Is this a scam? I never heard of these people before.

[raccoon]

(The letter was from Larson Keller. )


NOTE: You must respond no later than June 23, 2010.

Dear Raccoon,

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. 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 866-XXX-XXXX.

Their website says:

"About Us

Larson Keller is the country’s leader in incentive management.

Across many industries and service sectors, Larson Keller assists companies of all types with marketing and activities utilizing promotional gifts and sales incentives.

Rewarding potential customers with incentive gifts has a long standing history of success and will help you reach market segments effectively.

Potential customers are thrilled to receive gifts for their time in evaluating your offer."

http://www.larsonkeller.com/about-us/

[Blue-Jay]

1. Sounds like a scam to me. I'd ignore it.

[sufrommich]

2. It's a scam. There is no such thing as something for nothing. nt

[Richardo]

3. You're 'qualified' to win tickets. Along with every other person they sent this email to.

Sounds like time-share to me.

[katsy]

4. You have "qualified for an award"

You didn't win.

Scam.

[jp11]

5. Sounds like on of those buy/use this/these things first to get X

Potential customers are thrilled to receive gifts for their time in evaluating your offer.

[Xithras]

22. I actually did one of those. Many of those are legitimate, but...

But...they are structured in ways that are designed to trip you up, or have timelines that require you to pay constant attention to them.

I received a 32Gb iPod touch from mine, and to get it I had to join a book club, sign up for a Discover card, and use two online coupons from a discount service. All told, it ended up costing me about $40.

$40 for an iPod that was, at the time, retailing for $500 is one hell of a deal.

[Art_from_Ark]

6. The English sounds a little funny

That's the first tip-off

"Potential customers are thrilled to receive gifts for their time in evaluating your offer."

"f we do not hear from you soon, we may need to issue the ticket vouchers to the alternate."

Sounds like a scam to me.

[Blue-Jay]

7. Here's something interesting:

http://ivebeenmugged.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/05/shelton-white.html?cid=6a00e008d035db88340133f183f671970b

[raccoon]

10. "Third, the envelope was addressed by hand, and it was postmarked Phoenix AZ."

So was mine! Thanks for that link!

[tjwash]

8. Yep...looks like every time share scam I've ever seen

I always love that "you've been qualified to win a...." line that is always on these.

And if you call that number you'll be incredibly sorry...they'll snake your home phone number off of caller ID and sell it off to telemarketers faster than you can say :wtf:

[leveymg]

9. They probably want to sell you a time-share or vacation. Don't give them credit card or bank info.

Or other personal data.

There's no address, telephone number, or direct e-mail address listed on their website.

Be very careful. They may be collecting information for any number of purposes, and you probably will not have redress.

[Warpy]

11. If you didn't enter their contest, shitcan it

because the catch is usually a high pressure sales pitch at whatever destination those "restrictions apply" choose for you.

You don't need a vacation that much, trust me. The aggravation is extreme.

[fatbuckel]

12. Report this to the FBI, not DU.

[Phentex]

13. Respond on June 24th...

and see if your opportunity really did expire, lol.

[lunatica]

14. When in doubt use google. It will bring up any scam going on along with other things.

[pipi_k]

19. Exactly. That's what I just did. The name comes up

associated with an 800 (not 866) number.

Nothing negative that I can see, but maybe the scam is too new to have generated much feedback yet.

In any event, people should always be suspicious of things that just turn up out of the blue, and they need to google stuff for their own safety.

[raccoon]

23. I tried and found the "Larson Keller" site, but not the link in #7, which was most helpful. nt

[Jim__]

15. Why did they send this to you?

Did you enter some kind of contest? Or, just out of the goodness of their hearts, they decided to award you these tickets? Does that sound likely?

[raccoon]

20. I don't know, no, maybe, no. nt

[elleng]

16. 'LarsonKeller' supposed to sound like Garrison Keillor?

SCAM!

[peacetalksforall]

17. Precisely. I was just going to post this. 1000% scam and not just because of the word/name play

[raccoon]

21. How DARE they pretend to be of Garrison Keillor's ilk?

He should sue the cretins!

[immoderate]

29. Remember Larson E. Whipsnade?

--imm

[Xithras]

18. It's a DomainsByProxy registration. 100% sure it's a scam

DomainsByProxy is a service that lets people hide their identities when registering a domain name, and it's a well known tool commonly used by everyone from warez sites to malicious hackers and scammers. The address in Arizona is NOT the address of the business, but is the DomainsByProxy mailing address. The law requires that all registrations include a valid mailing address, so one of the DomainsByProxy "features" is mail forwarding. I assume their return address included a PMB number? DomainsByProxy uses that number as a code to identify the customer that they need to forward the mail to. While the mailing address may be in Arizona (where DBP is located), the real customer could be anywhere on the planet.

There is no reason for any legitimate company to hide its identity on its domain registration. When someone wants to do business with you and refuses to identify themselves, it's safe to assume that their interests aren't all that legitimate.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

24. That's a scam. But Mr. Raccoon, could you help please ..

I your help need to get inheritance moneys into country. If you please could send $10 or 5,000 DU Recs to me,JustABozoOnThisBus, at the First Bozo Bank of Lagos Nigeria, I can assure get you thousands or even hundreds of value most valuable.

Thanks you so much.

[YOY]

25. Anyone ever gets one for Amtrak Train Tickets PM me.

I know who to let know about this deal.

[Javaman]

26. sounds like a scam or time sharing.. oh wait. nt

[old mark]

27. If you call the number, they will get around to asking you for some sort of fee...

and if you send it, you will never hear from them again.

mark

[Lydia Leftcoast]

28. If you "win" something you never entered a contest for, it's a scam

Unless it's a McArthur Genius Award or a Nobel Prize. :-)

[NM_hemilover]

30. send me $50,........ and I'll tell you how to make $100.

[snooper2]

31. You could just call the number and do some research...might be legit

I was called by someone saying I won a sweepstakes for Ranchers Reserve..They were the company handling the prize awards. Sounded like a scam and I told them I would call Tom Thumb to see if they were legit...

Called Tom Thumb's headquarters and yep, they were working for them doing the prize management.

All said and done, I was automatically entered in a sweepstakes when I had bought some ranchers reserve product and swiped my Tom Thumb card.

Ended up winning a Brand New Coleman pop-up camper- retail was like $16,400...


So, you never know :)