Victim Location 33905
Total money lost $996
Type of a scam Travel/Vacations
I received a fax at work offering various travel package promotions. I called the number and Nicholas Nolan sold me a 2 night stay in San Diego airfare included for 5 travelers at $249/person . I was told that once the money cleared my checking account I would be sent instructions to mail a money order for the booking fees which were $69/person. (After that I would only owe the taxes which were $48 per person.
Once that cleared I got an email from farewell travel/A1 Consultants asking me to activate my certificates by mailing money order of $69/person booking fees to True Marketing
550 Maxey Road #24068
Houston, TX 77013.
Once they received my money order I was emailed a form to complete to provide the names of my passengers and other travel details. They were then going to work up a "quote" which was only supposed to be for the taxes I owed and any applicable surcharges. Once I accepted the quote they were going to email me my travel confirmations and airline tickets. What I got was a very unprofessional and odd email with screenshots of a United Airlines flight time and date and then it listed the hotel I requested. The quote they gave me was for $3,090.62 which it said included what I already paid. I wrote back asking what they were talking about because I already paid for the packages all I was supposed to pay for was taxes of $48/person. They said they know nothing about the package that I bought and to contact customer service. Customer Service stopped answering their phone or email. Every reply I sent afterward the person was rude and said there was nothing they could do. I looked up flights the same dates and United Airlines and it came up to $1709 including tax and then I looked at the same Hilton for the same dates and it was $996 for 2 rooms, 2 nights…. exactly the same thing they were giving me but for much less – $1992.00 – not to mention that I already paid them $985, so in the end they would be asking me for almost $4000!! This is an elaborate scam. I tried calling the sales agent again and they lied about my agent being there when they thought it was me, but when I called back as someone looking to buy they put me through, until he answered then he put me on hold and a different lady picked up. I asked what’s going on and she said Nicholas is in sales that she was the manager, Maria Gonzalez but when I told her my issue she said she’s not in Complaint Dept and someone would call me back which of course no one did. There appear to be 3 different companies involved in the process, and each one shifts blame to the other. I now believe this is intentional. But my husband looked them up and we found that every website of theirs is exactly the same, even the logo, just a different company name and URL. We made a complaint with the FTC and the fraud division at my bank, but they said they wouldn’t be able to do anything about the money order and can only open a case over the initial EFT from my checking account. Results from that are still pending investigation.