Letter from a VP of Travel Awards Division about free airline tickets

/330 Comments/in /by

These guys are going bad to their tried-and-true strategy of making up two-name companies and sending letters offering free airline tickets. (See all other posts here about these letters.) Please comment if you received one with your location.

It tells you that you have qualified for an award of 2 roundtrip airline tickets. It looks like it was actually signed by Kelly Mane, the “Vice President.” They hand write the address on the envelope and use a real stamp (sometimes!).

Here are the new companies so far:

Fletcher Adams (fletcheradams.com)

Nelson Murphy (nelsonmurphy.com)

Franklin Hobbs (franklinhobbs.com)

Duncan Jacobs (duncanjacobs.com)

Stevenson Barnes (stevensonbarnes.com)

Once you go to the sales pitch and sign up, you book through a fulfillment company. I’ve seen two lately: Universal Travel Vacations (website, BBB report) or the The Vacation Station (website, BBB report TN, BBB report SC)

I have found the answers to this mystery thanks to the great work of the folks at BBB in Tucson, AZ:

http://www.bbb.org/tucson/business-reviews/travel-clubs/southwest-travel-club-in-tucson-az-20007983

http://www.bbb.org/tucson/business-reviews/prize-promotions/patterson-bell-in-tucson-az-20027549

An actual story: http://www.kgun9.com/features/investigations/122887609.html

NEW video from INSIDE THE SALES PRESENTATION: http://www.9news.com/news/article/362984/339/Companies-behind-free-airline-ticket-letters-

Great reporting from WKMG: http://www.clickorlando.com/news/Free-travel-offer-mystifies-consumers/-/1637132/15701330/-/8s7gus/-/index.html

Video from inside the first ever video encounter I’ve seen: http://www.kboi2.com/news/local/Travel-service-vacation-smart-international-us-airlines-vacationanddeals-com-175915611.html?tab=video&c=y

If you would like to read more about these folks, visit this post. You can read all about the sales presentation, the free offer and the what you get for your vacation membership club cash outlay.

LETTER:


I am pleased to inform you that you have qualified for an award of 2 roundtrip airline tickets. Congratulations.Play Store Download These tickets are valid for travel anywhere in the Continental U.S. The retail value of this award is up to $1,298.00. 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 1-866-517-2406 (numbers always changing).

Regards,

VP du jour (see above)

Vice President

Travel Awards Division


 

 

Here is what would happen if you did call:

ADVICE:

When I read this, it was just too good not to post. It’s from the Nebraska Attorney General (page 13 printed/page 15 PDF).

Look for the warning signs that may indicate a scam:

  • Benefits sound too good to be true.
  • The company has no permanent address and all presentations are held in rented conference rooms.
  • They can’t, or won’t, provide you with references.
  • They don’t want to give you an itemized list of what’s included in your trip until you have already signed the contract.

What you should do if you suspect a scam:

  • Don’t sign any contract during the travel presentation. They are high-pressure events intended to stir the emotions of an exotic vacation.
  • Contact a respected travel agent in town, give them the specifics of the trip, and ask if that seems consistent with industry pricing.
  • Shop around. Compare your trip with other travel packages being offered to seniors.

Here is Michigan’s Attorney General’s advice:
http://www.michigan.gov/ag/0,1607,7-164-34739_20942-44762–,00.html

AppleMobileDeviceService.exe high CPU Bsecure fix

/4 Comments/in , /by

Bsecure has somehow fixed the problem of the high CPU usage caused by their LSP that helped them do their internet filtering caused by Apple’s iTunes and associated software. Here are instructions courtesy of Brian Asher:

http://bcasher.wordpress.com/2013/09/23/itunes-using-100-cpu-error-0x80090318-fixed/

 

 

 

How to: multiple monitor setup for Dell Optiplex 790

/34 Comments/in , /by

I currently am recommending the Dell Optiplex 790 minitower. (This will work for the desktop configuration as well.) It took me a lot of time and multiple returns to figure out the best way to do dual monitor, triple monitor and quadruple monitor setups (two monitors, three  monitors and four monitors). Here is what I found works the best:

Dual monitors: The simplest and cleanest way to do it is to buy a DisplayPort to DVI (male to male) 6 foot or 10 foot cable. The 790 has the capability of using the DisplayPort jack in the back as a second monitor without buying another video card. Here is an example of the cable. Note: this will only work for you if one of your two monitors has a DVI (white) jack. I have also used a DisplayPort to VGA adapter successfully over the last month (this is the exact adapter). You are able to choose either a cloned view or independent screens using either Windows’s Display settings or Intel Graphics settings (click here for Intel’s instructions) Related Site.

Triple/quad monitors: I found that I couldn’t use my trusty Radeon 7000 PCI cards in Windows 7 machines, so I chose to go with the ASUS Radeon HD 5450 PCI-Express (I’ve since switched to this newer card – the ASUS Radeon HD6450).  I chose this video card because it is reasonably priced (with no need for gaming) and that there is no fan to reduce the chance of failures. In the 790, you can actually buy two of these PCI Express video cards and put them both in! (See this PDF for motherboard card slot info.) I’ve done it and it truly works with three monitors and I’m sure it would for four.

Please comment with your own experiments and successes on the 790 or similar models.

[SOLUTION] Canon D1120 duplex jamming

/6 Comments/in , /by

A client of mine has a Canon imageCLASS D1120 copier that would jam each time they tried to copy or print any double sided. I looked and looked for a jam, but couldn’t find any. It would print the one side and suck it back in and jam. I took a flashlight in the back and finally figured out what was happening — there was paper inside that was causing the jam.как сделать хороший проект здания.

Remove the paper tray and look for this green lever (as is shown in the diagram #1 in the picture below). Pull it down and remove the jam!

[SOLUTION] Lenovo 3000 H210 won’t boot

/0 Comments/in , /by

I had a Lenovo 3000 H210 desktop computer come in that wouldn’t boot — it would just spin up the fan and do nothing. I found that by removing one stick of RAM at a time, I would try to boot. With the left one out, it would boot, so I replaced it with another stick and things worked just fine! Incidently, the brand of the RAM was Sharetronic — I’ve been doing this a long time and never heard of them before.

If you need to buy more RAM, here is a good place:

http://www you can try here.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=Lenovo%20H210%20(5355)

[SOLUTION] Office 2010 not activated: error 0xc004f074

/0 Comments/in , /by

I had a user that had a corporate version of Office 2010 installed for over one month and all of a sudden it said it wasn’t activated. The company help desk worked on it for hours and hours and told her to reimage the computer.sports74.ru

I investigated and ran the registry fix and KMS.exe they have internally, but it didn’t work. I found that the date was one month behind. I changed the computer’s date to the current date and it was activated!!!

SUMMARY: Check the computer’s date and time.