Does anyone know what kind of scam this was?

Factual Questions
1

Just got a call from a recording, promising two tickets to an all-expense-paid cruise to the Bahamas if I just answered 10 simple questions. Being bored, I decided to play along, listening carefully for any questions that seemed to try to get personal information. But the 10 questions were all fairly benign, more demographic-related (they asked me my gender, age group (in 10 year buckets), whether I had cable or satellite, whether I had a septic system, etc.). All questions were answered by pressing a number on the phone.

After the last question, the recording said “Congratulations on earning your tickets. You will now be transfered to an operator, who will ask you your name for display on your boarding pass. Rest assured that you will not be asked for a credit card number. Do not hang up.”

At which point, of course, I hung up.

Just curious though – I imagine the operator was going to try to sell me something, and in order to buy it I would need to divulge my credit card (regardless of what the recording had told me) and/or bank account number, which would be promptly raided. Is this about it, or is there something else going on?

2

Free vacations to the Bahamas or a Caribbean island are pretty straight forward and easy to get. There are typically some restrictions, like off season use and the need to listen to a sales pitch for a time share. Travel usually only includes airfare from a major city and you need to get there.

In St Martin we often run into people vacationing “for free”. Often they have rotating rooms. They stay at one hotel/timeshare for one or two days, then have to move to another.

Many of the lucky winners regret their decision to travel this way.

3

Also they might provide hotel accomodations or the cruise for free, but you have to book your airline tickets through them, for “not free”