Don’t Let Scam Artists Ruin Your Next Vacation

The fight is on against a second generation of travel scam artists bilking the public out of millions of dollars a year.

This new breed--battered and sometimes chastened by authorities, but never totally defeated--has begun to polish its act. Not in the hope of becoming more legitimate; but rather, in hopes of becoming more profitable and less vulnerable to detection.

Whereas before you might have been called at home by somebody offering you an unbelievable travel bargain if you gave them your credit card number, now you’re liable to be offered, for $10,000 or $15,000, a distributorship.

It’s true. Some of these travel bandits have started offering “exclusive” geographic areas for anybody who wants to be the sole distributor of the “product.”

Of course, there is no product, just as there rarely is one of those “fabulous free vacations” that are frequently offered. What’s more, the exclusive rights will be sold dozens--maybe hundreds--of times in the same area.

Investor Rip-off

But the luckless investor, our would-be entrepreneur, doesn’t know that. Instead of ripping off a large number of consumers for small amounts, scam artists are now ripping off smaller numbers of consumers for large amounts. There is apparently no limit to the brazenness, or inventiveness, of some of these characters.

Take the case of the phony travel club that was under investigation in Florida. Somebody in the attorney general’s office there wrote to the company asking for information.

The letter later appeared in the promotional literature sent out by the company . . . with an accompanying note that while there were phony travel clubs out there, the attorney general didn’t think this was one of them and here was the letter to prove it.

Fact was, of course, the attorney general did think it was one of them. But the company wasn’t under indictment at the time, and the letter did not state the official view clearly.

Then there arose the question of how to circumvent mail-fraud rules. Scamsters found that they were putting themselves in double jeopardy when soliciting by telephone or post card, then collecting money through the mails. Use of the mail system in the furtherance of a fraudulent scheme brings into the equation another band of law enforcement--U.S. Postal Inspectors.

So who wants to fight them as well as police and the attorney general? Now some of these crooks will pay for Federal Express delivery service, or even send a courier around to your home to pick up the payment.

Of course, often you don’t need to send money. These people take credit cards.

One common approach by bogus travel operators is to take your credit card number over the phone and tell you to choose three dates on which you can travel. They apparently intend to find space for you on one of those dates.

But they can’t seem to book your date within the 60 days after the contact. Why? They’ll tell you it’s because of the availability of flights, and the time it takes them to process your request and so on.

The real reason is that within the 60 days, your credit card charge will have been submitted to Visa or MasterCard or whoever, and the money remitted to the so-called travel organizer. By that time, of course, it is more complicated for the consumer to go back to the credit card company for some kind of relief, rather than simply stopping payment, which is easier in the days immediately after a purchase.

All of the major credit card firms are aware of the problem and are sympathetic to those who get caught in the trap. Their security departments are working with state and federal authorities to find a solution.

Travel scams are not going away. Especially when conducted by phone, they have become an “in” crime.

Representatives of the attorney general’s office of California, Florida and Kansas, along with the Federal Trade Commission, U.S. Secret Service and U.S. Postal Service, MasterCard and Visa, and the Council of Better Business Bureaus met in Los Angeles recently to discuss their mutual problems.

The meeting was sponsored by the American Society of Travel Agents, a large trade group with a special stake in the activities, telemarketing or otherwise, of travel scamsters.

For one thing, a consumer who spends several hundred dollars on a travel bargain that doesn’t exist may not have money enough to buy a real vacation from a legitimate travel agent. Result? ASTA members lose potential sales.

Then, too, those involved in phony travel schemes are frequently lumped together under the generic label of travel agents. They are not.

A Concern to ASTA

Tarring the bandits and legitimate travel agents with the same brush is what concerns ASTA. It doesn’t do much for the public image of an industry that processes two-thirds of all airline tickets and more than 90% of all cruise sales in the nation.

To help prevent rip-offs, and consequently to lessen this erosion of public confidence in the business and in its skilled professionals, ASTA has prepared a booklet entitled “Avoiding Travel Problems.” It contains several tips on how to evaluate travel offers.

For example, are you being asked to make an instant decision to buy? Is the company willing to specify in writing exactly what the price is and what the price includes? Will it give you the name of the airline up front? The hotel?

Does the price seem unreasonably low by comparison with others? Does the operator seem to know anything about the destination? Weather? Shopping? History?

The answers to these and other questions could act as a red flag to a wary consumer. ASTA hopes so.

Information Available

For more information, write to the ASTA at 4420 Hotel Circle Court, Suite 230, San Diego, Calif. 92108, phone (619) 298-5053. To obtain a copy of “Avoiding Travel Problems,” write to P.O. Box 23992, Washington, D.C. 20026-3992.

The Federal Trade Commission, in cooperation with ASTA, has produced a publication specifically aimed at travel scams, “Telemarketing Travel Fraud.”

Watch out for high-pressure sales tactics, it advises. Do not give your credit card number over the phone. Do not send money by courier or overnight mail. If you send money in that manner, you lose your right to dispute fraudulent charges under the Fair Credit Billing Act.

The local FTC office is at 11000 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles 90024, phone (213) 209-7575. Mark your inquiry: Bureau of Consumer Protection.

A third piece of literature that might help the unsuspecting consumer is “Have You Won a Vacation?”, offered by the Council of Better Business Bureaus. It deals with what are known as vacation certificates, a sometimes-legitimate but much-abused device used by companies (auto dealers, for example) to draw customers into their showrooms.

The Council of Better Business Bureaus is at 1515 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, Va. 22209.

Computer Steps In

Last week, 20 states including California began participating in a pilot program in which each will feed all of its travel fraud complaints into a central computer. By this rare example of interstate cooperation, law enforcement organizations hope to detect scam artists before they can do a lot of damage.

The 20-state program is being operated by NAAG (National Assn. of Attorneys General). Initially, consumers must send a letter to their local attorney general’s offices, from where it will be plugged into the computer.

But the demise of the travel scamsters must start with the consumer, the first time the telephone rings with the news of some fabulous offering. Only when the public starts to react with a healthy dose of skepticism will the situation begin to change.

Remember: These bandits must hit and run . . . fast. They can’t afford to stand around waiting for somebody to catch up with them.

By contrast, a legitimate operator is under no real pressure to force you to make an instant decision. Take your time. Ask for something in writing. Check out the company. You owe it to yourself.