Those cheeky bastards. It's actually kind of a smart scam. If they know the expiration date and last 4 digits, they effectively reduce the number of remaining digits they need to figure out to 4, or only 10,000 permutations. Banks typically use the same 8 digits for the first 2 four digit blocks. If they know the 8 digit codes of the top ten most common banks, they can probably crack it since there are only 100,000 possible combinations instead of a trillion.

"Yes, Ma'am, that's correct. We'll also need your mother's maiden name, your city of birth, and your bank account and social security number. Ummmmm, it's all for security purposes. Yes...... security.... purpose...es....... bwahahaha!"

And for a special raffle we're having I'll need the last nine digits of your social security number...

And, I think you had here that your mother's maiden name was "Jones." No? "Smith?" Give me a hint... does it start with a "T."

Kudos to the gal for ending the conversation. Grr at the jerks who exploit people's high hopes. Makes me design custom levels of hell in my mind for them...

I'm in a few online wedding planning communities (since my wedding is October of this year), and pretty much every honeymoon contest ever, in the world, seems to be a scam. It's pretty routine to see some bride-to-be excited about "winning" only to realize a few hours later that it's a situation like the one in this post.

@madog: BAH! EDIT!

Anyway, things like this always make me think of the Family Guy episode (yes, that makes my point valid, a Family Guy reference!) when the guy at the grocery store is trying to kidnap some lady's kid, and she spots him and the guy says says, "Ohhhh I almost got him!"
"Yes, you did. Oh wow, you almost hade me. Haha"
"Ohhh I'll keep trying to get him."
"Haha, I bet you will! I bet you will."

Is there any chance that the cruise contest she signed up for has nothing to do with the phone call she got? I get all sorts of ridiculous cards and phone calls claiming that I've won sweepstakes/raffles/contests but I've never signed up for one.

I work on the phone all day, and it's hard work. If scamming is this much work, how hard would it be to go out and get a real job?

I'm not sure why I did it, but I was at a Jamba Juice a couple of years ago and they had a 24 Hour Fitness "Win 6 Months!" box and I guess I figured "what the hell" and entered.

Again, I have to reiterate, to this day I have no idea why I did that. Maybe I thought I needed to lose a few pounds or maybe I had suffered some temporary brain damage, but either way, I'd entered.

About a week later someone from 24 Hour Fitness called me and left me a message saying that I'd won two free weeks. I ignored the message and got several more, each one becoming more irate saying I really needed this gym membership, this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, etc. Yikes.

Anyway, I'm glad the OP didn't lose anything financially, and yeah, stay away from enter-to-win things.

"Now then, before we allow you to get off the boat and go back to your family, we're going to need your bank account number. For security purposes, of course. And don't try to escape. We have guards."

I would also like to say I fully support this "cats and cake" thing. The only thing better would be cats and pie. Bless the fake market research. And yes, you could do this even after April 1 and I'd still love it.

Never. Enter. Anything.

We see these boxes all the time. Win a trip, win a car, win a kidney transplant-- they're ALL ripoffs.

Sure, some may be technically "legit"-- but the fine print is still awful stuff. Spend three days in Orlando-- and two days of it in our multi-level marketing seminar!

You want to have harmless dreams of fun, spend $1 for a lottery ticket. You won't win, of course, but you'll at least get to daydream.

While this was clearly a scam, it reminds of the time my wife worked for a promotions company that was legitimately giving away a three year lease on a new car. Almost every person she tried to call to announce they had won hung up on her. The thing that made people skeptical was because they were automatically entered when they used their value card thing at the grocery store. They didn't know they were entered. Finally, she convinced the 20th person that it wasn't a scam. And even when the woman came to claim it, she still didn't believe.

Exact same scam was being run at the Calgary Beerfest last year; my buddy and his girlfriend were called within 5 minutes of each other while they were hanging out with us. They didn't give them any information, fortunately.

Hey I was at the cask ale festival... they announced the winners AT the festival, and you had to be there to win.

No, no, it's not a scam. You send them all your credit card numbers, and if any of them are lucky, they call and tell you.

I've gotten calls like that multiple times (in fact I got one of these calls two nights ago). I don't ever remember signing up for a free cruise or an all expense paid trip to Las Vegas or anything that they offered me.

Each time, they told me that they needed about $300 to secure the trip and asked me for a credit card. Personally, not having a credit card, I would tell them so. Then they'd press for a checking account, which again, I don't have at the time being. They would usually hang up on me when I said I didn't have either. They always sounded suspicious to me anyways, but now that I've seen this, it makes it even more suspicious.

OP " filled out one of those "win a free cruise" forms at a local cask ale festival "

I guess she filled out one of those "register to win" crap I see at independant restaurants all the time.

Hang around long enough and you can see the slime bags picking up the registration forms or dropping off the boxes.

I always thought those boxes would make the perfect cover for home invasion specialists, Olin Miles photo studios as well scam artists.

I guess I am right.

First of all, everyone "wins" those cruises.
The problem is that it costs $300 to secure your ticket, and then an additional $200 port fees.
I actually know somebody who won the "free cruise", but ended up paying about $600 to go.
In the end, they got the same cruise for the same price that they could have received if they had called a real travel agent. So it's not necessarily a scam. It's just a clever way to reel in sales.

I run a business. We will never ask you for any CC info unless we intend to use it. Remember that. If you give your card number and expiration date,it's like handing over money.When someone tries to bullshit you and tell you that they need the number just to "secure" something, run and hide.A debit card is even worse. Then they can clean out your checking account ,cost you NSF fees and you have fewer options to claim fraud.

Never give that number unless you can afford a charge.

Tell them the tea water is boiling, the bathtub is overflowing, and the baby is crying, and you need a number to call them back.

Not necessarily a criminal "scam" but more like a legitimate "bad" deal hiding the fine print along the same lines as the freecreditreport/tripleadvantage bogusness.

About 16 years ago, I had a college aquaintance fall for one of these "free" vacation deals and it took her a couple of days of calling them to get her $300 of money refunded.

My fiance, my sister and mom went to a the raleigh bridal show a couple of months ago and all registered.. Guess what they all won. The also put me down there so when the people called me I was like WTF.. The my sister got the call then my fiance got the call. They had to be a scam.. My sister fell for it and gave them her credit card number, but once i told her that we had all won she called back and demanded them refund the $100 i believe that they charged on it. The lady refused and then passed it on to her "manager" who kept telling her she was one of the lucky contestants and had the "free" trip. So she got the transaction canceled and has never heard from them again

@Etoiles: I made the mistake at David's Bridal of filling out a card to keep track of what dresses I tried on. I should have turned and walked away after being looked at like I had 3 arms when I was trying on bridesmaid dresses instead of wedding gowns... it was not a traditional fancypants wedding, and I wanted a green dress. After they got over my sinful desires, they gave me the card to fill out.

Then I started getting calls about winning a honeymoon package. "Oh, well, someone must have entered for you at a bridal show!" Too bad I literally have no friends, and none of my family would have done that crap. So I called BS right away. They wanted me to show up at this hotel to collect my package. I said I was moving on the day they gave me (and I was, actually) so she said she'd call back next time they're in my area. Too bad I never told her where I was moving to. I never heard back from them, thank god. My husband and I never planned on taking a honeymoon, anyway. We're not formal people. We wanted our green and brown color scheme for a day, it was lovely, and that was that.

The person on the phone didn't quite know what to do with herself when she asked if I was "ExCiTeD YeT?!?!?!?" and I said "uh.... maybe?" in my best "I just woke up" voice. I've been on Consumerist for waaaay too long; I'm jaded by this point.

(side note: subsequent internet sleuthing led to the information that Davids is shameless in handing over customer's information from these cards; it happens to everyone, it seems)

Every time one of those scammy company reps try to talk me into entering, I fill it out with fake info, including my phone number as 410-347-1488, that's the Baltimore number of the Rejection Hotline

www.rejectionhotline.com

@kerry: You had to still be at the festival to win the trip - I watched the guy win.

I filled out one of these - and also filled out one with my friends name. They called us within 30 minutes of each other to say we both had won. Definately a scam!

I enter a lot of online contests and they are legit. But you have to follow some rules. Never pay for your prize, and never give out your CC number. Never pay to enter a contest. If you win a big prize its normal to ask for your SSN and other info on an official affadavit, but you should be very careful about giving this out, and verify that you have really won before you do this. Affy's are also usually sent through the mail using things like delivery confirmation and signature confirmation so you should have to sign for it when it comes. Getting an affy through email is not unheard of however you should verify the source if this is the case.

Also you will have to pay taxes on the prize, and if your in a dire financial situation you may not be able to afford taxes on a 30k car that you won. Only enter for things you can actually afford.

Although I am not sure about those contest boxes at fairs and events, I usually don't enter those, they just scream scam. Our local county fair has Direct Buy advertisements everywhere, which just screams scam IMO. So I tend to be wary of any type of "free" giveaway at events like the fair, because they are usually a trap. Its a shame too as the county fair continues to raise admission and every year I see more and more advertisements and vendors selling scam products and scam advertisements. It used to be fun but now its just one big advertisement, even worse than a theme park in some cases. Vendors are getting more and more aggressive too sometimes even pulling people over to their booth (yeah that will get sales).

I am also usually not in the market for things like a vacation or a new car through contests due to tax ramifications. I usually enter online contests for the smaller prizes.

It's amazing. I have won a couple hundred of these. What's even more amazing is these people can call this a "giveaway" they never intend to give anything away at all.

I really did win 1 years free rent at an apartment complex, a month after we moved in somewhere else.

They also wanted to report my 1099 earning as the list price of the apartment, even though they had offered it to us for 30% less a few months before.

We declined the prize, because the expense of breaking the new lease, upgrading the 1 bedroom to 2, and paying taxes was all too much. Had we not had a lease to break and only wanted a 1 bedroom, the only entity profiting would have been Uncle Sam.

@iblamehistory: Yeah! I had the same thing happen to me this past summer. When they called, I told them that I was eloping and therefore didn't really need a honeymoon package. It was true. I told them they could call back if they wanted to -- assuming that they never would. Sure enough, they called around December/January and I just told them "no".

She was awfully confused about the elopement thing, too.

I worked for a large legit marketing company that was giving a $500 raffle prize out to a random survey participant. We had the darnedest time getting someone to accept it--even though they had spent 30 minutes filling out a survey to enter the raffle.

HINT: Ask for the caller's name and number--then call them back after a Google search. A legit place will give out prizes infrequently enough that they will actually let you do this!

@Snarkysnake: That's not exactly true. I used to work at a spa and we asked for a credit card to secure appointments.. We had a 24 hour cancellation policy because we had lost so much money (and occasionally employees) from last minute cancellations.
We never used it without first calling the person and telling them so, and they didn't have to pay with that card.
So, although I generally agree with you, there *are* exceptions.

I usually enter the small contests at the local shows, but occasionally I accidentally enter the scammier ones. The last "prize" I won was for a free spa day, but they kept insisting that they had to drop by in person and do a presentation on some piece of crap they were selling in order for me to claim the prize. After multiple phone calls, I eventually told them that if I legitimately won it, I didn't need to sit through anything to get it. Suddenly, they stopped calling, lol.

@pigbearpug: Or...they could just say, "Hmmm, that's not what I have here, you better give me the entire number again."

its a tarp!

I'd guess this wasn't a scam, per se, but rather a timeshare selling thing. We did one years ago right after we got married. Same exact deal. Four days in Miami (well, Hallendale) and two in Freeport. Of course, the one really nice day was at the hard-sell timeshare thing...

I have won enough trips to the Bahamas to probably just live there. Why aren't these people in jail? Nearly everyone I know has won. How hard would it be for someone at the FTC or justice department or an AG to whip out a honeypot CC, pay for their "winnings", and then follow the money?

@Sparkstalker: I wonder what would happen if you showed up for their hard-sell spiel and just played your DS, or listened to your iPod the whole time, actively ignoring their presentation. I assume they'd still have to live up to their side of the bargain, since all they said you had to do was attend, not listen. Unless they have a test when they're done. Then you might be in trouble...

@RecordStoreToughGuy:

this IS a loophole i've been pondering for a while, I can waste 4 hours for a few days free stay.

@iblamehistory: I went to David's Bridal just for the sake of going (I'd atually found the perfect dress earlier that day at an unlikely warehousey kind of place, but figured I should keep the appointment.)

I'm not surprised by the constant stream of spam and junk mail I get from them or their immediately related subsidiaries; I am changing my name after the wedding and therefore also changing my e-mail address, so I figure anything that manages to get through my GMail filters is still short lived. ;)

But finding that they sold my cell phone number pissed me right off. I wish I'd had the presence of mind to refuse to give it out (I usually remember when stores want it that I can say "no").

@exploded: scamming and real work are very similar in the amount of effort put in, but the pay off is bigger many times and the requirments to get the job are lower.

@ajlei: Heh, I did the same. And then a friend of mine started working there and said they give everyone who enters a feww 1 week pass.

I did get the gym membership, but was planning on doing so before entering. Entering actually delayed me getting the membership.

@Ananelle: I wouldn't give you my number for a spa appt either.

@DaWezl:

I used to work for Matchmaker International, and we scammed people all the time with these. We'd get a booth at the Women's Expo in Grand Rapids, MI or a Bridal Show, and have one of those boxes to enter to "win a free membership". What we didn't tell them is that we had a HUGE imbalance of tons more guys than girls in our membership, and we'd take the names of the women who entered the contest and tell them they ALL won free memberships, all they had to do was pay a small service fee. I was literally one of the ones who had to call these girls on the phone, and keep on calling them day and night to convince them to come in for their prize, it got to be so sleazy and demeaning, I'm glad I finally grew a conscience *lol* Anytime you see one of those free memberships from Matchmaker International, run don't hide! :p

@RecordStoreToughGuy: I've been through one of these. When my wife and I were first married, we went to Vegas and got suckered into one of these presentations in exchange for dinner and a show.

The "presentation" was actually a 1:1 type affair with a salesman. So he's sitting there, in front of you, talking to you (or your spouse), expecting answers. I suppose you could sit there mute, but still that's a little more complicated than listening to your iPod at a one-to-many presentation.

Furthermore, the hard sell was relentless. We were literally locked in a room with this guy, and I had to threaten bodily injury if he did not unlock the door. Every time we'd get up to leave, he'd say "OK I'll go get your tickets" and then come back with his "manager" who would pick up where he left off, trying to hard sell us.

I'm pretty strong willed and managed to escape, but I would not recommend these presentations for anyone who is not strong with these sorts of hard sells.

I don't think this was a scam... ok, not a direct scam. It's probably an "everyone wins" 8 days including a short cruise in the oldest ship in the fleet timeshare scam.

They get you to Florida for your free trip ( where you pay taxes, fees, and gratuities ) get you tipsy and get you to sign up for a vacation package that will only cost you a few hundred a year.

If you're not careful the next thing you know you are home and people are telling you that you're screwed because it's past the 10 days needed to cancel the service so you can kiss that 2-5k down the drain.

@Randa the Panda: I've been hit by similar scams recently, too. Someone obviously sold my phone number to telemarketers--I've been told that I've won one cruise, but I've been called many more times to ask me if I've received some grant info package I supposedly signed up for. If you say that you didn't sign up, they tell you that you did, and that they have your credit card--then they supply the last four digits of the card number. I believe that they're looking for you to correct them, but I can't believe that anyone falls for it.

I even received a box of books from a Republican book club sent to my mother's address (where I haven't lived for three years), with an invoice saying they were charging it to my discover card (don't have one) with the last four digits xxxx. The woman was surprisingly chipper when I said that I didn't have a Discover card. She'd cancel my membership (what membership?) and I could even keep the books. Oh joy!

Again, I didn't sign up for ANYTHING. I even called discover to check if there was anyone opening an account in my name. Nada. I've combed the internet for info, but it's sparse. Unfortunately, though, I think we're going to see more of this kind of scam soon.

@Canino: I prefer to assume that a much higher level of ingenuity is required to steal our money. Kudos to Allison for catching on. A lot of people wouldn't have.

Happened to me many years ago. Signed up to win a cruise at some booth that had a huge inflatable Mickey Mouse.

Two days later, I get a call saying I had actually won! And I jumped up and down, and screamed in the caller's ear. After literally 30 minutes of her going over all the details of the cruise, She tells me I need to pay up. When I I finally realized I'd been had, I said I am not interested, and boy did she get nasty!

I didn't feel bad wasting her time, since she wasted mine.