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Does anyone know if this is a scam?

December 12, 2008

The all-inclusive Mexico vacation fax scam is nothing new. Is this one — or not?
scam

Reader David Nightingale wants to know.

I fully realize “buyer beware” and “you pay for what you get” are caveats we all live by. But over time we weaken because we’ve seen these things so so often. Our fax machine gets the attached solicitation regularly and one has to wonder what you get for this and how legit it is.

I understand that getting there is not a part of the price, but still is tantalizing. Any info you might have appreciated.

Here’s what we do know.

The faxes are not always welcome. In fact, many consider these unsolicited messages to be spam.

We have been receiving unsolicited faxes from this number for years, advertising a Mexico vacation. It wastes our paper and fax toner. There is a number printed at the bottom of the page, and there are instructions to call it in order to stop receiving the faxes. I suspect it is a ploy to confirm our fax # so we have never called. We want it to stop!!

Others believe the offer is fraudulent.

Please do not respond to this number or buy this deal. This is a scam and when you respond, they confirm your fax number. They will never remove it from their files.

My take? If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Take the fax to the recycler.

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

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11 comments

  • http://www.claws-and-paws.com/ Douglas Muth

    I’d also like to point out that Junk Faxes like this are illegal under Federal Law. The cool thing about the law in question (47 USC 227) is that it gives recipients a private right of action. I.e., you can haul the junk faxer into small claims court and sue them for $500 per fax, and claim triple damages if the violation is “intentional”.

    More info:
    http://www.junkfaxes.org/taking_action.htm
    http://www.tcpalaw.com/

    I realize that a single complaint won’t stop these guys, or necessarily even slow them down, but if enough people complain or otherwise take legal action, that will eventually attract enough attention from the authorities in order for them to take action of their own.

    Good luck!

    – Doug

  • Liz

    Quick google search of the phone number:

    http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-866-961-1818

    Totally a scam.

  • http://www.ThirtyThousandFeet.com Max Flight

    I don’t think I’ve ever received a fax at work from someone I didn’t personally know that wasn’t spam. But is every spam a scam? I always assume it is. I’ll go create my own deals and don’t accept unsolicited “deals” from strangers. So have I ever missed out on a deal I passed on? Well, I don’t care. I’ve got enough other things to worry about.

    Toss the Fax.

  • Chicky

    Oh, we get 12-15 of these a week. I give them due attention and put them in file 13. Which means they go straight into the trash can.

  • Sam

    Doug talks about suing these junk faxers in small claims court, but the unfortunately reality is that many of these companies use US phone numbers only to use as a front to send the faxes from Canada or a Caribbean island. Suing them and getting a judgment will do nothing.

  • BethHarpaz

    There are a lot of ‘free’ or cheap vkn offers around. U want one, all you have to do is agree to listen to a 3-hour hi pressure pitch for a timeshare. They’re not that hard to find. I ONCE entered a free raffle for a ‘free vkn’ and ‘won’ – as did, I’m sure, all the other people stupid enough to give up their phone numbers for the raffle tkt – never again! What the ‘free vkn’ consisted of was – i had to pay my own transportation to get to a place where the room and the facilities were free, but of course u were in the middle of nowhere and u had to buy all your food and drinks etc. If a hotel or resort is empty, esp in offseason, empty rooms are just losing money. it pays for them to give the rooms away in order to have people in the place eating and drinking. It’s why it’s so easy to sign up for a hotel credit card and get a couple free nights right off the bat. Speaking of which, that’s a much better deal .. .the problem with these ‘free vkns’ is that they’re offseason places that you dont want to go. I think the one that i ‘won’ was in western mass in the winter. No thanks!

  • http://www.webtoolkeeper.com SEO Tools

    Please stay away from this offer… I heard a lot of this from other forums.. It’s a scam..

  • Joe Farrell

    Scam. I’ve been chasing them down for months in federal court . . . . they keep sending me $2000 faxes – and changing their number – its just a matter of time before I get them and force them offshore. They are in Florida right now and there are dozens of webpages about the scam. you can not fight the scam because they promise you nothing specific as to quality, but the junk faxes are actionable, They FINALLY – as in 3 months ago – after a year of weekly faxes – stopped sending me faxes at the office when I got a little too close. . . .

  • Ken

    Traced it down as Lowest Price Cancun 2008 Ave Tulum con Uxmal Lote 19 SM23 Cancun, Mexico. The website is valuecancun.com and the reservation desk number is 1-866-961-1816. I set my fax machine to dial them 200 times at the reservation desk number. It was very satisfying to hear the swearing coming from the phone line. If they change the phone number again you just have to check the website for a new one. I liked the idea that I wasted hours of their time and tied up the phone line they do business on for half a day. It doesn’t quite make up for the weekly spam they send me that wastes my time, paper and toner, but it helps.

  • Victim of this scam

    I called back and decided to bite on the offer. I’ve had good luck with one of these in the past (4 days to orlando for $50), and figured it would be similar to that (Where I had to go through a timeshare seminar). Well this is what happened this time:

    Instantly they sold me from $148 to $199 saying that some sort of taxes weren’t included… Whatever, $50 wasn’t going to deter us (3 of us total). Then when I was transferred to the cashier service (Visa or Mastercard as they said they were), I was told that there was also a $99 per person charge for gratuity since it was all inclusive. This frustrated me a bit, but whatever… $300 for Cancun for high season is pretty unbeatable for an allinclusive resort, so we said screw it and paid them! We were PROMISED by the sales person that we would be able to get in first week of march 2009, and he told me it was good to go I had to just call back the next day and fax back the signed confirmation and close the deal. Perfect! He told me it was solid and to go ahead and book the plane tickets (Which due to it being last minute cost $490 a piece), but a total of $800 was more than acceptable. We were good to go.

    Next day I sent back the signed confirmation and called 5 times during the day until they “logged it into their system” so that I could seal the deal. Each time I was on hold a minimum of 25 minutes. No big deal, a good deal is worth holding for… Here is where it got interesting. As soon as I told the woman the dates I was promised, she almost started laughing and immediately said to let her speak to her manager. Now I started worrying. After 5 minutes on hold, she came back to tell me that these dates were not even remotely possible and that the first opening was in June! I already had the plane tickets and was absolutely fuming… After a couple minutes of deliberation, she issued me a refund (Which was very easy to get) and swore that the sales person should never have promised me the dates. She also said that even IF the dates were available, there would be another fee of $200 per room for “Peak Season Charges”… So even if it had been available, it still would have cost us about $1,000 per person, which we could have gotten on a package deal from a major travel website… Needless to say this deal really is too good to be true, and DONT trust it! The sales people are the worst liars I’ve ever dealt with (They told me they were in cancun, that this was legit, bla bla bla)… I’ve been in sleazy sales before, so trust me when I say I know the game they play… They are the worst liars imagineable. Stay away from this and go the route of Expedia or Orbitz or a major travel service. Because I had to book the plane seperately and then go and find a different resort seperately it ended up costing us about $1,400 each… Needless to say, my friends are a little upset with me. This fax is a joke and stay away. I’m so upset that I’m going to post this on every forum I see pertaining to this topic… STAY AWAY! I AM A VICTIM!

    P.S – My friend whose credit card we put it on still doesn’t have his refund showing and it’s been a week… I’m crossing my fingers!

  • Linda Weiand

    Bought tickets in Nov 08 on my credit card. In Jan of 09 I moved my entire balance to another account. In May of 09 I charged approx $100 on the initial card. Imagine my surprise when I was charged for my tickets AGAIN! After speaking with my card company and being unable to reach valuecancun, the card company has had to close my account and issue a new card. It required some paperwork, but hopefully this is all behind me and everything will be OK. I’ve always been wary of these things, but It was posted on the bulletin board at work so I figured it was legit. I’m still stuck with the bill on my other card.

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