Recent Comments Chris on Future Movement of Costa Rica Real Estate? Jaime G Vargas on Video Naked To

You know that old saying—there s a sucker born every minute? Don t be one of them. Stay ahead of the latest travel scams to keep your vacation plans from falling apart. The schemes below may be just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to travel cons, but preparing yourself for these sneaky swindles is a good place to start.
The number-one travel scam at the moment is the vacation-club ace rental car new orleans scam, says consumer advocate Christopher Elliott, whose book, Scammed, lays out a helpful roadmap for being a responsible ace rental car new orleans and effective shopper in a world of corporate swindles. I ve never come across a legitimate travel club. My advice ace rental car new orleans is to run, don t walk.
Wholesale travel clubs claim that you ll have access to incredibly cheap vacations ace rental car new orleans if you join. However, once you pay the joining fees, you find that the deals offered aren t any better than what you can find for yourself ace rental car new orleans online—for free. Elliott advises that anyone considering joining a travel club do research with a very critical eye beforehand. Simply doing an Internet search for the name of the travel company plus the word scam will usually reveal a host of problems experienced by other members.
Ed Perkins, a longtime contributing editor ace rental car new orleans at SmarterTravel, calls the upfront fees for selling your timeshare the biggest ace rental car new orleans fraud going today. Scammers promise to get you out from under, ace rental car new orleans saying they have buyers, but all they really do is take a fee, upward of $400, and do nothing, says Perkins. Never pay upfront to have someone help you sell your timeshare. If you want out, go to a licensed company and check them out with the Better Business Bureau before listing with them. If you re having trouble getting rid of your timeshare, work with a rental company to recoup some of the money until you can sell.
Ed Perkins also warns against prepaid vacation certificates. Scammers promise really great prices but deliver nothing. The idea here is to get the upfront money, then keep stalling— Sorry, these dates are sold out; try again soon. They delay until people just quit trying. ace rental car new orleans Or, the company charges huge additional fees to redeem the certificates, and the trip is considerably less luxurious than promised. Before prepaying for a vacation package, be sure to research fees and blackout dates, as well as the company s reputation.
Ah, the life of travel agents. Cheap hotels and airfares are thrown at their feet once they pull out their travel-agent ID cards, right? Don t believe the hype from outfits that promise to issue you a travel-agent ID that provides access to discounts. Scammers charge hundreds of dollars for these cards, but victims who shell out will quickly find that no place will accept the fakes, and they never see any discounts. The only way to avoid this scam is to not buy a travel-agent card if you re not a travel agent—there ace rental car new orleans s really no legal way to get around it.
Rick Steves calls the car-rental collision damage waivers (CDW) a collision damage waiver racket. When you rent a car, the company often pressures you to buy a CDW supplement, which will prevent ace rental car new orleans you from having to pay a high insurance deductible if the car is damaged. (The deductible can be thousands of dollars ace rental car new orleans before insurance kicks in.) But most major credit cards already include deductible collision coverage for free, so check your credit-card terms and pay for the rental car with your credit card. Then you ll be covered without having to shell out extra cash for phony insurance.
If you ve ever dropped your business card in a win a free trip drawing at a restaurant or signed up to win at a fair, you may have gotten a phone call, letter, or email claiming you ve won a free vacation. Be wary—many of these prizes are actually booby traps in which you ll have to pay hefty fees to claim the vacation or give your credit-card number to verify your eligibility, resulting in identity ace rental car new orleans theft. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is cracking down on these scams. Follow its guide on what to do to avoid being scammed: Get the names of resorts and airlines included in the prize and call them independently to verify the trip. Never give credit-card information to someone who cold-calls you, and be sure to get details of the prize in writing before accepting.
The FTC also warns against fake International Driving Permits (IDPs). Some countries require tourists to have an IDP in addition to a U.S. driver s license. However, there are only two American associations that are legally authorized to issue IDPs—the American Automobile Association (AAA) and the American Automobile Touring Alliance (AATA). Fraudulent companies sell fake IDPs over the Internet, but you ll pay hundreds of dollars for a permit only to face legal problems for using the imposter IDs in another country.
The hotel you re thinking of booking is suspiciously ace rental car new orleans cheap, but the property s website makes it look beautiful and centrally ace rental car new orleans located. When you arrive, the hotel is rundown, missing amenities, and in a deserted part of town—and it won t refund your money. Avoid this bait-and-switch scam by using websites like Oyster and TripAdvisor (one of SmarterTravel s sister sites) to read real customer reviews and see honest photos of the property. Check out Oyster s Photo Fakeout Collection to see just how different brochure photos can be from real life!
Even if you re not currently traveling, you can still be the victim of a travel scam. The State Department warns that scammers will call a relative or a friend of someone who s away on vacation and pretend to be the traveler in desperate need of help. The scammer usually disguises his or her voice and blame it on a bad cell-phone connection; he or she will then beg the victim to send money (saying he or she has been robbed, needs money to return to the United States, or has run into legal trouble). Sometimes the scammer will even pretend ace rental car new orleans to be someone from the U.S. embassy ace rental car new orleans calling on behalf of the relative for money.
Before you wire money, call the State Department ace rental car new orleans s Office of Overseas Citizens Services to verify that the situation is legitimate, or call your relative directly. The State Department also says that many of the scams from numbers starting with 914, so be extra wary of calls with that area code.
Vacation rentals are exploding in popularity. It may be tempting to go through Craigslist for a rental ace rental car new orleans home, but it s also easy to fall victim to a scam there. Scammers will place an ad and ask the victim to wire money to secure the vacation ace rental car new orleans rental—and then disappear. ace rental car new orleans Or they ll have you send money to them rather than to the actual property owner; since they do not actually have the right to rent out the property, you can t get in. Avoid the risk by going through a reputable vacation-rental site such as HomeAway, our sister site FlipKey, or Airbnb, all of which will protect your money from fraudsters.
Filed under Scams Fraud , Travel/Leisure , Uncategorized Tagged with bait and switch , costa rica scam , costa rica scams , costa rica tourism , costa rica travel , international driving permits , rental property scam , scammers , scams , time share scam , time shares , travel ace rental car new orleans scams , vacation scams
Recent Comments Chris on Future Movement of Costa Rica Real Estate? Jaime G Vargas on Video Naked Tourist Locked Out of Hotel Room hpwolfe on Liar! Obama Signs Monsanto Protection Act ! Jaime G Vargas on Barack Obama Visiting Costa Rica Joe de Tambor on Costa Rica Soccer Should Not Get a Redo! Recent Articles
Comments Chris on Future Movement of Costa Rica Real Estate? Jaime G Vargas on Video Naked Tourist Locked Out of Hotel Room hpwolfe on Liar! Obama Signs Monsanto Protection Act ! Jaime G Vargas on Barack Obama Visiting Costa Rica Joe de Tambor on Costa Rica Soccer Should Not Get a Redo!