Summer Scam!

Yes, it’s the ultimate summer WWE event, as Triple H faces Brock Lesner in a no holds barred, weapons (like rubber chickens) allowed cage match which… oh, wait, that was “Summer SLAM”… No, what I’m writing about is a rather strange piece of mail that arrived at my house yesterday. Other than my name and address, it was in a plain white envelope- no return address or logo. Inside was a single page, with “US Airlines” printed at the top. There was no date, no address (street or e-mail)- no other information. The letter stated that I was the winner of two roundtrip airfare tickets, good to anywhere in the continental United States. They claimed that they had previously tried to contact me…really? I have an answering machine-funny; I never had any messages from them. Could they be one of those calls that the caller ID labels with some title that is totally unfamiliar to me, that somehow never seem to leave any voice message? Hmmm… they also state that this is their final attempt to reach me, and, should I not respond, they would give the tickets to the next person on their list. Go right ahead, “US Airlines”… now, why do I think this is some kind of scam- whether it’s a timeshare, or whatever? Why would they be presenting this to me? The last time I flew on US AirWAYS was years ago, and I didn’t buy the tickets – my workplace did. I checked out a bulletin board mention of this same sort of thing on a Fodors travel site-and, what a surprise! One correspondent said that it involved coming to an hour-long meet and greet to consider using a travel agent- after which, the flight vouchers would be handed over. Several others responded that it was indeed a scam. One person, in fact, got them to name the travel company- and , when the person Googled that- surprise! There was no such company! In fact, others mentioned that, when they Googled “Us Airlines”- the first things that came up were entries including the word “scam”, and that there is no actual company called US Airlines! (You will see listings for “US Airlines”- meaning various United States airlines, not a specific company with that name.) Another person who worked in the travel business recalled a seminar that mentioned scams like these, in which they actually DID hand out tickets (no doubt for another airline)- and, when the lucky winners were out of town, proceeded to clean out their house of anything valuable! Another correspondent wrote that he went to one of these “meet and greets” and that you would indeed get the tickets, but to do so, you would have to pay additional “fees and taxes”. Anyway, there were many entries, all pretty much stating the same thing- somehow, this company never could get hold of them previously, and this was their final attempt. All the letters arrived in a plain white envelope with no logo or return address. Some posters mentioned other similar scams, with what look like official government communications- until you open them up and see what’s inside. The bottom line- if you get one of these letters- don’t waste your time. Don’t give them any credit card information. In fact, just don’t call them at all- toss the letter into the garbage. You’ll be more of a winner if you do so. Just a quick mention- sincere hopes that Isaac will do minimal damage – hitting an area that can ill afford another catastrophe ( not that ANY area should have to endure one…)