What's wrong with this fax? (aside from the obvious)

In My Humble Opinion
1

At least twice a day I pick up the phone and hear the familiar sound of a fax machine on the other end asking for permission to send me a document. I always hang up because the call comes in on a special line that nobody in the outside world should have (it’s reserved for field technicians who call me for test assist on data lines).

Today I decided to forward the call to our fax machine and see what somebody was trying so anxiously to send. Here’s what I got:

Here are the main red flags as I see them:

•Sale Price of $349 compared to Retail price of $3000 represents an 88% discount.
•No company name anywhere on the document.
•Randomly faxed to non-fax numbers.
•Fax transmittal attempted several times per day (somebody really needs to get rid of some vacations!)
•Addressed to All Corporate Employees (In other words, any employee of any corporation).

•Dept assumed to be responsible for sending the fax being referred to in the 3rd person.

•We rely on your internal grapevine to make our sales.

•A bold face lie. This fax will probably continue to circulate long after the bombs have fallen.

•In other words, almost anyody on the face of the panet.
•Bonus for reserving today = more free stuff!
•General low quality appearance of the document.

My biggest reason for throwing these faxes in the trash is that if such deals really do exist, a good travel agent should be able to get one for you.

What else can I tell my coworkers when I see them drooling over these faxes to stop them from picking up the phone & giving out their credit card number?

2

I’ve seen that fax at least once a month for two years. Thats enough for me to think it’s a scam.

3

Ask your state’s attorney general. If they don’t already know about it, they will want to.

4

[li]Your example[/li][li]“Lose Weight Now” (this one originates from the UK).[/li][li]“Computer Sale” (with some outrageously low prices).[/li][li]“Office supplies” - order by fax.[/li][li]“Investing” (from a company in Texas whose toll-free line is constantly busy, also has a ‘scribbled note’ in the margin that “Dan wanted me to forward this to you, signed [illegible name]”[/li][li]and the biggest scammish one of all is one from a company with a name VERY similar to American Express, so that you think it is from AmEx unless you look really closely. This is offering travel deals similar to one your example. I have contacted them several times and have yet to be removed.[/li]
In many of these cases, there is no original fax number, so I can see from whence it came. I thought there was some sort of anti-spamming law re: faxes. Am I mistaken?

What truly torques me are the lines “If you have received this fax in error…” ( :mad: there was no error, your autodial sent it, wasting my company’s paper and toner) and "…Call or fax to [area code] XXX-XXXX to be removed (in which case, I have to spend MY company’s money for a long-distance call or fax to be removed from a list we did not want to be on in the first place). And yet, we will get the same information a month later.

Do the following:
[li]SoMoMom is correct - go to the State Attorney General’s ofice. (I myself have contacted the one here, but have yet to receive a reply).[/li][li]You may also want to contact the Better Business Bureau, as there may be some local connection - just a thought.[/li][li]Contact also your local tv news or newspapers, specifically the reporter who does the ‘consumer reporting’ - exposés on restaurant cleanliness, auto repair scams and the like. Could be a topic they never covered, or perhaps they can get in touch with someone who has been on one of these ‘trips’.[/li][li]Contact the company, but without the credit card in hand. Have them send you written information by mail - perhaps to your work (use your initials) or to a PO Box. While on the phone, get as much information as possible, a call-back phone numeber, a website, the company name and president.[/li]
Sorry for the rant, but I just wanted to tell you, "you aren’t the only one receiving these “waste of resources”.

And yes, I have a 20% hearing loss in my left ear from faxes connecting to our phone lines. [I really hate that!]

5

Yep, I get them too. Tell them the following.

I had the opportunity to talk to a friend of mine here at work who actually did go on one of these trips.

Here’s the scoop if you are interested.

Yes, they do charge those fares. Those fares, however, do not include taxes, etc. Those charges tend to be high high high. In some cases, they can run you close to what the original retail price would be.

The travel times are usually extremely inconvenient and involve, in some cases, many many connections. Sort of like going from New York to Miami via Utah or something along those lines.

Food and drink is not included. In the “resort” you stay at, a pizza for two people will generally run you around $25. Don’t forget the service fees, taxes, duties, etc. the hotel is going to charge you as well. You’re going to be eating out a lot - you’ll need a lot of cash, folks.

Your resort is “near” water/beaches. Just as Cleveland, Ohio is “near” the water and beaches of the Atlantic Ocean. You’ll spend a lot of money on cab fare (and the associated taxes, fees, surcharges, etc.)

In the end, the friend of mine figured she spent a huge amount of money over and above what booking a real vacation would have cost her, and had such substandard service and such, it was a complete waste of time and money.

But hey - they do have the trips. It’s not a scam.

6

The mere action of sending an unsolicited fax may be illegal under FCC regulations, especially if they do not clearly identify themselves when sending. You can request that they stop if you can identify them, although there’s no guarantee that they will. I don’t know any recourse if they’re sending it from off-shore.

If you want to file a complaint to the FCC, go to http://www.ftc.gov
For more information, read the FCC’s What you can do about unsolicited telephone marketing calls and faxes.

If only they had the resources to do something about junk e-mail, too.

7

Okay, sorry, obviously the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) is not the FCC (Federal Communications Commission), whose website is http://www.fcc.gov

The situation could involve both : The FTC is who’d you complain to if you suspect the company/offer to be a scam, while the FCC handles the actions of unsolicited faxes, for whatever reason.

And I didn’t mention it before, but these are the U.S. agencies (I suppose those of you not in the U.S. realized that, though).

8

Thank you panamajack!!!

I knew this information was somewhere! Thank you for dredging it up!

About junk mail - let me return the favor and find the address to which you can write to get removed from ‘bulk mail’ lists (or check with the USPS). This is good for about 6 months.

One caveat - if you order something via mail or phone, you may end up on the list again before the 6 months is up. Same with having a pizza delivered. It’s amazing how, when the delivery ticket has my name misspeled, I will receive credit card applications and other solicitations addressed to my misspelled name.

9

I called the “to be removed from our list” number and it was busy for a while. I finally got through and I had to punch in my fax number to be removed. The problem of course is that there are hundreds of voice lines in this building. I’m not going to sit here all day and enter each and every one of them. In fact I’ll bet I’ve probably just confirmed my fax number as a good “lead”. Let’s see how long it takes before the junk faxes start rolling in.

Couldn’t find a link to the Attorney General in DC (if we even have one), so I sent a complaint to www.fraud.org. On their web site, they list the major red flags to watch for with these vacation scams, and almost every single one of them appears on my fax.

There is no identifying information in the fax header, but the next time that call comes in on my line, I’m going to use every magic spell I have here at the phone company to find out where it came from. Shouldn’t be too hard.