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hstrybuf
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Posted: Sun Jul 8th, 2007 02:32 am | 1st Post |
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I don't know about anyone else, but I've been getting a LOT of these e-mails in my spam folder!
Seniors on the Go
by Ed Perkins - July 6, 2007
If you're on email and your spam filter isn't 100 percent effective, you've probably received a handful of messages promising free travel or free tickets on some airline. Obviously, those promotions come in somewhere between a deception and a scam. As seniors, you've been around long enough to spot lots of obvious scams. But scammers are clever, and their schemes aren't always obvious. Here, then, is a refresher course on the rules of scams and how to avoid them.
The basic rule to remember is that no travel is ever really free. The fundamental theme in most "free" scams and deceptions is that you have to buy something else to get the free stuff, and the price of the stuff you have to buy is inflated enough to cover the cost of what you supposedly get free. You encounter quite a few variations on this theme.
The most prevalent current form (as far as I can tell) is an email message telling you that your free trip or tickets are waiting for you. If you bite (by logging onto the website), you go through menu after menu of products and services you first must buy before you can claim your "free" award. You can be absolutely sure that, if you buy the required stuff, the prices you pay (now or later) will cover the cost of the "free" tickets plus a fat markup for the promoter. You often see a similar scam promising a plasma TV or laptop computer, but the principles are the same.
Other promotions promise two free air tickets if you sign up for something or other. The catch here is that, to get the free tickets, you have to buy a week or so of hotel accommodations through the promoter's program—at a price that is inflated enough to cover the full cost of both accommodations and tickets. I've also seen the reverse: "free" accommodations, if you buy inflated air tickets from the promoter.
Twofers—especially "free" companion air tickets—are also popular. Here, the catch is similar: The price of the ticket you have to buy to qualify for the free ticket is double (or more than double) the least expensive ticket you could buy. Unfortunately, promoters often fail to mention that qualification until after you've bought whatever you had to buy to get that companion ticket.
The only case I know where you might actually get something free or at greatly reduced cost is in timeshare promotions. Timeshare sales are so profitable that promoters are willing to pay $200 or more to get a qualified potential buyer to the site. So, if you agree, you may actually get a no-cost or highly discounted two-day visit to some resort. But you still pay with your time rather than your money, and with your money, too, if you bite on the promotion. And believe it: Those promotions are good! I once knew an assistant state's attorney general who went to a promotion to investigate possible fraud and wound up buying.
Here again, then, some basic principles:
*There is no such thing as a free lunch.
*If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.
*Nobody is actually giving away any truly free travel. Whenever you see that offer, look for the attached strings; you can be sure there are some.
*When any advertiser tells you you've been specially selected for some promotion, what you've really been selected for is a fleecing.
*A really big discount is worthless if it's based on a phony, inflated list price.
I could go on, but you get the message. Sadly, there are people out there willing to lie to you to get your money. Foil them—don't bite.
http://www.smartertravel.com/travel-advice/beware-free-travel.html?id=2390051
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Deb
"In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson
My pics: http://community.webshots.com/user/hstrycrsr
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Catnip
Charter Member
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Posted: Sun Jul 8th, 2007 02:52 pm | 2nd Post |
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I think if you want to take advantage of any of these offers is to realize nothing is free! You pay for it somehow, as the article says.
Last edited on Sun Jul 8th, 2007 02:52 pm by Catnip
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