The smarter consumer: 7 questions to ask if you don’t want to be scammed

Lyn Cacella found an unbelievably good deal on a Royal Caribbean cruise to Bermuda through a website she’d never heard of called GlobalCruisesOnSale.com. The catch? She had to wire $1,359 to the business for her fare.

But when the tickets didn’t arrive, she phoned the cruise line, which had no record of her reservation. When she asked a GlobalCruisesOnSale.com representative by email about the preponderance of bad reviews, she was referred to a site called BuySecureOnline.org, which “certified” the business as legitimate.

“I think it’s a hoax,” she told me.

Actually, Cacella’s cruise is a textbook scam. Here are a few telltale signs something is wrong with a company.

Ever heard of the business?
If you don’t know the company, it could be a scam. If no one you know has heard of it, there’s an even better chance. And if you can’t find any information about it online – good, bad or otherwise – run. I receive regular emails from readers asking me if I’ve heard of a particular company that’s offering an attractive deal. Good businesses leave a trail of happy customers. Bad businesses try to cover their tracks. A fraudulent enterprise won’t even offer an address or phone number on its site.

Is the price unusually attractive?
Most scams look too good to be true. That’s because they are too good to be true. And you probably already know that on a subconscious level, but you’re consciously overriding it because you want it to be true. Fact is, if something looks wrong to you, it probably is.

Do they want you to pay by cash or money order?
Virtually all legitimate businesses accept credit cards for major purchases. (Some exceptions apply. A hot dog vendor may be a cash-only business, but for reasons everyone understands.) Beware of businesses that sell big-ticket items like TVs, cruises or cars but doesn’t accept cards. And if they want you to wire the money, turn around and don’t look back. You can’t dispute such a transaction if something goes wrong. Once an unscrupulous business has your money, it’s over.

Do they ask for personal information by email?
No legitimate business asks for your credit card information or passwords by email. If a business demands that information by email, it’s almost certainly a scam. Never, ever share personal data in an email.

Are they asking you to buy now?
Shady businesses apply high-pressure sales tactics, claiming they’re offering you the last available unit in a timeshare or that only one more car model is on the lot. While this may be true, the tactic suggests the company may be ethically challenged in other ways, and it may signal a problem with its products. They may also worry that you’ll shop around and compare their products to those of a competitor. Take your time, and don’t rush into anything.

Are they offering something for “free”?
Remember, there’s no such thing as free. But if a business says something is free, you shouldn’t have to pay anything for it. Most of the scams I deal with start with a “free” offer but it turns out you have to buy something in order to get it. That’s a classic bait-and-switch game, and it may indicate a problem with the company. The product you’re buying may not be what you expect.

Do they tell you not to worry about the contract?
The most accomplished scam artists assure you the contract is “nothing to worry about” or offer a “Reader’s Digest” version in either a brochure or verbally. Neither count for much. What does? The actual contract, which you should read carefully before you buy something.
How many of these applied to Cacella’s cruise? Too many.

I contacted Royal Caribbean to find out if it had ever heard of the business. It hadn’t. It referred the matter to its legal department, which sent the company a cease-and-desist letter. Before I could ask the online agency for a reaction, both GlobalCruisesOnSale.com and BuySecureOnline.org went offline.

“We are out a whopping $1,300,” Cacella told me, urging me to share her story with others so that they could be warned. Most, she says, let them know that a legitimate business accepts credit cards.

“And just because a website looks good with authentic logos and terrific pictures and correct schedules does not mean that they are authorized or trustworthy,” she adds.

(Photo: Gerard St olk/Flickr)

  • Rosered

    So sad for the OP, but thanks for this succinct article.

  • Sadie Cee

    Once bitten twice shy!  As I found out later, my bitter experience had all the hallmarks of a scam.  (Many of the signs are confirmed by your article above).  Remember the dancing monkeys…if you hit one, you won a “prize?”  I clicked on one and was proud of my dexterity!

    It was supposedly a “prize” I had won for a Disney-sponsored promotion for free hotel stays, dinner, two cruises, passes to Disney World, coupons galore and more for up to 9 people!  All I would have to do was to agree to attend a meeting at Disney in FL.  They wanted an immediate acceptance, which would allow me no time to check them out, and immediate payment by credit card.  I accepted the offer and paid US$900 by credit card. 

    Later, when I checked out the company involved, the news was not good.  The reviews from North America and Europe alarmed me.  I called and tried to cancel.  They simply offered me more free stuff.  I called Visa to try to cancel and was told there was nothing they could do.  However, I did receive the paperwork in the mail but as I had no immediate plans to travel to FL then, I just put it aside and vowed NEVER AGAIN.  About two years later, I planned a trip to FL and called them up. I was told that they needed to have six months’ notice and it was too late for them to make reservations for me.  They did extend the offer for an additional two years.

    I learned during my stay in FL that while there are legitimate companies offering these give-aways, there are many fraudsters around.  I never found out if Disney knows what is going on in its name.

    A year later, I heard of someone who wanted to take his large family to FL.  I called the company and they transferred the “prize” to that person’s name.  I turned over everything to them.  Never heard how it worked out for them and didn’t really want to know. 

  • Sylviaguarino

    A “great” price or bargain is probably a scam when it comes to vacation rentals, but it can also be an indication that the property is in foreclosure or poorly maintained.  Vacationers can easily be taken in if they put price point above everything else, and especially if they are so anxious to believe what they are seeing and being told that they don’t perform “due diligence.”

  • Noah

    Remember the episode of Party of Five where Bailey and JLH paid their apartment deposit in cash, then the landlord denied having been paid?

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=530479200 Dana Scheider

    The really sad thing about these scams is that the worse the economy gets, the more these con artists are able to enrich themselves at the expense of hard-up consumers hoping for a break. It’s not just travel scams – there are all kinds of scams out there, most of them targeting the poor and the elderly. These people have no shame.