Posted on 05/16/2012 7:20:15 PM PDT by aruanan
I know a young refugee who filled out a card for one of those "You can win this car!" at the local mall. Several weeks later he got an Award Verification Center bulk rate blue card saying that he had WON a BMW or a Mercedes or something else exotic or $40,000 or a vacation and had 72 hours to call. I heard about this when his brother told me that he had won a car and was on the home phone with the guy who was going to give him the car. I told him it was a scam and asked 72 hours as of when?
But it was all ignored because he had filled out the card and now the guy was calling so it must be legit, right? At the time I didn't know it was from the AVC because he said he had gotten "a letter." When I saw the card, I just laughed and said I had received these over the years and that they always wanted something like a deposit or to make a pitch for a vacation or something they could use to generate revenue.
I appealed to reason. "Look," I said. "These guys have this stuff set up in malls across the country. They're sending out thousands of these cards per month. They have lots of people sitting in air-conditioned offices that have to be rented, manning telephones and using electricity that has to be paid for. And all of those folks are getting paid to call people like you and they've been doing it for years. Something has to generate the money to operate it all and maybe give out some sort of prize. Where's that money coming from? They're not doing this just for the purpose of giving people a bunch of free stuff. In the meantime, don't brag at school that you won a Mercedes or $40,000 because when folks find out what it is, they will never let you forget it. Go to your teachers, show them the card, and ask, 'Is this legitimate or is this B.S.?' See what they tell you."
Sound of crickets.
So they set up an appointment to go. I did more looking around online and pointed out exact duplicates of the very junk mail card he had received. No, I was just trying to rain on his parade. I got the "Yeah, yeah, yeah, don't even talk to me about it" response. At least I didn't get the fingers in the ears, eyes closed, and loud chanting of NAH NAH NAH NAH NAH! to drown out my negativity over what was clearly a legitimate attempt to give a 19-year-old a BMW or $40,000, all in exchange for a simple visit to some place a 170 mile round trip away out in the middle of nowhere. "Don't you think it's a little weird," I asked. "That if they had that stuff at the mall, you'd have to go somewhere SO far away to pick up the prize instead of going back to the mall. And isn't it strange how the guy on the phone said, 'You could win' instead of 'You have won?'"
Finally today he asked me to take him over there tomorrow. I looked again online and found someone from the Chicago area from the recent past who was asked to go to the very same Fox River resort. She said the people called asking for her son and, after being told he wasn't home, asked her how old he was. She told them 19 (the same age as my friend). They told her he had to be at least 21 but that she could go instead.
When I related this to one of the young man's brothers, he told me this was exactly what had happened with the call-before-72-hours-is-up guy on the phone. Their mom has since talked to a friend at work who told her not even to waste her time because she had responded to something like this once and all they did was pressure her to buy something and that it wasn't worth the bother. His mom said she didn't want to go but that he still believes there's a car or a pile of cash sitting over there with his name on it. He doesn't seem to have picked up on the fact that since he's not 21 anything won in a visit there would be going to his mother, not to him.
I called the local number of the resort and talked to a young lady in management and told her the situation. She said that there were no prizes assigned to anyone and that the people who came for the "presentation" would participate in a drawing for a prize. She said that "some people" have won cars. I said that, nevertheless, this particular young man believes that he has already won a car or $40,000 cash and that it's just sitting there waiting for him to come over, go through their presentation, and pick it up. She agreed that this was not the case.
I told her that if this family had someone drive them all the way over there and they discovered that this was exactly as I had already told them and as she now confirmed to me that she would have on her hands a situation to deal with from the youth's mom and boyfriend that would be a tale she'd be telling to her grandchildren. And, so, if she wanted to avoid that kind of unpleasantness, she should call him on the number they have listed for him and explain to him exactly what she had explained to me. The only call he got was from the boiler room confirming the appointment.
The young man said, "But I want to go and see for myself, because seeing is believing." I told him that if that was true, David Copperfield could fly and David Blaine could levitate instead of just making people believe that what they were seeing was real.
Sound of crickets.
I understand the psychology of the whole thing: Promise someone something so fantastic that all he'll think about is showing it off to his friends and how good it'll make him look and thinking, well, it could be true and you'll never know if you don't try. This is combined with repressing anticipated shame over feeling snookered into wanting something so badly by refusing to believe that there exist folks that would blatantly tell you that you won something when you actually had not. But you couldn't remember reading the fine print at the mall saying that it was all subject to their restrictions and promotional efforts to all of which, by signing the form, you agreed, even though you didn't bother to read the fine print because you were too busy popping a boner over how all your friends would drool over your beautiful new BMW--even though you don't have a job, or a driver's license, or insurance, or money to pay state taxes, tag, and title, or federal income tax, or gas, much less the car itself.
Delusion is the evidence of things lusted for, I guess, the evidence of scams not seen.
If you're going to laugh at this young guy and call him a moron, please don't even bother to post. He's usually pretty thoughtful, but I'm astounded at both his alacrity to believe this and his stubborn refusal to entertain any evidence to the contrary. If you have helpful suggestions, such as your own experience with this brand of marketing, or this specific business, or with how to help dispel the delusions of loot these a-holes engender by their calculated appeal to greed, please respond.
I’ve read about this bogus check, please return a money order scam. As many creative ways that people have of doing good, there are probably double that for doing evil.
Oh and don’t forget the “Your child is a star, let them be Ambassadors to DC or Australia” scams
................... If you have helpful suggestions, such as your own experience with this brand of marketing, or this specific business, or with how to help dispel the delusions of loot these a-holes engender by their calculated appeal to greed, please respond..................
Sure, I’ve been subjected to this type of a pitch.
A few years ago it was called “Hope and Change” today it’s called “Forward”
Take one half the population that sucks off the teat of the other half, and you’ve set up the perfect lack of mentality that fails to respond to their possible contribution to society.
It’s called a mailing list.
They are not affiliated with the schools. They charge huge prices for a bargain basement travel-tour package where the kids will learn nada.
Trips they could have done for a third of the price or less and without being treated like sardines.
You don’t have to drive him to heck, but you can wish him a nice trip and a welcome home after.
You see, I was given a free dog once. A foundling, by the time I had paid vet bills and the numerous fines for 'dog at large' (never could stop it from bolting for the door any time someone opened it, to go for a run--even if it had just come back from a walk), the free dog cost me over $1000.00.
The car was another 'free dog'.
Be careful what you wish for, FRiend.
Friends don’t let friends buy timeshares.
I have a Silverleaf timeshare, and am satisfied. BUT — and this is a very big BUT — I bought it independently from Silverleaf for about a nickel on the dollar from an acquaintance who couldn’t afford to keep up the annual maintenance fee.
Don’t do it if you have a hard time saying No to a hard sell. Because that’s what you’re going to get, and they will make it sound like you’re getting a good deal. But you most certainly are overpaying, grossly overpaying, if you sign on the dotted line.
I have a silverleaf timeshare that I will sell to you (or anyone who wants it) for the cost of making the transfer. Some people like these things, and can make effective use of them. At this point in my life, I’d just rather not.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.