Free travel scam is increasing in popularity

One wonderful example of a scam that has survived for many years is the travel scam, whereby a company claims to offer a "free" holiday that will end up costing you a large amount of cash. With a small amount guidance, you can steer clear of losing your money to a classic mail fraud crime. Some old financial crimes never go away.

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The envelope comes in the mail and tells you that you have "won" a vacation to some exotic vacation spot. You are pretty excited, as you rarely seem to win any prizes. Then the problem begins. You contact the business about your prize and realize that they need a credit card number from you because you will have to fork over a "cash deposit" of a few hundred dollars. Eventually, it turns out that the trip wasn't free and it wasn't fun. You wound up sleeping in a crummy motel that was blocks from the beach and you had to endure a timeshare sales pitch, as well.

People just cannot get enough of anything that comes in the mailbox that tells them that they have won something. Travel fraud and scams have lingered for many years, and they are still lucrative. At worst, these travel scams are a method of identity theft, and there is no travel at all; just theft of your credit card number and similar private information. Free travel scams are, like a lot of other financial scams, a way to make off with people's cash.
 

Here are a few tips that will help you keep away from being a victim of this years-old financial scam:

• Do research with the airlines or hotels described to be certain that they are taking part in this deal, particularly if the offer is for free travel.
• Even if the letter specifies that the vacation requires money, you might discover that it is a rotten package that you could have booked personally at a lower price through the Internet or a travel agent. Do some investigation before you make a travel arrangement Just because the advertisement says it is a great vacation doesn't make it a great vacation..
• Examine the fine print carefully. Please consider - if you have to pay, it is not free. The nasty, expensive details are frequently buried in the very small print on the back of the letter or brochure, which may resemble a gift certificate. Many, if not most of these "free" vacation offers really demand that you pay money.
• Check on the World Wide Web or get in touch with the Better Business Bureau in the city where the business is located to find out if the business is law abiding. Do some research on the corporation offering the travel.
• Many offers of valuable prizes, including "no-cost" travel, are bulk mail that is designed to look like certified mail. It's easy to make bulk mail look like important mail, merely by adding phrases such as "Urgent: Reply Immediately." Be careful when reading brochures that appear to offer a lot for free.
• Hardly anyone arranges vacations by means of mail from unusual organizations. Do you always arrange vacations via companies that send you unrequested letters in the mail? You should anticipate that any unsolicited letter or brochure that purports to offer free travel is a scam, particularly if it says you have "won" an item and you don't remember entering a contest or sweepstakes.

You have better things to do than to assist thieves, so don't squander your time on these financial scams. If you need to take a vacation, call a travel agent. There are many criminals out there that are interested in either credit theft or simply acquiring your money. The old saying works well in this situation: deals that sound too good to be true usually are.