In my mail, I noticed a envelope that had a hand written address on it with no return address. It almost looked like a letter from a friend, which made it instantly suspicious to me. Who writes hand written letters nowadays, anyway?
Of course at this point with my natural curious nature, I opened it before even pulling into our garage. The letter was from US Airlines. This struck me as wrong, right there. US Airlines? There was United Airlines and US Airways but the logo didn’t match either and was very non-descript. The letter told me I had qualified for an award of 2 roundtrip airlines tickets for anywhere in the U.S. up to $1,400.00. Wow, this sounds too good to be true, right?
February 18, 2012
My Name
My Address
NOTE: You must respond no later than February 29, 2012.
Dear Briana,
I am pleased to inform you that you have qualified for an award of 2 roundtrip airline tickets. Congratulations. These tickets are valid for travel anywhere in the Continental U.S. from any major international airport. The retail value of this award is up to $1,400.00. Certain restrictions apply.
We have attempted contacting you several times without success. This is our last attempt. If we do not hear from you soon, we may need to issue the ticket vouchers to the alternate.
Please call me today at 1-866-540-8432.
Regards,
Hand Written Signature to look real
Kelly Mane
Vice President
FS-55183
Upon further inspection, the letter had no contact information besides a phone number to call. After googling the number, nothing came up at all. What kind of company sends out a legitimate letter without a address or a website to check out.
None.
This is most likely a scam to get your personal information such as your credit card. They will try to trick you by saying that they need that to hold your tickets. They may even ask for your social security number for tax purposes. This should all scream out SCAM to you.
Run away people. Run away.
Of course, they tell me this is their last attempt to contact me and I only have until February 29, 2012 to respond. It is February 24, 2012 when I receive the letter so they are pushing the urgency to respond right away.
Scammity, scam, scam!
Together we will fight to eliminate these scam attempts!
What kind of scams have you seen out there lately?
Received exactly! the same BS scam letter. I knew it was a joke & googled it right away. Unbelevable on how many similar stories popped up immediately. Ha ha BS Artist – jokes on you.
Same scam letter from US Airlines only the name of the Vice President is now Keli Jae. the number to call is 1-866-324-4880, no address within the letter or return address but a postmark out of Phoenix AZ.
Received a letter just like that today. This one was from “Keli Jae”, and she’s the Vice President of US Airlines. Phone number: 866-320-4438. Definitely looks very fake.
US Airlines
$1,350.00
1-866-324-4880
Keli Jae
ZC-43534
Steve,
Same name, phone number, and amount. Different number at the bottom, which makes sense. I received my notice on 4/28 with a respond date of 5/1. I originally thought a tenant sent me a rent check until I saw her address today, 4/29. I opened the scam letter after seeing my tenant’s name and address the other piece of mail.
Got one too from Keli Jae
Got one today with the same Lea Kale. Uses United Airways who does exist but in Bangladesh and does not fly to any cities in the US. Don not be fooled never call the number. The scam might be to get your cell phone number. and then sell it out to marketers.
1-866-323-5185 signed “Lea Kale” lol.
I got the same letter as Charlie. I know it’s fake, but called to see what they told me. I was given a speech about how they were a new travel agency and that they’re just trying to get the word out. They have a meeting place set up at resort hotel that is about 45 min drive time. (International Palms Resort and Conference Center in Cocoa Beach, FL). I was told to bring a drivers license and a credit card (for ID purposes only). I was given an appointment time of 7:30. I’m almost tempted to go to see what they have set up. I’m sure law enforcement would be happy to join me seeing as I’m a State Prosecutor. :)
Just got one today from “United Airways” dated 12/17/12, need reply by 12/28/12 (after the end of the world).
“Stacy Lane ” is now the V.P.
She didn’t know that I’ve been working around airplanes and airports since the mid 1960s. Silly girl scammer.
I added that phone number to a site that I always look up unknown numbers on. It’s called http://www.whocallsme.com. Hopefully this is help out some poor unsuspecting person. Thanks for the great information.
I just got one with the identical language as your letter. It was signed “Debra Hall” and the actual signature didn’t look believable (a real Debra would know how to sign a nice “D”).
The 800 number is 866-822-0329. How can they afford so many numbers?
Who are these people? And they’re willing to waste 45cents sending the note (how many did they send). I would love to ferret them out.
I wonder how they are targeting folks. I’m in Mundelein, IL, where is everyone else from?
Bingo! Got the same letter but with a different 866 phone #; where did they get our addresses anyway? Kinda creeps me out! Can we report this to anyone? I never fall for this crap, but feel sorry for the people who might…especially if they are elderly, etc.
Got the same letter today from Mary Jay. I won tickes from US Airlines worth $1400.
The callback phone number was 866-658-4284
SCAM!!!
I received a letter today (20 March 2012), same thing plan envelope with blue ink written address with no return address. The number when called claims to be an agency working on behalf of a new travel agency in town. When asked where they were from, they stated a different state. Funny how the US Postal Service marks all envelopes where it gets mailed out of. That was where I live. Recommendation is to notify your local Better Business Bureau and then toss out that trash mail.
I received the same letter and made three calls over the past few days asking for Kelly Mane. Surprise! She doesn’t take calls and doesn’t have voice mail!! The letter has been shredded.
I got a letter too. I called the number but never said anything. Got a call back a few minutes later from a local number asking if I got my wuestions answered. Call back was from a local number 303-209-0398
I got one as well today. Thanks for the post.
Got my US Airlines letter. Had to look twice, US Airways I fly a lot Phone # 866-545-0485
I got the same letter today! Very strange! I smell scam! No address or any legal info just a phone number! Pleeease
I got the EXACT letter today with the exception that the number on the bottom of mine started with 56—. Do you think someone has actually sent out 56,000+ of these? I’d love to know who has that kind of money. Stamps aren’t cheap. E-mail scams are free, but sending out scams through the mail isn’t. Very strange indeed.
I got one as well….How did they get my name and address??
I got the same letter with small differences….everything else was the same.
The “retail amount” was $1298.00
The phone number was 1-866-545-0867
The number at the bottom was FS-16597
Got one too I knew right away it was a scam my husband and I had a good laugh and then threw it away!!!
Thanks for posting. We get texts that say we “won” a $100 Best Buy or $50 Walmart card. All scams, especially since we never entered any contests for anything like that. When it sounds too good to be true it is.
Just text STOP back to stop them, we are on the do not call list too so it’s annoying that some of these people are trying this nonsense to try to entice someone into thinking they won!
“Just text STOP back to stop them”.
No, no, no! Never respond to a scammer.
If you have Google Voice (and ya really should), just block the number from calling or sending you texts.
I received one of these “US Airlines” letters today also. Kelly Mane was pleased to inform me that I have _qualified_ for an award (note: it doesn’t say “won”).
It was dated Feb 18, 2012. It arrived on Feb 27, 2012 and I was given until Feb 29, 2012 to respond to 866-545-0867.
HA! This one’s going straight into the Recycle Bin.
See also http://www.fodors.com/community/air-travel/us-airlines-award-notificationscam.cfm . Who is “US Airlines” anyways? Think they mean “US Airways”?
i always get the “wire cash” scam. i’m sure other have seen it. don’t even bother opening the email.
tony.t
prosaver
couponcodeworld.com
I got one too… Thanks for this post! My husband thought it was legit! I knew better!