Tim thought he was entering an innocent giveaway at his local Subway in Warrenton, Virginia earlier this month. Nope. It was just timeshare bait. We wish the Subway would have known better than to allow the dropbox in their store to begin with, but after reading Tim’s story you’ll know what to watch out for should you run into a similar contest.

I went to a Subway restaurant in Warrenton, VA for lunch on 6/2/09, which I do a day or two per week. On this particular day, there was quite a line, so while waiting I noticed this “Vacation Giveaway” kiosk by the entrance. So, since I was already standing there, what’s the hurt of entering. I would soon find out.

The evening of 6/10/09 I received (3) phone calls from a number I did not recognize (757-821-0166), so I didn’t answer. Well the last call the guy actually left a voicemail. The message went to say that where I had entered the contest at Subway, they had a $125.00 Visa gift card and they were trying to contact me to collect. I thought to myself, what dumb luck that because of a line at Subway, I actually won something.

I called back the next day and was told that I had to speak with the gentleman that contacted me, and he comes in a 5pm. So a little after 5pm I called to collect my gift. While speaking with Fred, he informs me that not only did I win a $125.00 Visa gift card, but I also won a $25 Subway gift card and trip to Orlando Florida for 3 days and 2 nights. This is when I got suspicious. It sounded to good to be true, so I asked, “What’s the catch?”

Fred then told me that all I had to do was spend 90 minutes of my time “getting acquainted” with the resort (aka timeshare sales pitch). He then informed me that in order to get the items I had “won” I needed to authorize them to deduct a $75.00 reservation fee, which would be returned once I was at the resort. I read your blog daily, so immediately “SCAM” jumped into my head. So I told Fred that I needed to think about it, and spent the next bit of time looking up his information on the internet—which was filled with horror stories.

When Fred called back, I told him I was not interested, which I had to tell him at least 10 times before he would give up. He has since proceeded to call me 4-7 times per night between the hours of 5pm and 11pm trying to get me to reconsider. This is totally unacceptable. I am not sure if this company was sold my information, or stole the information. But regardless, beware.

(Photo: Aidan Wojtas)

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