OnceInaLifetimeHoliday.com-Scam?? Please help!

by **Moot** on Tue Jun 10, 2008 9:03 pm

My husband paid �300 for accomodation in Orlando with this firm after they cold-called us at home. We have got some paperwork off them, but it's all very general, no receipt or acknowledgement of payment, and not even our names on it - just general "bumf".
The website looks slick but has no prices or concrete information on it - alarm bells are well and truly ringing!Before we even think of booking flights, with our two small children, I just wondered what those more experienced thought, and if anyone has had dealings with these people?
Thanks
Mot

by **KimTony** on Thu Jul 03, 2008 9:54 am

Earlier this week, my mother received a call from Jimmy at Resort vacations, stating that she had won (implies no money should exchange hands) a fortnight holiday to Orlando, Florida and included was a 3 day cruise to the Bahamas and a $1500 Reward voucher. My mom was unstandably sceptical, so asked them to ring me on my number, I asked them, to explain all about the offer... he went onto say that as the manager, he could spend a vast amount of time on the phone. I asked him how he had obtained my mother's details and he said that ,my mom had stayed at a resort in Florida (which she had!!!) and they were looking to fill their hotels, by offering some vacation packages, which if you had a nice time, you would tell your friends and others about (sounded too good to be true and at the end of the day, it is still cold calling. The person I spoke to sounded american, as opposed to Indian but what really got up my nose, is that he tricked my mother into giving him her card details, even though had a small amount of money on it, as i said we would think about it, but in the meantime, had phoned my mother and said that it was a good offer and I said to give her details. When i spoke to my mother, I said it sounded too good to be true, as originally he said �498 for four including flights; when stated that don't get paid until the end of the month, so don't have those funds available, miraculously dropped price to �298 for 4 people. flights and accomodation. Anyway, called twice that same evening, to which ignored the calls and then yesterday(02/07), someone else called, before being handed back to Jimmy, who then offered the same holiday for �198. I contacted my brother who is a computer geek and he checked a nuber of websites and looked at the websites and came to the conclusion it is a scam, at the same time, had to get my mom to cancel her card, just in case, trying to get money out of her.

It sounds really appealing, but like many people, i'm reluctant to give card details to a complete stranger...i've booked holiday online, but with a secure server and with an ATOL/ ABTA number.
Caller: Resort Vacations (www.onceinalifetimeholiday.com)
Linked to: www.realtytravelnetwork.com

by **Nally** on Sun Jul 06, 2008 7:57 pm

We got phoned by the company onceinalifetimeholiday.com too. It all sounded great.
My mum spoke to Jason, and he offered us:
5day's/4night's in Orlando with free car hire; a 2 day mini getaway to where ever we wanted; then a 3 day 2 night cruise to somewhere else, with one full day ashore.
All this for �298 for 4 people, not including flights.
All we had to do was attend a 60 minute meeting about the centre and timeshares, but we didn't have to go if we didn't want to.
All sound too good to be true?
It is.
Without checking with reviewers first, my mum phoned back and gave her card details. After a few days, she was getting a little worried when she had received no email conformation whatsoever.
As a result of this, I checked on the internet to see what I could find out about the company. That was when I discovered this.
I told my mum, who came and looked, then phoned up her card company to cancel her card. She was told on the phone that the fraud team were already on it, and they were sending us a letter, and had been trying to phone us all week.
Not just one amount of �298 had been taken, but 2 lots. One from a name the man from the bank couldn't even pronounce, and the otehr from a paypal account.
So yes, it is a scam. Do not give them your details!

Just warning you...
Natalie.

by **HW tenpin** on Sun Jul 06, 2008 10:16 pm

Hi all,

Do be careful about all these scams from the US, whoever they call themselves it is always a week in Orlando and some sort of short cruise out out Ft Lauderdale.

Just look in weekend papers or Virgin holidays for safer deals.

HW Moderator

by **HW Jan.C** on Mon Jul 07, 2008 3:20 pm

Nally
I deal with paypal all the time for my business, and they could not have just taken money from your mums paypal account, it HAS to be sent to their email address. From years of using paypal I know the system inside out.The only way it can happen is IF your Mum gave them all her access details including login and password.
All transactions are sent to you by email confirmation as well.
Jan

by **Nally** on Tue Jul 08, 2008 6:48 pm

My mum doesn't actually have a paypal account, that's just what the guy (from the bank) on the phone said...
Not really sure of the details, but I do know that it wasn't what they told us it was, and they took way more money than they should have.

by **pink-ice-cream** on Fri Jul 11, 2008 11:36 am

i just received a call about 5 mins ago about a 'free holiday to cancun and orlando florida' bla bla.... i was suspicios right from the start i didnt understand that they needed my card details and that as soon as i gave them my credit card details my free holiday confirmation number would be posted out to be and all the details of the scam...

i just kept playing along with 'reynalds' bulls--t!!

hes gonna call me back later to get my credit card details when my boyfriend gets back from work, i would just love to be able to see the scammers face when my boyfriend is finished with them

how can these people get away with this, when theres genuine people actually thinking they've won a holiday and giving there details away over the phone??

by **Nally** on Sun Jul 13, 2008 4:54 pm

We actually recieved some paperwork from onceinalifetimeholiday.com yesterday, which suprised us quite a lot... although we have already cancelled the card as we didn't trust them.

We were told it was a scam, and so we are not going to follow through with it. Also, the details that the paperwork includes are different to what we were offered on the phone, yet another reason we have decided not to follow it through.
Extra bits and pieces we would have to pay for have been slipped in, and it states that we must attend a 90 minute meeting while there, although we were told it was 60 minutes and we wouldn't have to go.

Overall, we're still very unsure about the company.

by **Lonny** on Thu Jul 17, 2008 9:38 am

I have also been cold called by this company - same pattern as everyone else: I've won a holiday for four but will need to pay �397 via my mastercard. They said that they had got my details from my card. I am very suspicious - something that seems too good to be true usually is. I have spoken to my card's fraud team who alerted me that there was unusual activity on my card. So far no payment has gone through and I am waiting for the company to send me information.

I have never given card details or signed up to anything from a cold call before but the holiday sounds lovely and I could never afford a holiday like this so I got sucked in.

I am hoping they are selling timeshares (as we can ignore that) and that is what this is really about but it may well be a money scam.

The website is peculiar as it is like no other holiday website - all it does is give info on the places the company says they deal with - no real info on the company, the page for package deals does not exist and no facilities for booking/choosing holidays.

A more disturbing feature of this is that as my call ended the man speaking to me was saying things like 'have a nice day ma'am', 'you take care' etc and in the background I heard a number of men burst out laughing.

by **Fred 2** on Thu Jul 17, 2008 1:50 pm

The UK phone number on the site comes up on a UK nuisance call/ marketing call warning web site. In this case it was connected with www.resortvacationsvip.com

This site is registered to Qualycon and the personal name on the registration is the same as that on Onceinalifetimeholiday.com's registration.

The contents of the sites is more or less meaningless and just there as an attractive come-on.

It is a fly/ buy company. The name Qualycon was associated with some serious holiday club frauds a few years ago and even merited a mention in Hansard.

Should be avoided at all costs.