VANCOUVER: BBB Scam Watch is a monthly summary of some of the scams that cross our desks, current as of January 31, 2008.
“We live in a fast-paced world where fraud is always quickly adapting,” says Lynda Pasacreta, BBB President and CEO. “Your BBB would like to let people know about scams as they happen. That is why we have started Scam Watch.”
Dial ‘9’ scam back. A 95-year-old consumer from Vernon reported that a company called Vacation Promotions had contacted her offering a Caribbean cruise for $500. The consumer was asked to give out her credit card number and to dial ‘9.’ The consumer refused to give the credit card number but she did press ‘9’ which can confirm the person’s address. In other dial ‘9’ scams, if a call comes into a business with a commercial switchboard requiring employees to dial ‘9’ to gain an outside line, going along with the request would give the caller an outside line they can use to make an expensive overseas phone call.
Ramada Plaza Resorts caused some major concerns in their promotion giving away a supposedly “free” cruise to the Bahamas. Consumers who had given out their credit card information at a recent wedding show in Vancouver reported to be getting billed several hundred dollars to participate in the promotion. In the end this was not a free trip, but a time-share sale. The company did provide the consumers the opportunity to back-out of the deal within a ten-day timeframe. Ramada Plaza Resorts also does business as Imperial Majesty Cruiselines and National Travel Services and has the lowest BBB rating.
Phone Scam targets Chinese community. Last month the BBB received calls from the public about an apparent telephone scam. Calls have all been of a similar nature, targeting Cantonese or Mandarin speaking people. To date, we are not aware of any victims who have lost any money or given any personal information to the caller.
The following is what the typical calls entail:
1. The caller advises the recipient that they have won a cash prize and that they have to send money to Hong Kong in order to receive their winnings.
2. The caller is usually a female who only speaks Mandarin or Cantonese and does not speak English. The caller has claimed that they are with a Hong Kong-based company.
3. One complainant was told to go to the Vancouver Trade Center to receive the prize.
4. The caller asks for personal information.
5. Complainants have been given phone number 85230772831 and a website address of www.hdfhk.com
Members of the public should be very wary of any calls they receive, where the caller is saying that they have won prizes or money. Please do not make arrangements to send any money, to meet with the caller or provide any personal information.
International work-at-home scheme. A supposed Thailand-based noodle manufacturing company called Wan Thai Foods Industry Co, Ltd. has been circulating emails offering employment to work from home helping to coordinate payments from customers and help the company with the payment process.
The ad promises a base salary of $60000 USD. The company needs help with the payment processing because it says: “About 90 percent of our customers prefer to pay through certified cheques and money orders based on the amount involved. We have decided to open this new job position for solving this problem.”
The obvious red flag with this employment scheme is that the company expects the job applicant to cash the company’s customer payments using their personal bank account, offering 10 percent of the payment processed. The idea here is to cash a bogus cheques/money orders and then wire the payment through Money Gram or Western Union Money Transfer to the company, leaving the job applicant owing the full balance to their bank after the original cheque bounces.
To learn more about scams like these, join us in Surrey this spring for Scam Jam the BBB’s largest consumer protection event.