Unfiltered Story #289790

My parents are retired, well-educated and intelligent, but, like everyone, have blind spots when it comes to certain things. In Dad’s case, he is introverted and literal minded to the point where he is probably high functioning autistic, while my mother is outgoing and trusting to the point of naivete. They make things work by double and triple checking with fiduciary and other advisors before doing anything major. Their assets are significant and safely invested in low risk vehicles.

My wife and I were surprised, therefore, when about 4 months before the pandemic hit we visited and found them snapping at each other over finances. After some prodding we got the story out of them.

They had made the mistake of going to a “Travel Club” presentation where they got high pressured into signing up for a membership. The initial cost, purportedly discounted, was about $5000, with yearly dues of $150 thereafter; in return they supposedly had access to incredible deals. After looking at the product they’d bought they were having buyers’ remorse and realized they’d bought a pig in a poke.

After getting the details, sadly, we had to agree that they’d been taken. In the course of the scam the following occurred:

The company hid its name until the presentation.

The presenter and other representatives only used first names.

The promised deals were unrealistically good.

The number of attendees was limited and couples were separated so they couldn’t communicate with each other.

The initial cost (AKA, the puke price) was enormous (over $13000!!) but there were incentives to buy RIGHT THEN, and their closer kept coming up with ways to lower the cost.

There was an obviously planted couple near the front who joined immediately at the end of the group presentation.

Although the company was supposedly in business for over 20 years with 11,000 members there was no independent record of it online; all websites referring to it were ones owned by the company and had been created within 24 hours of the presentation.

The website they were shown when they signed up was sophisticated, the one they were actually given to access was decidedly not. It was http, not https, they couldn’t change their password, and the “deals” were no better than they could find themselves.

When I called the company reservation line, I learned that this number served over 100 “travel clubs;” it was apparent that they are all under an umbrella and are created on the fly on a daily basis.

There was no record in state databases of a business license for either the company they thought they were buying into or the very different entity that actually charged their credit card.

The one time they tried to use the service the hotel prices they were given were worse than what they could find themselves on line.

While the money was less than a tenth of a percent of their net worth, the humiliation at having been duped was worse. Although they didn’t want to, I suggested they contact their trust officer for advice as the credit card used was through that financial institution. At his advice they filed a dispute claiming fraud and after a white-knuckled 60 days got their money back.

My folks felt better after we got them through this and promised they’d run any large purchase past us from now on.

If it sounds too good to be true, it is folks.