Archive for November, 2011

Come Fly With Me

17 Nov, 2011  14 Comments

I got my first snail-mail scam today. I won two round-trip airline tickets to anywhere in the United States!

The masterpiece arrived in a regular letter envelope and was addressed by hand. The regular first class self-stick stamp was postmarked in Phoenix, AZ

(Click on the pictures for full-size PDFs)

Scam Letter Envelope

Inside, the document had a letterhead for 'US Airlines". I'm guessing this is to bank on the confusion between US Airways and American Airlines. The letter was addressed to me by name and was also signed by hand.

Scam Letter

The letter reads as follows:

NOTE: You must respond no later than November 25th, 2011.

Dear Christopher,

I am pleased to inform you that you have qualified for an award of 2 roundtrip airline tickets. Congratulations. These tickets are valid for travel anywhere in the Continental U.S. from any major international airport. The retail value of this award is up to $1,400.00. Certain restrictions apply.

We have attempted contacting you several times without success. This is our last attempt. If we do not hear from you soon, we may need to issue the ticket vouchers to the alternate.

Please call me today at 1-866-351-2044

Regards,

 

Valerie Fay

Vice President

EO-20270

I'm sure anyone who reads my blog is smart enough to not fall for this anyway, but it was certainly an anomaly in my mail box.

 

UPDATE [11/19/2011]:

Commenter "Scmmer" did a little research and added:

 

I called the number.  Was transferred to a young sounding woman who essentially repeated everything in the letter then told me that its a new Travel Agency that is looking to build their business.  You have to visit their office located at 2002 N Lois Ave. in the Westwood Center.  Then she explianed that this was for married or cohabitating couples.  When I asked what the agency name was she pointed me to '"airfareanddealsdotcom".  Doing a quick google search turned up the IP address which turned up 4 entries on he BotScout website.
http://www.botscout.com/ipcheck.htm?ip=174.36.238.92
A Whois search shows they are out of Provo, Utah.
Thats about all I can find online but I am interested in seeing where this goes.