Baumblog EST 1968 - A blog for the Baumbachs who originated in Syracuse, NY


	Posts tagged with "scam"

Tourism scam?
posted by Kristen on April 2, 2007 @ 9:38PM

I got this email from our travel agent, who has been great to work with, but it still struck a funny chord with me:
"G'day!
Due to the eroding USdollar vs the Aussie dollar, Springboard Vacations
has just informed me that they reluctantly will have to increase rates.
This will vary but probably will be in the range of 2-4% for land
arrangements.
You can avoid this if full payment is made by this Friday, April 6.
They apologize not being able to extend your quoted rate for a longer
period. (Actually their quotes guarantee rates if paid in full within two weeks, but they have always extended that if at all possible.) Springboard will honor all quotes, even if up to now there is no deposit on file--as long as full payment is by Friday. Thus I am including again the credit card authorization form, which will need to be completed and returned to me--by e-mail attachment or by fax to my number below.
If I have not received full payment by Friday, I will notify you next
week of your actual custom package increase."

Something about this made me wonder if they were just saying this to get us to pay sooner, rather than by the deadline of a month before we leave. I'm not well-travelled, so I have no basis for judgement. It's just that it set off a little warning bell in my brain (planted there by none other than GJ I think!)

5 comments | Tags: scam

GJ said about 12 hours later

They are trying to make you pay earlier. Whether that's a bad thing or a good thing depends. Your benefit for paying early: they will lock in the cost and absorb any changes, good or bad, to the prices of airline tickets and hotel costs (whether or not it has to do with currency fluctuation). Downside to you: it locks you into the trip (better be sure you want to go, and at that time), it ties up your money (you either are losing interest if this came out of a savings account, or worse, paying interest if it came from a credit card), and if the company's costs actually are less than expected, well...you might have gotten a lower package deal if you signed later. That last one is a big if.

Of course, the short deadline reveals a lot--they are certainly trying to force you hand. Again, they aren't trying to screw you, they just want to nail the sale. That said, do some research on currency trending between the US dollar and Australian dollar over the past six months. How much has it varied? Is the Aussie dollar truly losing ground, and how much ground is it losing?

I'm especially wary that he can offer you the actual price next week. If it's so volatile, I'd assume the actual price wouldn't be available until right before the trip. If he can get it next week, he knows it now. That reeks of a game...I'm guessing you already have a deposit down, so he knows he can jump the price quite a bit without risking that you'll split. So...I have to ask. How did you find this travel agent? Referral, or just picked one out of a hat?
GJ said about 13 hours later

Good news, I guess...don't know how big these guys are, but I can't find them at Rip Off Report so that's at least somewhat promising.
GJ said about 18 hours later

Thanks for the compliment about the warning bell! :)
GJ said 1 day later

So, anyone else on this blog have experience with travel agents? I use Amex, who basically has me pay the airfare upfront and guarantees the hotel prices, but I pay that at the time of my stay. Given that Kristen is basically doing the same thing (at least, I think she is), I'm not sure why she shouldn't just drop Springboard and use someone like Amex...though you need an Amex card to do that.
Steve said 1 day later

Travel Agent? Huh? I am my own travel agent. I find myself the best deals, can tinker around online to find a hotel that not only has a certain star rating, but I can read online reviews, and look at pictures too.

The only time I might want a travel agent is when I need help planning events overseas. And even then, with the internet these days, you can do most of that stuff yourself.

You should have seen some of the hotels I stayed in while in Europe, all for no more than $100 a day. The place in Italy was a freaking palace. Seriously, it was awesome. I stayed in the old part of the hotel that was a couple of hundred years old. It had just been restored to it's original condition a few years ago, period correct furniture and all, but new stuff where it counts, like the awesome bathroom. I also had my best meal of the entire trip in that hotel. If you ever go to Venice, call me first, and I'll hook you up with this place. It's about 30 minutes outside of Venice, out in farm country - very beautiful.

Then again, I'm pretty adventurous when it comes to travel, at least in modern civilizations. I'd hesitate to go to Asia on my own, but Europe or Australia, no problem.

A bad, evil number....according to the MPAA, anyhow.
posted by GJ on May 2, 2007 @ 11:57AM

09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

That hex string will probably get me a cease-and-desist letter, because they seem to think that they can copyright a number. Let's see how long it takes.

11 comments | Tags: scam

Ah, credit scams...
posted by GJ on August 10, 2007 @ 10:44AM

Perhaps you've heard of LifeLock? Stay far, far away.

No comments | Tags: scam

Suspended License
posted by Geoff on October 1, 2007 @ 3:55PM

Yeah so I found out saturday night by a cop the my license was suspended. Luckily my friend was driving, not me. I figured that my latest ticket must have screwed up when I paid them or something. I went to the DMV today to settle the score, only to find out that I didn't pay the NYS Driver Responsibility fee. Some new stupid law that says if you receive 6 or more points in 18 months, you owe them an additional fee of $100 each year, for 3 years. Thats for 6 points...each additional point is $25 more a year.

I had received a moving violation March of last year for 2 points, plus this 4 point speeding ticket, which gave me 6 points, and a nice $300 fee, in addition to the $145 for my ticket. So basically, I paid $445 for going 12 mph over the speed limit (57 in a 45).

Had I even known about the law, I would have went to court to ensure I got it reduced. Instead I plead guilty and sent a nice letter (worked for me before)...Sodus didn't care.

Just thought you all would like to know, and ye, this applies to both NYS residents and out-of-state residents. You can read up more details here.

8 comments | Tags: scam, politics, law

Marc said 3 minutes later

This same exact thing happened to Laura. This must be rather new, as I'm pretty sure I've hit that 6 points before. Who knows, maybe mine is suspended as well!
GJ said about 5 hours later

It's about two years new. Oh, and Geoff...never do the nice letter thing. Always show up in court. It's worth the time.
Steve said about 7 hours later

Yup, they've been doing that in Michigan for a few years now. Oh, and in Michigan, if you don't have an up to date insurance stub in your car, automatic $300 fine, plus you have to pay the driver responsibility fee, no matter how many points you have. That's just if you don't have the stub, doesn't matter if you can later prove that you were properly insured. Just another scam by the state governments to get more money out of us (the insurance part anyway).

Hey, you probably haven't heard, but Michigan is now trying to compete with New York for stupid high taxes! They couldn't figure out a way to trim the budget, so they just dediced to hike our income tax from 3.9% to 4.35%. Oh, and now they are going to tax some service industries, but not all. Only the ones that don't have lobbyists feeding the legislators and sending them on paid vacations. Sure hope Jennifer Granholm isn't planning to seek re-election, and she just gauraunteed a loosing effort. Maybe they need to realize that the population of Michigan has shrank considerably over the past 10 years, and they need to significantly trim their budgets! No, that would be too hard. Just raise taxes, I mean, the people are too dumb to notice, right?

What I'm most disappointed in, is that 3 Senate Republicans voted for this change, which was enough to pass the bill with 20 votes for, 19 against. In the house, is passed 57 to 52, with just two Republicans voting for it. Fortunately, the one Democrat in the house that I voted for voted against party lines, and against the tax increase. He'll get a nice thank you note for his efforts from me.
Marc said about 8 hours later

Two years sounds about right, I haven't had a major ticket since then. But now that I just said that, I expect one soon.
Steve said about 9 hours later

Ah, I just checked up on the MI law, and it seems a year after they enacted the driver responsibility law, they amended it so that you could go to court and prove you had insurance WHEN you got the ticket in case you didn't have the stub in your car with you.

"Drivers will not be assessed the Driver Responsibility Fee if they provide proof of insurance that was valid on the date the citation was issued to the court prior to the court appearance date given on the ticket. Drivers who fail to provide proof of insurance to the court within the required time will be responsible for paying a Driver Responsibility Fee of $500 or $200 for two consecutive years. The second year fee may not be paid in advance. "

Don't ask me how they determine who pays $500, and who pays 2x$200. I think it was initially $500, and then a year later they dropped it to 2x$200.

"Category 1 offenses, such as speeding, improper turns, and following too closely, are assessed a fee based on the number of points on the driving record, with a required minimum of seven points. The fees assessed begin at $100 and increase by $50 for each additional point above seven points.

Drivers assessed a fee for seven or more points under Category 1 will be assessed only once per year. Category 1 fees will not be assessed in any year in which the number of points on a driving record falls below seven."

"Certain offenses are classified as "qualifying offenses" and carry their own driver responsibility fee independent from the number of points on the driving record. Drivers convicted of qualifying offenses will be assessed a driver responsibility fee of $150, $200, $500 or $1,000 for two consecutive years. The amount is determined by the relative seriousness of the offense. For example:

Drunk Driving (Operating While Intoxicated) = $1,000
Reckless Driving = $500
No Proof of Insurance = $200
Drove While License Expired = $150

Driver responsibility fees are assessed for two consecutive years for Category 2 convictions. The second year's fees will be assessed on the anniversary date of the first year's fees."

Oh yes, these are all on top of the normal fines...gotta love Michigan tax law.

GJ said about 15 hours later

Sorry, Steve...but at least in New York, Republicans were the ones behind all these stupid fees. Actually, one Republican in particular, George Pataki, who knew he had to raise money somehow but was allergic to raising taxes. So...instead, we get fee-ed to death.

Michigan's generally a blue state...did the Dems come up with these fees out your way?

Either way, it is a scam.
GJ said about 15 hours later

Oh, and regarding your post about taxes...tell me about it. It sounds like Schenectady all over again. :)
Steve said 1 day later

Yup, it was the Democrats. That's one thing I hate about living in a democrat controlled state. Stupid unions don't help.

SCAM ALERT -- Adele Services
posted by GJ on December 3, 2008 @ 8:04AM

Watch your credit and debit card statements carefully. I'm hearing quite a bit about some itty bitty charges (about $0.21) showing up on people's statements in late November from Adele Services.

In all likelyhood, this is a scam-one where the scammer compromised a CC machine and is bouncing many random card numbers against the CC processors. They use this tiny amount because it probably matches the credit fee so the transaction amount will show as zero to the company being compromised. However, it's just the start of the fun for you, should this occur on one of your cards.

Next, they will get a list of good, active numbers based on which card numbers accepted a charge, and sell that to the highest bidder. Bingo--shortly thereafter, the multi-hundred dollar charges will start rolling in. So, if you have such a charge on any of your accounts, I strongly suggest you close the affected accounts immediately.

No comments | Tags: scam

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