Be Excellent To Each Other

http://www.calypsocay.com/

Yeah, I just received a phone call on the land line with a recorded message. Something along the lines of (in a US accent) "You've just won a Caribbean cruise! Press 9 for more info".

So, being the curious chap I am, I pressed 9. I got through to an American guy called Terry McBride. After making it very clear that I wasn't paying for the call and they were picking up the bill, I let him give me his sales pitch. Basically, I'd won 10 days in Florida etc. etc. All sounded brilliant.

He told me to visit the website, but I googled the resort name instead to find a bunch of "it's a scam" posts on various watchdog forums.

I questioned this and he tried to deny everything. So I said "listen mate, it's clearly a scam, don't phone me again". And before I could hang up, I heard the hilarious sound of a panicking man slamming the handset down.

In short, it's a scam! Was quite a fun way to waste a few minutes, though.

Further reading:

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/1 ... 167630.htm

That was my first thought too.

No. I clarified this as soon as I was connected to the guy. He insisted that they were paying for the call. If he was lying, then never mind

There was a scam along these lines a few years back and indeed the callers ended up paying. It was certainly illegal and may not even be technically possible for them to do this anymore. Still worth checking the bill mind. If you have BT's online services you can check your bill on their website.

To be fair, if you get a phone call out of the blue that a recorded message telling you you've won a holiday, you don't really need to talk to American Terry or google the resort to know it's a scam.

No shit, but I thought it would be interesting anyway. Clearly I was wrong.

Wasn't there a sketch with those people from Peep Show that had them trying to give away real holidays but being unable to? It was so hillarious I can barely remember the details.

I wasn't having a go. I just wasn't sure at which point in the series of events you decided it was a scam.

It was interesting - A transcript of the conversation would have been fun. Winding up cold-callers is ace.

I should've recorded it or something. It entertained my girlfriend and I at least.

I think they were trying to give away MASSIVE YACHTS.

Some old granny called up Radio Pasty about that 2 weeks back.

I got the phone call a couple of weeks ago as well.