hang up on these scum-bags when they call - but don't call them - just jerk them around for as long as you can - before the penny-drops; they are not getting your card number: hint give them your card prefix-followed by your whatever; apologise profusely, then hang-on... I think I've found it now... etc...

Do please invent your own jerk them around tactic, though ;-)

MorningStar

astec123 wrote:

http://mmm.eircom.ie/phonebook/
thats how they get the number, but its not hard for eircom and co to block them, no doubt that its pissing them off at the minute with complains so they should be blocking it.

When I worked with phone market research ( the real thing) we didn't use the phone book to get numbers. We randomly generated the numbers. You take a seed number maybe from a phone book. Lots of people would freak out becasue they were ex-directory and therefore we must be some sort of criminals and out to get them.
The other current scam involves ringing and asking for a person and when you tell them it is the wrong number they start to try and find out who you are. They keep ringing back doing the same thing. They are most likely trying to compile a list they can sell which is another way to make moeny and be pestered to death

elivsvonchiaing

(Okay, thought this was all over with and figured it out: Got my refund after I kicked-up hell with the bank and moved my mortgage - which was easy. What I should have done was use a broker to migrate my bank account 'coz now I have to do this all myself...)

In a nutshell if it happens to you; threaten to close your credit-card account; When you get a refund close it immediately -

I got my refund but the charges have been re-applied under the terms and conditions contained in the travel-pack; If I had closed my account I'd have none of this crap; if this happend to you: close your account as I suspect all banks are allowing this business practice to proceed as it is legal (under banking law) - their risk-assesment team have assessed that this is profitable.

It is however bad business (in my humble opinion) as I have moved my mortgage and am now severing all business links with them. They have made between -€10 and maybe €50 (across the group) they have lost my mortgage and my business.

I really think their risk assesment planned only for the quick buck and have screwed up here; I'm not talking to "the bank" as in you know who you are. I am talking to ALL banks here:

This is BAD business - if one customer of 19 years says: "I did not authorize that debit" you should take them seriosuly. if 100's of customers argue likewise; but theirs still cash to be made on the exchange rate (i.e. the crap rate you give your customers 2.???% above the spot rate; when you are big enough through your own currency trades to influence the spot rate!)

I got a phone call tonight from a guy from a "fullfilment center" which represented Florida Travel. He tried to argue why the charge was re-applied.

He replayed me a recording that was given to the bank (so he says); but when it was recorded I was either listening to silence or something else; I said "Yes I agree to that" - and am fairly sure they had a choice of samples to choose from. This "recording" was concocted - when I asked him for a recording of my demand that this transaction would not take place until my terms and conditions were met his line was he was a third-party.

The banks already know they are aiding criminals in their criminal pursuits; they know these people's tactics - over the phone; and over the phone is where they heard all these complaints.


I am going to put pen to paper tomorrow; I suggest to anyone who knows someone in this predicament; to write to their Bank and threaten to write to a financial regulatory authority in their jurisdiction; And optionally write after a deadline imposed in the letter.

Letters only will make a difference here.

Ps. I said "predicament"; it's not true - no way am I paying the bank - period!

parsi

So in what way did these crooks manage to get your card number out of you in the first place ?

GLaDOS

When they ask for your credit card number simply reply '7'

Sizzler

Just to put people straight on this one....if a call has been made outside the country there is nothing comreg or any Telco can do about it as the offence has been committed outside the country. The only way the authorities would take a call seriously that you suspect was made outside Ireland is basically if your life was threatened....and in such cases you go to the Gardai.

End of.

PS People who think pressing a digit on their phonepad will result in being charged 5 yo yos a minute probably are also probably stupid enough to leave cake out for Santa at Xmas.

thiscityburns

I actualy did win a cruise, gave them my credit card details and they're sending me the tickets next week.

DamoKen

thiscityburns wrote:

I actualy did win a cruise, gave them my credit card details and they're sending me the tickets next week.

if you "won" a cruise why do they need your cc details? I'd keep a close watch on my cc account if I were you. I never have or will give my details over the phone, especially on a "deal" that I did not initiate. I'd be curious to see how this turns out for you though, good luck