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They're at it in Crete too.



 
 
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  #1  
Old May 21st, 2010, 10:17 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
aquachimp
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 167
Default They're at it in Crete too.

http://www.matesofmatina.co.uk/forum....php?f=3&t=441

We had some precious time wasted because of these scratch-card
****ers. And especially since we kinda just went with the flow or the
guy on the street might not get his bonus.
But at least it was just time.

In our case we were approached by a rep from some company or other
with the word "vacations" in the name and claiming to be there by
invite to promote Greece and Greek tourism through all ash-cloud and
strike crisis.
Then as a sort of thank-you for taking the time out to listen to him
he gave us 2 scratch cards. On scratching off, a single winning symbol
would net, say, a T-shirt, but 3 winning symbols in a row was the big
prize. Either the radio, video camera or the biggest biggy, a totally
free holiday.

Well whaddayaknow, but didn't we get the 3 symbols; He was so shocked.
Couldn't believe it, he said. He was all excited telling us how happy
he was, not just for us, but for what it would mean to him too. And
all we had to do was pop back 10 minutes up the road, which we could
have walked easily, but next thing we knew he had a taxi purring next
to us and the doors open and no, don't walk, take the taxi, we've just
won a great prize, this is part of it, enjoy, it's only a short trip,
but hey, live it up a bit. Smile.

However, it wasn't a 10 minute walk, but a very long 10 minute drive
to the middle of nowhere. There someone else paid the cabbie (handed
her a tenner)
Then there was the bit to ensure we are a real "couple" and then if
we'd just agree to a 75 minute presentation. No obligations; So we
agreed, but it was about promoting their own holiday offers and
nothing to do with promoting Greece.
It was as tedious as it could be and we eventually kinda snapped at
the guy and demanded he get on with it, along with pointing out how
****ty a place it was and no way would we stay there no matter what.
And all along what I kept thinking was, be patient, cos if we leave
now they'll probably just open the doors, ask us to leave and there we
would be in the middle of nowhere with no means to get back.
So, we held our tongues long enough, but did have a bit of a go at his
boss because he clearly didn't want to take, "we're not interested"
&"this is of no practicable use to us whatsoever" as an answer.

Oddly enough, there's not much mention about this kind of thing here.
Or does it go by another name.
  #2  
Old May 21st, 2010, 10:25 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
aquachimp
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 167
Default They're at it in Crete too.

On May 21, 11:17*pm, aquachimp
wrote:
http://www.matesofmatina.co.uk/forum....php?f=3&t=441

We had some precious time wasted because of these scratch-card
****ers. And especially since we kinda just went with the flow or the
guy on the street might not get his bonus.
But at least it was just time.

In our case we were approached by a rep from some company or other
with the word "vacations" in the name and claiming to be there by
invite to promote Greece and Greek tourism through all ash-cloud and
strike crisis.
Then as a sort of thank-you for taking the time out to listen to him
he gave us 2 scratch cards. On scratching off, a single winning symbol
would net, say, a T-shirt, but 3 winning symbols in a row was the big
prize. Either the radio, video camera or the biggest biggy, a totally
free holiday.

Well whaddayaknow, but didn't we get the 3 symbols; He was so shocked.
Couldn't believe it, he said. He was all excited telling us how happy
he was, not just for us, but for what it would mean to him too. And
all we had to do was pop back 10 minutes up the road, which we could
have walked easily, but next thing we knew he had a taxi purring next
to us and the doors open and no, don't walk, take the taxi, we've just
won a great prize, this is part of it, enjoy, it's only a short trip,
but hey, live it up a bit. Smile.

However, it wasn't a 10 minute walk, but a very long *10 minute drive
to the middle of nowhere. There someone else paid the cabbie (handed
her a tenner)
Then there was the bit to ensure we are a real "couple" and then if
we'd just agree to a 75 minute presentation. No obligations; So we
agreed, but it was about promoting their own holiday offers and
nothing to do with promoting Greece.
It was as tedious as it could be and we eventually kinda snapped at
the guy and demanded he get on with it, along with pointing out how
****ty a place it was and no way would we stay there no matter what.
And all along *what I kept thinking was, be patient, cos if we leave
now they'll probably just open the doors, ask us to leave and there we
would be in the middle of nowhere with no means to get back.
So, we held our tongues long enough, but did have a bit of a go at his
boss because he clearly didn't want to take, "we're not interested"
&"this is of no practicable use to us whatsoever" as an answer.

Oddly enough, there's not much mention about this kind of thing here.
Or does it go by another name.


I forgot to mention that on our last day there was another National
General Strike. I had heard about it some days before but when I asked
around no local had heard anything about it and on the day, just one
little museum was closed because of it; Possibly some schools too
judging by the sudden influx of youth on the beach. But the buses all
seemed to be operating and the airport was unaffected.
  #3  
Old May 21st, 2010, 11:09 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
PeterL
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,471
Default They're at it in Crete too.

On May 21, 2:17*pm, aquachimp
wrote:
http://www.matesofmatina.co.uk/forum....php?f=3&t=441

We had some precious time wasted because of these scratch-card
****ers. And especially since we kinda just went with the flow or the
guy on the street might not get his bonus.
But at least it was just time.

In our case we were approached by a rep from some company or other
with the word "vacations" in the name and claiming to be there by
invite to promote Greece and Greek tourism through all ash-cloud and
strike crisis.
Then as a sort of thank-you for taking the time out to listen to him
he gave us 2 scratch cards. On scratching off, a single winning symbol
would net, say, a T-shirt, but 3 winning symbols in a row was the big
prize. Either the radio, video camera or the biggest biggy, a totally
free holiday.

Well whaddayaknow, but didn't we get the 3 symbols; He was so shocked.
Couldn't believe it, he said. He was all excited telling us how happy
he was, not just for us, but for what it would mean to him too. And
all we had to do was pop back 10 minutes up the road, which we could
have walked easily, but next thing we knew he had a taxi purring next
to us and the doors open and no, don't walk, take the taxi, we've just
won a great prize, this is part of it, enjoy, it's only a short trip,
but hey, live it up a bit. Smile.

However, it wasn't a 10 minute walk, but a very long *10 minute drive
to the middle of nowhere. There someone else paid the cabbie (handed
her a tenner)
Then there was the bit to ensure we are a real "couple" and then if
we'd just agree to a 75 minute presentation. No obligations; So we
agreed, but it was about promoting their own holiday offers and
nothing to do with promoting Greece.
It was as tedious as it could be and we eventually kinda snapped at
the guy and demanded he get on with it, along with pointing out how
****ty a place it was and no way would we stay there no matter what.
And all along *what I kept thinking was, be patient, cos if we leave
now they'll probably just open the doors, ask us to leave and there we
would be in the middle of nowhere with no means to get back.
So, we held our tongues long enough, but did have a bit of a go at his
boss because he clearly didn't want to take, "we're not interested"
&"this is of no practicable use to us whatsoever" as an answer.

Oddly enough, there's not much mention about this kind of thing here.
Or does it go by another name.


You sound like some newbie tourists. No one with any experience would
fall for this. Did you respond to the Nigerian emails too?
  #4  
Old May 22nd, 2010, 09:10 AM posted to rec.travel.europe
aquachimp
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 167
Default They're at it in Crete too.

On May 22, 12:09*am, PeterL wrote:
On May 21, 2:17*pm, aquachimp
wrote:



http://www.matesofmatina.co.uk/forum....php?f=3&t=441


We had some precious time wasted because of these scratch-card
****ers. And especially since we kinda just went with the flow or the
guy on the street might not get his bonus.
But at least it was just time.


In our case we were approached by a rep from some company or other
with the word "vacations" in the name and claiming to be there by
invite to promote Greece and Greek tourism through all ash-cloud and
strike crisis.
Then as a sort of thank-you for taking the time out to listen to him
he gave us 2 scratch cards. On scratching off, a single winning symbol
would net, say, a T-shirt, but 3 winning symbols in a row was the big
prize. Either the radio, video camera or the biggest biggy, a totally
free holiday.


Well whaddayaknow, but didn't we get the 3 symbols; He was so shocked.
Couldn't believe it, he said. He was all excited telling us how happy
he was, not just for us, but for what it would mean to him too. And
all we had to do was pop back 10 minutes up the road, which we could
have walked easily, but next thing we knew he had a taxi purring next
to us and the doors open and no, don't walk, take the taxi, we've just
won a great prize, this is part of it, enjoy, it's only a short trip,
but hey, live it up a bit. Smile.


However, it wasn't a 10 minute walk, but a very long *10 minute drive
to the middle of nowhere. There someone else paid the cabbie (handed
her a tenner)
Then there was the bit to ensure we are a real "couple" and then if
we'd just agree to a 75 minute presentation. No obligations; So we
agreed, but it was about promoting their own holiday offers and
nothing to do with promoting Greece.
It was as tedious as it could be and we eventually kinda snapped at
the guy and demanded he get on with it, along with pointing out how
****ty a place it was and no way would we stay there no matter what.
And all along *what I kept thinking was, be patient, cos if we leave
now they'll probably just open the doors, ask us to leave and there we
would be in the middle of nowhere with no means to get back.
So, we held our tongues long enough, but did have a bit of a go at his
boss because he clearly didn't want to take, "we're not interested"
&"this is of no practicable use to us whatsoever" as an answer.


Oddly enough, there's not much mention about this kind of thing here.
Or does it go by another name.


You sound like some newbie tourists. *No one with any experience would
fall for this. *Did you respond to the Nigerian emails too?


Well, there's, in your "No one with any experience would fall for
this", is the crux of the matter. Somehow, despite not being "newbie
tourists" we had never encountered this.
But this was our first "holiday in the sun" at this time of the year
that was properly accompanied by the sun. Curiously, of all the guys
and girls that approached us, only one did so in English. She asked
where were we from and when I asked why she wanted to know, she
replied she was just looking for some Scandinavians.
The French speaking ones picked up on the fact that we had obviously
understood them but were replying in English saying we don't speak
French. But when we were approached by a Dutch speaker we thought,
seeing as he says he's there to try and promote the place, and does
seem genuine, we thought we'd stop for a sec and listen.
Had he explained that we would have to go along with a drive X miles
out of town, we would've given him back the tickets and suggest he
give them to some other lucky punter.

As for the Nigerian emails reference, that's apples and oranges. We
were going along with things, disrupting our holiday for what amounts
too altruism, whereas Nigerian emails target the greedy.
I would have thought that someone with your implied experienced wisdom
and understanding of such scams would have been intelligent enough not
to mistakenly draw on such a false comparison.

Apart from which, had I ever read something here, (wot with this being
a travel:tourism related group) about these holiday-club, er,
enterprises, and their scratch card gimmick, + the please go along
with this or I won't be able to feed my children (not that he actually
put it that way) + the drive to no-where-land followed by torturous
tedium whereby you get just one little something to drink throughout
and set in such a noise-stressed environment that you have to use you
hand to cup your ears to direct the sound so you can hear their
seemingly retarded rep, and all designed to try and break you down so
that you'll sign just about anything then I wouldn't have needed the
experienced tourists "experience" would I?

What I'd like to know is why you seem to have felt the need to reply
to a matter never mentioned here previously... but should be... with
such a tone of put-down. Got some scratch cards you wanna pass on?

  #5  
Old May 22nd, 2010, 11:12 AM posted to rec.travel.europe
Andy Pandy
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 431
Default They're at it in Crete too.


"aquachimp" wrote in message
...
Oddly enough, there's not much mention about this kind of thing
here.
Or does it go by another name.


I suspect it's never mentioned here because most people who post here
are independant travellers who don't go on "beach" holidays or to
typical package holiday destinations where these scum operate. And
those that do are probably so used to it that they don't bother
mentioning it any more than mentioning that sunburn in a danger.

Worst place we went to for this was Gran Canaria in the early 90's -
they were *everywhere*, on the beach, in the shopping centres, down
quiet streets, and ignoring them didn't work, they'd follow you down
the street. Apparently they got paid £50 for every couple they got
along to the presentations, regardless of whether they signed up!

All this was supposed to have been stopped by the EU rules on having a
cooling off period for timeshare sales, but it seems they're now
offering basically the same thing but calling it a "holiday points
club". I wonder if they still try to charge a "maintenance fee" for
your points ;-). And they're still using the scratchcard technique I
see.

Having a family puts them off as we found when we has kids - they
never stop people with kids.

--
Andy


  #6  
Old May 22nd, 2010, 02:00 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
David Horne, _the_ chancellor[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 6,049
Default They're at it in Crete too.

Andy Pandy wrote:

"aquachimp" wrote in message
...
Oddly enough, there's not much mention about this kind of thing
here.
Or does it go by another name.


I suspect it's never mentioned here because most people who post here
are independant travellers who don't go on "beach" holidays or to
typical package holiday destinations where these scum operate.


Never bumped into them myself, certainly. Maybe I just look as if I'm
skint?

--
(*) of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate
www.davidhorne.net (email address on website)
"[Do you think the world learned anything from the first
world war?] No. They never learn." -Harry Patch (1898-2009)
  #7  
Old May 22nd, 2010, 02:22 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
aquachimp
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 167
Default They're at it in Crete too.

On May 22, 3:00*pm, (David Horne, _the_ chancellor
(*)) wrote:
Andy Pandy wrote:
"aquachimp" wrote in message
....
Oddly enough, there's not much mention about this kind of thing
here.
Or does it go by another name.


I suspect it's never mentioned here because most people who post here
are independant travellers who don't go on "beach" holidays or to
typical package holiday destinations where these scum operate.


Never bumped into them myself, certainly. Maybe I just look as if I'm
skint?


Nah, that aint it; I've been doing some research into the scams prime
target selection and I since found one site claiming to reveal all.
It's not that they're looking out for package holiday destination
tourists, nor childless couples, or "newbie" tourists.
No, what they pick out are people who look like they are having fun
and clearly enjoying their holiday.

Now, obviously from the sheer weight of number of people turning up at
Scam Central (and that was just while we were there) clearly this say
something about the Cretan Holiday Experience ... just that if I were
the Cretan authorities, rather than relying on that hidden criteria as
a measure of success through which to further promote Crete, I'd go
for chucking these scamsters out of my country.
Or at least try to ensure that all tourists are advised to go around
looking as miserable as possible at all times.

Incidentally, I have since also found a post relating to this issue on
this group.
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.t...9f90b2 228a1e

I found it searching for "holiday club" (without quotes); I didn't
find anything with phrases such as; scratchcard scam, scratch card
scam, or holiday scam.

  #8  
Old May 22nd, 2010, 03:13 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
martin
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 198
Default They're at it in Crete too.

On 22/05/10 12:12, Andy Pandy wrote:
"aquachimp" wrote in message
...
Oddly enough, there's not much mention about this kind of thing
here.
Or does it go by another name.


I suspect it's never mentioned here because most people who post here
are independant travellers who don't go on "beach" holidays or to
typical package holiday destinations where these scum operate. And
those that do are probably so used to it that they don't bother
mentioning it any more than mentioning that sunburn in a danger.

Worst place we went to for this was Gran Canaria in the early 90's -
they were *everywhere*, on the beach, in the shopping centres, down
quiet streets, and ignoring them didn't work, they'd follow you down
the street. Apparently they got paid £50 for every couple they got
along to the presentations, regardless of whether they signed up!


It was the same in Lanzarote at the end of the 1980s. The winning answer
was "We already own X time share dwellings".


All this was supposed to have been stopped by the EU rules on having a
cooling off period for timeshare sales, but it seems they're now
offering basically the same thing but calling it a "holiday points
club". I wonder if they still try to charge a "maintenance fee" for
your points ;-). And they're still using the scratchcard technique I
see.

Having a family puts them off as we found when we has kids - they
never stop people with kids.


We had kids aged 5 and 7 at the time. That didn't deter them.
  #9  
Old May 22nd, 2010, 03:38 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
BP killed my turtle
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 33
Default They're at it in Crete too.

On May 22, 3:22*pm, aquachimp
wrote:
On May 22, 3:00*pm, (David Horne, _the_ chancellor

(*)) wrote:
Andy Pandy wrote:
"aquachimp" wrote in message
....
Oddly enough, there's not much mention about this kind of thing
here.
Or does it go by another name.


I suspect it's never mentioned here because most people who post here
are independant travellers who don't go on "beach" holidays or to
typical package holiday destinations where these scum operate.


Never bumped into them myself, certainly. Maybe I just look as if I'm
skint?


Nah, that aint it; I've been doing some research into the scams prime
target selection and I since found one site claiming to reveal all.
It's not that they're looking out for package holiday destination
tourists, nor childless couples, or "newbie" tourists.
No, what they pick out are people who look like they are having fun
and clearly enjoying their holiday.

gullible ?!
  #10  
Old May 22nd, 2010, 03:44 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
James Silverton[_3_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 212
Default They're at it in Crete too.

aquachimp wrote on Sat, 22 May 2010 06:22:38 -0700 (PDT):

Now, obviously from the sheer weight of number of people
turning up at Scam Central (and that was just while we were
there) clearly this say something about the Cretan Holiday
Experience ... just that if I were the Cretan authorities,
rather than relying on that hidden criteria as a measure of
success through which to further promote Crete, I'd go for
chucking these scamsters out of my country. Or at least try to
ensure that all tourists are advised to go around looking as
miserable as possible at all times.


As Douglas Hoffstadter put it : 'Epimenides was a Cretan who made one
immortal statement: "All Cretans are liars." ' The quotation from
Epimenides has actually been around since the third century BC.

--

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

Email, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not

 




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