Received notice of complimentary cruise

[SpringBreakMom]

I just received this today, lol! Sounds like a scam to me. If it's too good to be true, it probably is.

I got a Complimentary 8 day cruise on Carnival.

It says "Dear ------, In celebration of our Grand Opening in your area, You have been selected to receive a Complimentary 8 day/7 day Night cruise for 2 with an outside cabin, leaving from any major port in the US.

Call within 48 hours. You will also receive a bonus:

2 Roundtrip airfares leaving from or going to any majors airport in the Continental U.S.!"

Our ports of call are Charleston, SC, Jacksonville, FL, and Freeport, Bahamas.

It says in very fine print "Certain restrictions may apply. Call for details of participation. *This promotion is not sponsored by or affiliated with Carnival Cruise Lines, but they are a major supplier. Ninety minute travel presentation required. Recipient is responsible for any applicable deposits, port charges, taxes, and/or fees."

 

Tee Hee! They must send them out be region. We live in the same area and got exactly the same card today. Thanks, but no thanks.

 

Karen

[kroozers]

Make the call and inquire.... if it is not appealing.... hang up !

 

Why so many think to toss w/out even inquiring amazes me !

 

Think about it...why would anyone give away a free cruise??? Any company or organization needs to get some return on any giveaway or discount. They would promote the heck out of it, sell you something that will pay for the freebie (buy a Porsche and get a cruise), get a ton of exposure generating a loads of interest(think full page newspaper ads with a huge logo) to get their name in front of thousands of people...getting the picture?? What they wouldn't do is quietly send a nondescript postcard with no return address or even the name of the sender. So they foot a $2000 bill and get nothing out of it.

 

How people can be so gullible amazes me. Think people!!

[CruiseAwayWithMe]

Tee Hee! They must send them out be region. We live in the same area and got exactly the same card today. Thanks, but no thanks.

 

Karen

Oh really? They must be targeting Michigan now, lol. Do you think anyone falls for something like this?

[mumofsons]

We actually got one of these a couple of weeks ago and so did a friend of mine at work - she went to the presentation and reported back to me so DH and I did go and see the presentation. It was for a Vacation club which quoted a bunch of "discount" prices on vacations. When my friend went it was $12,000 one time fee for the right to book these cheep vacations. When DH and I went it was only $7000 - I don't know if they look at the people and decide what price to use. Before the presentation even started they said if you are just here for the free cruise let us sign your paperwork and you can leave - we sat through it since I quess we didn't have anything better to do. So at the end they give you a certificate - go to the internet website and register and send a self adressed stamped envelope and then they send you the details. I knew going in that we would be expected to pay port charges and taxes. So no money was initally sent nor did they write down our credit card - the girl just checked to see if we had one.

I know that you can't get something for nothing but hey it only cost us 90- minutes and a little bit of irritation. Maybe I am an optimist. I can still say no since we were not required to pay anything up front.

[firefly333]

Make the call and inquire.... if it is not appealing.... hang up !

 

Why so many think to toss w/out even inquiring amazes me !

 

I would think a travel agent would know there are no free cruises sent out thru the mail to people who are not even cruisers .. the folks posting just so happen to know cruise crutic... they sent these out by the millions.

[firefly333]

We actually got one of these a couple of weeks ago and so did a friend of mine at work - she went to the presentation and reported back to me so DH and I did go and see the presentation. It was for a Vacation club which quoted a bunch of "discount" prices on vacations. When my friend went it was $12,000 one time fee for the right to book these cheep vacations. When DH and I went it was only $7000 - I don't know if they look at the people and decide what price to use. Before the presentation even started they said if you are just here for the free cruise let us sign your paperwork and you can leave - we sat through it since I quess we didn't have anything better to do. So at the end they give you a certificate - go to the internet website and register and send a self adressed stamped envelope and then they send you the details. I knew going in that we would be expected to pay port charges and taxes. So no money was initally sent nor did they write down our credit card - the girl just checked to see if we had one.

I know that you can't get something for nothing but hey it only cost us 90- minutes and a little bit of irritation. Maybe I am an optimist. I can still say no since we were not required to pay anything up front.

 

iv posted what I went thru on a dozen of these threads.

 

took a year and opened dispute thru BBB when they tried to bait and switch to miami. I did a 4 day, had the choice of a 4 day or a 7 day.

 

the FEES can be anything they want to throw in.

 

My free 4 days was $358 and they gave me a storage room that was so noisey, didnt know any such cabin existed. No wonder its steward storage usually.

 

do it .. you can get better cruises cheaper .. or so Iv found.

[kris12]

I have a special file for these types of "offers", ya the stuff I put in there tends to get somewhat shredded but I know where it is if I need it :rolleyes:

[dustyroad]

i got THE letter today from avc travel saying i had entered the instant gold giveaway ( which i know i didnt ) and i have won a new mercedes benz, bmw or porshche, a $1500 shopping spree, a 5 day/4 night exotric island adventure or $500 cash. enclosed are boarding vouchers to sail on rcl, carnival or princess to the bahamas or the mexican riviera for 2. just call the 800 number too set it up. of course i have not or will not call this number. SCAM, SCAM , SCAM.

 

of course the airline passenger and baggage check ticket for the shopping spree (i am guessing), has 2 destinations- las vegas or orlando and the departure airport is tbd ( to be determined ).

 

the cruise voucher is for a 4 day caribbean/mexican riviera cruise on one of the 3 cruiselines ( yet too be announced ) with a departure port of miami or galveston. and the lady too get in touch with is susan murray who has been mentioned online in this scam. there are so many inconsistancies in this letter it makes it very obvious what this thing really is.

 

heck yes i need a free vacation but this thing is going too add some fuel too my burn barrel. i know this is all a scam. but it sure made me tell myself i really need too book a real cruise with a legit company soon.

 

beware all. this thing looks reall and i hope no-one gets caught up in it.

[firefly333]

Oh really? They must be targeting Michigan now, lol. Do you think anyone falls for something like this?

 

I was playing bridge yesterday and a man was asking me about the free 8 days cruise and airfare a friend of theirs got. I was like opps. she already sent in the money and was thinking of adding 3 more to her cabin.

[golfadj]

Oh really? They must be targeting Michigan now, lol. Do you think anyone falls for something like this?

 

Unfortunately they must find fools on a regular basis or would not continue to spend lots of money on postage.

[dustyroad]

I was playing bridge yesterday and a man was asking me about the free 8 days cruise and airfare a friend of theirs got. I was like opps. she already sent in the money and was thinking of adding 3 more to her cabin.

 

i hope she can stop payment on the money. i feel sorry for her if she is stuck. this scam is not just targeting the old, but the young people as well. what a dispicible way too make a living. some people like these scammers have no morals.

[RjayB]

The "postcard" scam has already triggered at least one state investigation. There was a link to the story a while back, can't find it now. If you give them any money, you probably will not ever see it again.

 

As long as people keep falling for these scams, the offers to donate your money to them will not go away. :cool:

[BillOh]

A postcard just came in the mail today with Carnival name and logo and then in the tiniest print possible, says it is not affiliated with Carnival. Wonder why Carnival tolerates this? I tried the reverse phone number but couldn't find anything "free". But it is going in the trash.

 

Its more than a year later and this is still going on, To answer, or more correctly to offer my opinion on why Carnival tolerates this, I suspect they don't, but finding out who the company is, has probably been as difficult for Carnival as it has been for us. So many people have chimed in with opinions with no actual clue, even if they are right.

[BillOh]

If it has a phone number, go to this site. It will tell you where the phone number is.

 

http://www.ussearch.com/consumer/index.do?adID=026-0000000156&adsource=26&TID=4&searchtab=phone&sourceid=10|77|216|1|phone%20number%20lookup|270673317|a|e|phone%20number%20lookup

 

FOR A FEE- Googling the number gives a lot of these type sites, they seem just a smaller scam than this postcard ;)

[BillOh]

thats what they were selling for mine too, a travel club .. as they promised not a timeshare, that is old hat :D

 

Mine probably was about 60%, but they said it also covers admin fees.

 

Care to identify the travel club's name or info? (knowing I am responding to an old message)

[BillOh]

I just received this today, lol! Sounds like a scam to me. If it's too good to be true, it probably is.

I got a Complimentary 8 day cruise on Carnival.

It says "Dear ------, In celebration of our Grand Opening in your area, You have been selected to receive a Complimentary 8 day/7 day Night cruise for 2 with an outside cabin, leaving from any major port in the US.

Call within 48 hours. You will also receive a bonus:

2 Roundtrip airfares leaving from or going to any majors airport in the Continental U.S.!"

Our ports of call are Charleston, SC, Jacksonville, FL, and Freeport, Bahamas.

It says in very fine print "Certain restrictions may apply. Call for details of participation. *This promotion is not sponsored by or affiliated with Carnival Cruise Lines, but they are a major supplier. Ninety minute travel presentation required. Recipient is responsible for any applicable deposits, port charges, taxes, and/or fees."

 

I guess I will throw it away or show it to a few people for a laugh. Do people really fall for this?!

 

 

Your card seems to be the exact one I just got, but you got me looking closer to the fine print and I did find Mai Tai Vacations. Off to google that!

 

FYI, my quick research says this company is well aware of tactics such as google or the BBB to research them and they are one step ahead of the game. They appear to change numbers fast enough that the one they currently used has no bad references and they actually create their own BBB page with each number and use it as long as there are no complaints against that number.

 

Ok, done with this thread now. Its been fun.

[dustyroad]

gee, i must be special ;). i actually got a real letter in a envelope ( no puny postcard for me ) with the flight and cruise vouchers in it. i mean how much more important can i be :rolleyes:. it went in the burn barrel. if i want a free cruise i will call a cruise site and find out if i won a contest i entered through them.

 

this subject is as annoying as the booze smuggling. i just read the post too see if anyone is actually dumb enough too think this is for real. hey, its free entertainment :rolleyes:.

[Scambuster]

I got the same postcard today (Sept 16, 2011). I know nobody just sends a free 7 day cruise and two airline tickets out of the blue. I called the toll free number and he started asking my married status and If I had a combined income of over 60K. He told me that it was a promotion. I stated that Complementry to me meant free and he said no no. I then reviled that I knew it was a scam and he hung up. Beware Card Services or Account Services. They are also Class A scammers.

[cruise77]

Toss it, it will cost you. Discovery Cruise line

[dustyroad]

yep, total scam .