Living the Solution

Tis the season.  Tis the season for scammers to ramp up their efforts and prey on the innocent & hopeful.

This is not a usual post for me, but thought it was still pretty valid, so I thought I would throw it up as a warning.

I received an envelope that was  hand written addressed to me at my home address. I immediately thought something was fishy since there was no return address. Also, it was postmarked from Phoenix, Arizona.

The letterhead said “US Airlines”.  This was intriguing because I never heard of US Airlines. Perhaps this was meant to sound familiar as a clever with a cross between US Airways and United Airlines. Here is what the letter indicated (see below).

NOTE: You must respond no later than December 2, 2011

Dear Sean,

I am pleased to inform you that you have qualified for an award of 2 roundtrip airline tickets. Congratulations. These tickets are valid for travel anywhere in the Continental U.S. from any major international airport. The retail value of this award is up to $1,400.00. Certain restrictions apply.

We have attempted contacting you several times without success. This is our last attempt. If we do not hear from you soon, we may need to issue the ticket vouchers to the alternate.

Please call me today at 1-866-342-1899.

Regards,

<printed signature that is supposed to look like ink>

Erica Bale

Vice President

The bottom of the letter also had reference numbers (consisting of two letters – five numbers) as well.

Stuff like this annoys me so much, particularly because i know some people will be taken by this scam. I didn’t even waste time calling, but instead decided to make it public just in case anyone else receives a similar letter!

After searching on Google I discovered there are tons of people out there reporting these scam letters. In exchange for credit card information, they are promised round trip tickets which are NEVER received! Don’t fall for this stuff. If it seems too good to be true, then it probably is!

As I have written about before there are plenty of dangers out there to navigate, including unscrupulous  people.  To quote a famous line from a TV show my dad enjoyed watching, “Let’s be careful out there.”