Gavan P.L. Watson
photo credit: the_tahoe_guy
I just got off the phone with a fellow who identified himself as “Mark Wilson” of Master Resorts. Mark had great news—because I had earned “golden points” on my VISA card, I had qualified for a free trip1.
I have Mark’s name in quotation marks because I’m positive this was a scam—from the private caller / number on the caller ID to VOIP-quality phone connection, to the slightly-off “golden points”—this “free vacation” phone call screamed that I shouldn’t trust this guy. So, I decided to have some fun and waste as much of his time as possible.
Mark, after his initial pitch (where the premise of a free vacation from my VISA golden points was laid out), asked me to get a pen and paper so I could take down all the information he was going to tell me. The first thing that he wanted to do was give me his phone number so I could call him back (in case we got disconnected). So here is his number: 503-895-5755. When I asked him where the 503 area code was, Mark informed me that 503 wasn’t the area code: 01 was. Hrm. Someone not familiar with North American phone numbers?
Mark laid out the three places I could go: Cancun, Mexico; Orlando, Florida; and Daytona Beach, Florida. I was told all the fantastic things I would see and do, down to the child-safe balcony (and I would love to know what experience these scammers had to start describing the balcony as child-safe) in Daytona Beach. I was never asked if I was interested in the offer. It was assumed from the beginning that I was always along for the ride.
Then came the sell: I could get this $6000 transferable trip, good for one year, for only $600 in taxes, payable on the day of departure. I had been playing along to this point, and I decided that it was time to start fucking around with Mark. I decided that I was going to be a travel-phobic and tell him that I didn’t like to leave the country. Mark, without missing a beat, pointed out that I could transfer the voucher to a friend. How convenient. Time for me to change tack : I had no friends. Mark was good. Again, without missing a beat suggested that I would meet friends on this trip—and who knows, he added, I might even get a girlfriend. I wondered internally if I wanted to interrogate Mark’s hetero-normative assumption, but decided to play along. I told Mark that a girlfriend was an exciting proposition, but I was very, very ugly. No girls would date me.
I could tell that Mark was enjoying this. I could hear his chuckle over the line and I think he was enjoying my ridiculous arguments. He told me that from the moment he heard my voice, he knew I was a reasonable guy and I mustn’t be as bad-looking as I said I was. I said I really was and he replied with the same line: I sounded like a reasonable guy, so I couldn’t be as homely as I made myself out to be. Then I asked him if I was calling me a liar. The chuckle went out of his voice.
At this point, the line crackled and went dead for a bit. When the voice returned on the other end of the line, it was different. I’m pretty sure that Mark passed me on to another person, perhaps his boss, to try and make a deal. This new Mark re-iterated the prize and did that classic sales thing where you are asked, rhetorically, how wonderfully lucky you are and what a great time you’ll have, all for $600 at departure. I then told the new Mark that I didn’t have a passport. That stopped him up for a moment, then the circular argument continued, with the new Mark suggesting that I could give it to friends. I said I had none.
Then the pitch changed. The new Mark asked me how much I made. I told him I wasn’t telling him how much I made. He asked me if I wanted to add to my monthly cash flow. I didn’t respond. The new Mark’s pitch? Imagine, if I bought this $6000 vacation for $600 how much money I could make selling it to a travel agent. WTF? New Mark is expecting me to sell this to a travel agent? I told him that he was crazy. No travel agent would buy a voucher from me.
Then he hung up.
Sleuthing
Incidentally, after I got off the phone, I did a little google-fu on the number: it is listed as the North American contact number for Fast Track Communications based in Karachi, Pakistan. Their mission statement is a bit strange:
“ We provide the ordinary services in an extra ordinary way. We always serve the customers with the pleasant smile and we are present to mould the call centre industry in a new way. Because we always believe in
”
But they appear to be your run-of-the-mill out-of-country call centre. Certainly, they could be hired by some other entity to perpetrate the fraud. But they likely know that what they’re doing would be considered illegal here in Canada.
Or the US: the 503 area code is located in Oregon, but their US address is located in Tennessee. Searching for the address in Google maps is kind of fun. Look where their American address is located:
An empty lot in some strange subdivision. I know that the maps image may be dated and there could easily be a house there now, but it appears that the image is from 2009.
There is a North American contact:
Andy SmithPhone: +1(901)217-8681
E-mail: info@fasttrackcom.com
Mr. Smith’s number is located in Moscow, TN, a town 32 minutes down the road from the address provided in Collierville. Searching on-line for that 901 doesn’t reveal much—just that its a land-line. The number is traced to Ymax Communications, a communications company that specializes in VOIP communication and re-sells local numbers (including numbers in the 901 area code).
If the quality of the phone call didn’t convince me that Golden Resorts was a scam, nothing I found looking into all of this does anything to change my mind. If anything, it confirms it even more.
So who is behind Fast Track Communications? Well, no contact name beyond Andy Smith is given on the website, so I checked out the whois info, the site was registered on October 12th, 2009 to this fellow:
Adeel Ghaziani (adeel@cyberhosters.org)Alyabad colony
karachi
Sind(en),75950
PK
Tel. +092.03432504440
Is he behind Fast Track Communication? Hard to say. Mr. Ghaziani appears to be the CEO/owner of a Pakistani hosting company, CyberHosters. Interestingly, the CyberHosters website links to a group on Facebook where we can find Mr. Ghaziani’s own profile.
So where does this leave me? Nowhere really. And perhaps that is the point. If I had gone along with the Free Vacation scam, I imagine I would have been out of a trip and $600 without anywhere to go—physical addresses that are vacant lots, phone numbers that ring through to another country. In a hyper-connected world, these kinds of scams are easier and easier to perpetrate: it would little money and effort to get the ball rolling. And all it takes is a less-critical person answering the phone at the other end to turn my homely home-body into a willing participant.
Update (12/15/09): This post is now getting comments like this:
they call me they are so good ppl they give me my vication package its not a scam so dont worry its all rumors so guys dont worry u are in save hands
Which I promptly delete because the IP address comes from an ISP in Karachi, Pakistan.
Update (03/29/10): Someone with the user name Slobodyan posted a complaint about this website suggesting that I am “messing up [his] business name” and that Slobodyan is going to take “legal action”. I found out about this as Slobodyan then posted a link to the complaint as a comment to this post.
My response to Slobodyan: I won’t approve your comments when the website linked (rundi-ka-bacha.com) to your comment doesn’t exist. I’m not sure how you’re connected to Master Resorts, but its clear, based on the comments of others on this site, that people are being contacted with their VISA card numbers and personal information that they did not disclose. This strikes me, if somehow legal, as a very poor way to conduct business. If you are not connected to Master Resorts, then I would like to know how this post messes up your business’ name?
- Jack, after I updated my status on Facebook suggested that they were offering a trip to Club Fraud in the Greater Scamtillies—those puns are too good not to go unmentioned [↩]
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20 Responses to I just won a free vacation!
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“Mr Wilson” just called me here in Canada. My concern is he asked for me by name. Of course the guy I talked to had an East Indian accent so thick you could cut butter with it, making his alias sound ridiculous. I didn’t hang around on the line very long, just enough to get the Master Resorts name from him, and he claimed to be calling from the Falkland Islands (the connection was weird enough that this could have been the case). My patience wasn’t as good as yours – plus the guy called early on a Saturday morning and got me out of bed – so after a few minutes I politely asked him to f-k himself at which point the call went dead (had I been more aware I might have gone into a rather disturbing series of comments I tend to make when live telemarketers call me). I’m on the Canadian Do Not Call Registry too, which is a joke because it applies to only Canadian-registered companies. Doesn’t matter anyway, as Star-69 failed to reveal the number and even the operator couldn’t figure out where it came from and she recommended I check my bill to make sure I didn’t get hit with the reverse-billing scam that occasionally happens with these types of calls.
Excellent detective work on tracking down these jokers. I can’t believe there are people falling for this nonsense, but they wouldn’t make the calls if there weren’t enough suckers. Barely a week goes by that the King of Sierra Leone isn’t sending me personal pleas for help. I feel so privleged, though they’d have better luck if they signed the letters “Angelina Jolie” instead.
Now that you mention it, I think he asked for me by name too. Or at lest last name. I’m sure its as easy as looking it up at an on-line phone book.
I just got the same phonecall from “Jeff Lawson”. Also, extremely difficult to understand. The supervisor asked for my expiry date on my visa. I said I was not comfortable giving that information out when I hadn’t checked out the validity of their company. He said visa is too busy to do this type of work themselves, so outsources it to “Master Resorts”. Upon looking at “Master Resorts” website, I noticed a reference to “onceinalifetimegetaway.com” in the “terms & conditions” section under “copyright”. There is alot of information about people getting scammed from this company as it appeared to happen about 1 year ago. Very similar “you won a vacation” story as Master Resorts. Hope people read this before parting with their money!
I knew this was tooo good to be true… with me they had my name, card no.. etc.. I was just asked to varify that they had the right no..
I told them I didn’t like doing this over the phone, and a, they could send me the information asap.. or b.. I would call them back.. after hanging up and having them call me straight back.. with all the info that I wasn’t willing to give them over the phone.. my card no.. expirey date, address, full name etc.. I thought yes maybe they are right..
and this is ligit.. I did inform them that I work with the RCMP, they didn’t need to know that I am only a volunteer… and that once I got all the paper work I would decide, where and when I wanted to take this trip… and that nothing can be charged to my visa.. until I have decided on where and when I will be travelling.. then i decided once I woke up.. to check this out on line, after all.. things that are to true to believe.. usually are.. the worst part is Visa advertises over Xmas that people are eligible to win a free vacation… for using their cards over the xmas period..
i guess my next step is to call Visa.. and have them cancel my card and issue a new one.. and that this is going on.
and i will be giving all the info to the RCMP when I am in the office on Thursday..
Thanks VH
These guys are working the UK as well.. I was called by a guy calling himself Sean Marsh and got a similar story to the previous posters – free holiday for being a loyal “Master and Visa Card” customer. I was interested to see how much of my data he had so kept him on the line a while. He clearly had my full name, address and telephone number because I deliberately gave him slightly incorrect details & he kept correcting me.
We got to a bit on an impasse when he insisted that I give him the name of my card issuer or at least the expiry date – neither of which I would give him. I ended up telling him that if his name really was “Sean”, with the incredibly thick Indian accent he had, then I was the Pope & he could p***-off.
I’m going to contact my credit card company just to make sure I’m covered.
Hope no one falls for these guys’ scam
BB
Same phone call a few minutes ago, but the guy hung up after I asked incredulously: “You have access to my credit card statements?”. Advised both my credit card companies, one of which said they were aware of the scam, They also put me in touch with Phone Busters Canada at 1-888-495-8501 or http://www.recol.ca. They said they’d had 4 other sismilar complaints.
Add me to the list. I just received the very same call with same details. This time it was a John Anderson at first and then another guy I don’t remember the name.
He had my name, my adress, the only thing missing was my credit card. He also had no luck with me. I am a sceptic type of guy and although I am ok in english, I am french speaking living in the only one french-canadian province, Québec. So when I received this strange call with a weak sound on the line and an accent that is definitly not from an english native speaking person, I knew from the start it was a scam. So I played the game and did a search on the internet while speaking with him. I found this site when he was asking me “do you remember the expiration date of your credit card?”.
I said “hold on, I am going to find it” and I took the time to read everything. The poor guy waited the whole time and I could hear “hello?” every 10 seconds for 2 minutes. Then I said, “well, I found on the internet that several people received the very same phone call refering to the same resort, same phone number and it is a scam. This is not helping me to remember my expiration date.” :)
He had the nerve to tell me that he doesn’t know why people like you are saying bad things like this bla bla bla and if he was a scammer, he would have hung up and he is still on the line with me. “so, do you remember your credit card expiration date?”. I replied “hmmmNo! I think that if it would be a scam, you would still be on the line asking me my CC expiration date like you are actually doing.”
he said “ok sir, should I hang up or what?” and I replied while laughing “it’s your call!” and he hung up. :)
Thanks for the comment Benoit. They must get enough people falling for the scam to keep going.
I just got the very same phone call! John Anderson (a so English name with an impossible accent!). When it came up to my credit expiration, I told him I was not comfortable to give him and just hung up… I am participating in a lot of contests so for a moment, he nearly got me! I really believed I won something. When it seems to good to be true, it is!
my dad just received the same call !!!! Ashley Roberts …when my dad told her he wasnt comfortable giving her his visa card infos another person took the phone and gave my dad a number in case they got disconnect 1800 503 895 5755..my dad hang up the phone and called his bank and visa..
I just got the same call from Ashley Roberts and they had all my info never asked for the number just the expiry date, they had my address and everything . I told the guy from shipping that there was a web site dealing with their scam. He said he would check that right away and call me back. I’m still waiting lol . Also live in Quebec and his accent was not from this area.
Guess it’s time to call Visa.
Just received a call from some peter Sloan and i stupidly gave my all info of my cc to him,after some moment i realized that wht the F*** i did, and by then that he had charged me 650US$ ..
Is there anybuddy who can help me to get my money back:( ?
I would suggest getting in touch with your credit card provider as soon as possible.
they just simply cancel my card and issued me a new one,
and they didnt do anything else for that.
I got the call yesterday, very interesting, considering my sister-in-law and myself went to a presentation last year to hear about travel and trips. The company had a different name then but I can’t remember what it was. We knew it was probably a time-share thing, but went anyway because we wanted the free meal. When we refused to make a decision at that time, we were almost held prisoner by about 5 of the staff who tried to persuade us, even though we had clearly said NO numerous times. So when they called yesterday, I strung along for a while, then said I’d call back if and when I decided anything, which will be when hell freezes over!
Hiya good folks! I just recieved a call from a lady named “Mesy” from Master Resorts telling me how I had won a free vacation package! hoorah! she almost got me with my own greedy nature and I did confirm to her the spelling of my name and also my address… but when I dished that I don’t own a credit card, and never have, she became quite annoyed with me :) …furthermore, when I pointed out that her call was probably a scam she became infuriated and tried to tell me how it is… I became infuriated in return and then told her how IT REALLY IS! She hung up after only a few moments of my hate filled screaming. :) thanks for the info! carry on the good work.
There is a simple solution to any phone call awarding a free trip.NEVER GIVE OUT ANY CREDIT CARD INFO OVER THE PHONE! IF you have won a trip why would they need your credit card numbers Hmmmm?Was just called by the same number and they tried hard to get the expiry date and the 7 numbers on the back of my card.HA good luck.
Do you really think we can save the whole of Canada and God alone knows where else their doin this.. i got the call and was charged some 500 and somewhat US $.. im still waiting the so called Vacation package which still has not arrived and im starting to think iv been booked by these people… !! what can be done at this point!?!?!?
Ha just had the same call but googled his phone number while talking to him and took me straight to this website, told him i googled it and its bs which is when he hung up the phone.
They exact same thing happend to me. I spoke with Daniel Smith. They now have the number 1800 516 2354 his I’d number is A42110. His obvious middle eastern accent was the biggest obvious clue. He had my address but the last two numbers of my postal code were incorrect. He really tried to sell me. I had. Won a 6 day 4 night stay in florida directly followed by a stay in daytona beach and fort lauterdale. I was skeptical to say the least. He kept telling me it was ok. He then informed me that I would be receiving a letter by courier in the mail that I would not only have to sign for but I would need to show I’d also. Once I did that they would send me all my tickets but I had to redeem my travel rewards points first. I do not have reward points with my credit card I do not even have a master card. Well I have one but it just has my name on it. It is my husbands card I just can spend I can not make any kind of changes or anything to it. So it would be impossible to even redeem the fake points he is talking about!! Lol.