Today’s scam of the day came about as a result of a postcard that one of my neighbors recently received that you might well have also gotten.  The postcard congratulated her on being selected to receive two free round trip airline tickets to anywhere in the continental United States along with two night’s stay in a hotel.  A telephone number to call and claim her prize was prominently displayed.   Less prominently displayed was the fine print that said the “Certain restrictions apply.  Call for details of participation.  Taxes and reservations fees are the responsibility of the recipient.”  As always the devil is in the details and there is nothing fine about fine print.  This is a scam and if you get a similar postcard, ignore it.

TIPS

In some cases this is a scam to get you to sign up for an expensive travel club.  Often the taxes and fees cancel out the value of the “prize” in the contest that you have won that you never entered.  Sometimes these are promotions for time shares and you may have to go to a hard sell time share promotion in order to obtain vouchers for your hotel.  Sometimes the restrictions on when you can travel are so restrictive as to make the “prize” worthless.  The bottom line is you haven’t won anything except an opportunity to be scammed.  Ignore the postcard.