I answered my phone tonight around 9 pm since the ring was that of a long-distance call and the caller was a man with a heavy Indian accent which I had difficulty understanding but the following is what I think was conveyed:
I was first congratulated for winning 1 of the 5 prizes: (1). a big TV High Definition; or (2). $1,000 cash; or (3). 8 days/7 nights @ Hilton Hotels; or (4). 8 days/7nights to Orlando, Florida (free for 2 adults & 3 children); or (5). 8 days/ 7 nignts at Royal Caribbean Cruise Line for 2 adults free accommodation & free meals. All I had to do to quality was I must be married, between the age of 30 to 59 and have a household income of $50,000 and then his manager "Edwin Francis" (who also had a heavy Indian accent) took over and said that there is no catch when I questioned him about it. When questioned which company he was representing he said the Consumer Awards Centre (a new company just started a few days back and a member of the Better Business Bureau) with affiliations with companies like Lufthansa Airlines, Marriott Hotels, etc. All I had to do was to pick-up my "guaranteed" prize (one of the 5 prizes mentioned) at 216 Chrislea Road, Suite # 202 in Woodbridge, Ontario L4L 8S5 located at Highway 7 & Weston Road where a dinner buffet will be provided and the time allotted for dinner and the prize pick-up is 1 and 1/2 hour. Bring some ID and show it to a woman named "Myrna" , complete the form that will be given to me and to check off box # 90 which he said was just an acknowledgement that a 90-minute time was mentioned along with my gift code that he would be giving me. He also questioned me on whether we had any restrictions on travelling. He gave his name as "Edwin Francis" and said that he is sure that I would be so happy to get one of the 5 prizes that I should be calling him back to thank him at 905-581-0053. After the call ended, immediately and Out of courtesy, I tried calling him back right away at 905-581-0053 to let him know that we would not be able to attend since something came up and that we were really not at all interested in picking up any of the prizes - however, the calls could not be completed because the phone number he had given was "not in service". So, I signed on to the internet and discovered this site and felt compelled to report this phone call. The men said they got my name and number from a ballot form that I "filled out" at one of the 600 local Ontario malls (Fairview Mall, Yorkdale, etc.) or that I had "completed a survey" at the gas station (I'm really extremely surprised at this because we do not fill out ballots to win prizes nor do we complete surveys. My guess is that he picked it out from the phone book).
I really truly regret that I failed to inform him right away that we were not interested and that there was no other way of communicating with him since the phone number he gave us was "Not In Service" When something sounds too good to be true, and there's an uncomfortable feeling gnawing at you - it's wise to not ignore your instincts.
Anyway, I hope this info helps others. Take care & God Bless!
Scam Alert 216 Chrislea road
Had a Guy/Girl (Not too sure what it was) call me tonight at 9:30pm and claim I won a prize. The phone number was 1-248-434-4666, address
He said I won 1 out of 5 prizes, The accent sounded Nigerian or Guyanese.
He told me I had to goto
TVS the vacation store company
2nd floor
216 Chrislea road in woodbridge ontario
Postal Code is
L4L-8S5
He said I had to go tomorrow (wed) @ 6:45pm
I told him I was busy and I couldn’t go…....so he said fine then come thursday @ 6:45pm
This is a big Scam, I know because at the end of the conversation he said that he wanted me to confirm my address…..
Told him that I wasn’t interested, he got upset and hung up.
Here is some more info from others I have found.—————————Guest
Hello there,
To any one who would like to know about “The Vacation Store Company”
I think this is a scam, using pressure tactics to scare you and your
wife, and take the money from you, but read below for the
details…..!!
I just got invited, to attend a presentation by The Vacation Store
Company TVS,
Basically, if you attend a 90 minute meeting your are guaranteed one of
five prizes:
– A $2,500 CND – 8 Sun filled Florida days and 7 Magical nights for 2 Adults & 3 kids
in Orlando (Hotel only) – A 5 Stars Hotel in South Carolina for 7 days (Hotel only) – An Aruba trip 7 days – A Royal Caribbean Cruise
I went there with my wife, it was an eye opener for me, these guys have
no business cards, no documentation to show, no Hotel catalogues, no
letterheads with their logo, no web site, and it will be very difficult
to find anything in the web related to them or anyone they represent,
they did not give us any binder with information about themselves.
All they have is, at 216 Chrislea Rd, 2nd Floor, Woodbridge, Ontario. A
room with several tables, every couple will sit down in their own table
with one representative of the company at the same time for 1h 30 min.
They will offer a very simplistic buffet, although they make it sound
as something extraordinary, the Rep will be eating as well with you at
the same table, but because time is money, he will talk over your lunch
plate while the saliva is coming out of his mouth and inevitably
spreading some of his food from his mouth to all over the table, that
was enough for my wife and me to stop eating. After that they have a
small presentation in a white board of a series of non-sense
explanation by a their top-notch sales guy, which was rude and arrogant
to most of the guests, a very low tech presentation as he will just
show some brochures in a plastic cover from any where from 4’ to 30’ of
distance. The guy lost his patient when he asked if any one golfed, and
no one lifted the hand and then decided not to continue with the
presentation.
After this fiasco, every couple move to an office with their rep. for a
more business meeting, at this point they will start explaining the
scheme, which it is not a timeshare company, but a bit different, you
buy points:
An annual fee of $98.00
98,000 points for $30,000
75,000 points for $24,000
49,000 points for $17,800
25,000 points for $13,000
You use the points like this:
1 week in a 1 bedroom hotel, you need 500 points and $500.00
1 week in a 2 bedrooms hotel, you need 1000 points and $600.00
1 week in a 3 bedrooms hotel, you need 1500 points and $700.00
Or
2 week in a 1 bedroom hotel, you need 1000 points plus $1,000.00
2 week in a 2 bedrooms hotel, you need 2000 points and $1,200.00
2 week in a 3 bedrooms hotel, you need 3000 points and $1,400.00
And so on….!
You can use this configuration for as long as you would like until you
run out of points.
Air fare, Food, Taxes, etc. are not included and you will have to
provide that by yourself.
In our case, I knew from the start that I didn’t want to buy
anything, so after a 20 minutes meeting with the Rep in the office I
clearly made him know that we weren’t interested, but he continue to
offer us the 49,000 points for $17,800 at a discount, this time for
only $13,000. I insisted that we weren’t interested, he left and
another Rep came to the office, after a whole discussion about the same
topic, he made us another offer, this time the 49,000 points for
$11,000 I thank him for the valiant discount but decline the offer
again so he left and the third guy came, this time a more serious guy,
with a rude demeanour, and rude comments, he mention to us that here
was a better offer, this time the 49,000 points for only $9,000, I said
to him, that I declined and that a this point I wanted to leave, he
then started to basically insult me asking why I didn’t take the
offer and why was I there for then. He left and a 4th guy came, this
time he was the General Manager, he said to us that he will improve the
last offer as if I was trying to bargain with him, but I told him that
a this point I wasn’t interested in buying anything at all regardless
of the price, nevertheless he made us a better offer, the 49,000 points
but this time for only $4,900 which make me think, good thing I
didn’t buy the 49,000 points at the regular price of $17,800 when you
can get it at $4,900. Again I decline and a 5th guy came, this one was
really rude and aggressive, he was asking me why wasn’t I accepting
these great deals?? I refuse to give him a excuse, so I just said I am
not interested, he get a piece of paper and made me a even better
offer, this time for $2,900 and then I said, One more time I am not
interested at all, to what he responded to me, “Well, them I am not
interested in selling it to you”.
Finally, 3hours and 30 minutes later, they let us leave the office. A
lady took us to the exit and said that we were getting our price, right
at the door there was a drum full of tickets, my wife picked one and
gave to the lady, see looked at the ticket and it was the price for:
– 8 Sun filled Florida days and 7 Magical nights for 2 Adults & 3 kids
in Orlando (Hotel/Motel only)
They gave us a photocopy of a paper, which we read later on in the
car, and it says almost to the letter the same as in this website:
– The hotel could be a Motel – You need to pay $10 per night surcharge – You need to pay the Hotel/Motel taxes – You need to pay the Administration fees – You need to pay the service charges – You need to pay for Roll away beds – You need to pay for the Items of personal use (Toilet paper, soap,
etc..) – You need to pay for the meals – You need to pay Florida Room/Country taxes
The regular price of this package is estimated as $315 to $500 per
week, which if you add your fees, taxes, surcharges per night, etc..
You will be paying about the same or more than the actual cost and you
do not have a choice of room or quality of the accommodation.
In addition you need to get there, so add to that the flight, taxis and
rent a car, to me sounds like a SCAM.
Stay away; it is a waste of time. That is my advice. I went because I
didn’t really know about what was involved, I could not find anything
in the web about them. Now you know…!
And knowing is half the battle – GiJoe!
I am from Vancouver,bc, Canada. Some how these people started calling. 4 weeks ago we registered on the Canadian do no call registry. Since then calls are coming in from all over north america. Government incomptetence at the tax payers expense. sound familiar? When i answered there was "no response" I tried to registerin the USA, but our area code does not comply with the american system. Someone in canada made a TON OF MONEY selling our DNC list. I guess i should have left things as they were. Heres to changing my number!
A guy with a thick Indian accent claimed to be "with Dish Network" called and since they call me often I asked where he was. He lied and said New York. I asked him if he was aware of the Do not call list. He pretended to have trouble hearing and asked me if I spoke hindi. I hung up. I get quite a few clowns from India calling me repeatedly to sell me a subscription to the Dish Network. This number might be some sort of VOIP gateway..
Other people have said this number shows up when the caller tries hacking the caller ID info so my guess is all these pests are sitting outside the US and using some sort of VOIP gateway or calling card to ring up numbers in the US they have their hands on.