This evening I was contentedly lounging on the couch working on an assignment when I received a phone call. It was a woman from a company (Universal America) telling me that I had won an online contest. I entered this contest last week on the spur of the moment - never in a million years did I think I would win anything. Then I promptly forgot about it. So, this woman comes on the phone and is telling me all about this amazing trip I won. 7 days and 6 nights in Orlando with a rental car and a 7 day pass to Universal Studios for 2 people, plus 4 days and 3 nights in a beach resort in Daytona including a Sun Casino dinner cruise. All this just for the registration fee of $249 per person. Plus 2 more people could join us free of charge. The trip has to be taken within 12 months, but they will extend that time period if needed. All they ask is for 30 days notice of when we want to take it.
I was thinking who wouldn't love a trip to Florida, but I told the woman on the phone "this sounds just too good to be true. What's the catch?" "Oh, no catch" she says. The next thing I know she says "I am going to hand you over to someone from shipping to confirm your address and give you a confirmation number."
So, on comes this other woman and proceeds to reiterate the entire package. She then gets to the point of "we have connections with Visa and Mastercard, so with the birthdate you provided and your address the Visa card number I'm showing is..."
Right away I said "stop! I don't want you charging anything to my Visa until I've seen some proof of this other than just a phone call."
Response: "Well, you use a credit card for hotels and rentals over the phone all the time."
Me: "I'm not comfortable with this..."
Response (Cutting me off): a continuation of my good standing with Visa.
I tried to stop her, but she wouldn't be stopped. So I just hung up the phone.
Then I got back on the phone to Visa, ended up canceling my Visa card and getting a new number. That may not stop them, but at least if they try to charge anything I won't have to pay it because I've done my part.
Moral of the story: even giving out your birthdate is a dangerous thing to do. Sheesh who wouldv'e thunk it!
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3 comments:
Yikes! Good thing you were paying attention. But dang, a free trip to Florida definitely would have been nice.
I wish they would have sent the info before demanding payment. It would have been great.
Definitely a scam! Good thinking on calling visa so quickly.
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