I received a very enlightening phone call on my cell today while I was at work. “Gavin,” from American Shopping Center, taught me about all sorts of things that I just didn’t understand before. For example, “Gavin” is pronounced “Gay-vin” when you are trying to adopt an American name while living in India. Here are all the other things I learned from “Gay-vin”:
- I have never heard of American Shopping Center, even though it is a major brand-building company that works with all the major brands in the United States.
- American Shopping Center uses voice recognition software to record a vocal authorization allowing them to charge my credit card.
- This vocal authorization allows them to only charge my credit card $3.95.
- There is nothing wrong with this.
- It’s the same as giving my credit card information to Amazon.
- The $3.95 charge covers the cost of shipping me my free digital camera and 3 day, 2 night stay at any hotel in America.
- Oh, and there’s also a $40 gas card good at any gas station in the United States.
- American Shopping Center wants to do this for my benefit.
- American Shopping Center will send this to me because I have been a valued customer of a major U.S. brand in the recent past and they want to show their appreciation.
- American Shopping Center cannot, however, tell me which brand appreciates and values my patronage because they represent over 1500 brands and it would take too long to tell me all of them.
- There is nothing wrong with this.
- When I give them my credit card information, they will only charge $3.95 for the shipping.
- That is all they can charge, according to my vocally recorded authorization.
- The $3.95 charge will appear on my monthly credit card statement.
- American Shopping Center cannot take my credit card information to buy something on Amazon because you need authorization to do this.
- You need more than just a credit card number to buy something on Amazon: you must have authorization to use the credit card number.
- No really, you idiot, you can’t buy anything on Amazon unless you have a credit card number and authorization.
- I have never purchased anything on Amazon.
- I don’t know how Amazon works.
- There is nothing wrong with this.
- American Shopping Center has to send me this package.
- American Shopping Center is a reputable company.
- American Shopping Center is a reputable company with a website.
- American Shopping Center is a reputable company, with a website, that works for all the major brands in the U.S.
- American Shopping Center is a reputable company, with a website, that works for all the major brands in the U.S., but can’t afford a decent web designer.
- American Shopping Center is a reputable company, with a website, that works for all the major brands in the U.S., can’t afford a decent web designer, and can’t afford it’s own email domain (lvpremiums@aol.com).
- American Shopping Center is a reputable company, with a website, that works for all the major brands in the U.S., can’t afford a decent web designer or it’s own email domain (lvpremiums@aol.com), and only hires non-native speakers of English who have bad manners, interrupt people when they are talking, insinuate that the people they are speaking to are idiots who know nothing of how financial institutions work.
- There is nothing wrong with this, because all the major brand names in America are represented by American Shopping Center.
- American Shopping Center will not take “No thanks” for an answer.
- American Shopping Center must send me this package for my benefit.
- American Shopping Center will continue to insist that they must send me this package, even after I repeatedly tell them that a) I do not want it, thank you, b) I will never give out my credit card information to anyone who calls me asking for it, no matter what they say or how reputable they are or who they represent or how much they are going to charge it, c) I do not want them to continue to call at 9:30 pm or any other hour of the day for a week at a time, or d) I am hanging up now, so please have a nice day.
- American Shopping Center wants me to go to hell.
- There is nothing wrong with this.
There is just one thing that I understand very, very well: Never, under any circumstances, give your credit card or banking information to anyone who calls you. Period. They will take that information and drain your accounts dry. Even if you only vocally authorize them to charge the account for $3.95.
ha ha this is hilarious, and very sad… i get phone spammers all day long at work. sometimes they are very personable and i almost fall for their trap… but i can proudly say i’ve never given out my credit card number on the phone!
A funny, creative way to remind us all to never give our financial information to anyone over the phone. Thanks for posting it.
I noticed they needed a web designer and email domain also. This is crazy! I’m surprised that you actually stayed on the phone with them for that long. Must have been a boring work day! lol I once fell for something like this, from a credit card company with native English speakers. I had good excuses though. I was sick, alone, bored, wanted company… I called a week later when I realized what I had done to cancel whatever it was that I had ordered. I was just relieved that it was an actual company and not a total scam, just a partial scam I guess.
I’ve gotten more burned by a major magazine company with an online order-somehow they sold my information and I was charged all kinds of things and from several companies. My bank was very cooperative when I went in to visit with the customer service rep. They refunded me what was lost (not much thankfully) and investigated the companies.
the same happened to me… my question is when they can afford to give $1000 cash, a 2 day 3 night hotel stay and $ 40 gas card why the heck do they want $3.95 from me for the shipping ??? sounds fishy right..and I agree totally they wont take no as an answer, the guy even said I would regret not trusting them and letting go off such a good offer…well good that i could resist the temptation of $1000 shopping card….
yeah, i’ve gotten the $1000 shopping card offer too. one of the many times they’ve called.
I don’t understand either, but it looks so funny, I always some other people bing out this kind of funny questions
wow..this is hilarious!! i received 5 calls within 3 days from these very people!
however, as far as line #29 goes..she must have gotten a lot of “no thanks” that day, because she just hung up on me! hahaha i didn’t get to experience the sales tactics of this reputable company. shucks
but, i knew this was a scam from the moment i saw the caller a id. what reputable company calls from a cell phone?! and verizon wireless at that. well, at least for me it was a mobile to mobile call, so i didn’t burn any minutes. LOL
dawn, i think that, because i entertained his offers for that long, he didn’t want to give up, thinking that he had me, perhaps. also, i’ve gotten several calls from different numbers, including one from (and this is straight from my caller ID): (000) 000-0000. seriously.
i just got a call myself at work. i asked how they got my number and the guy (sounded indian and not a great english speaker) said my number was picked out of many since i bought a major brand. i kept asking what brand and he kept trying to go back to his script…so i kept asking what brand, and so on…he finally acted like he couldn’t hear anyone on the line…he kept saying “hello? hello? is anyone there?” even as i responded and said i hadn’t gone anywhere…he finally hung up…
hey me (boy, that feels weird), yeah, that seems to be a major trend for these people: stick to the script. any deviation i caused seemed to escalate my guy’s temper, and he never answered my question completely. your number was picked out of many because you bought a major brand? how many major brands have your work telephone number? and they’ll never, ever mention a brand, no matter how many times you ask.
that pretending not to hear you is good, though…you have to give him credit for that one. come to think of it, i think i’ve had one try that on me before!
I received a call today at 7:30 PM (July 25th) introducing themselves as employees of American Shopping Center and great give away for this 50th anniversary. The agent’s name was Davis Stewart. He did talk same thing that I am one of the lucky winners in US. His phone number on my caller ID showed up as (408) area code. Accent sounded like Indian. Never took NO for an answer. He said he will charge me 3.95$ on my credit card and also they are registered in better business bureau. I asked for email address I can reach him, he only gave his ID number and English name. He said he was calling from UTAH when I asked where he was calling from. I knew it was one of the calling centres from abroad.
He connected to his boss Gavin Dawson, who spent nearly an hour of my Friday time trying to convince me to sell this. He was so desperate to give his credit card number when I refused to give out mine and asking me to repeat that to make it look like I paid 3.95$. I refused telling I can’t do that knowing consequences. (Just warning)
He was desperate to convince me. He mentioned about his company website “VacationGetawayIncentives.com” and I was checked online while on the phone. It redirected me to some page which did not match.
He tried to rush me to pay using credit card that he has to go home that he claimed in Las Vegas telling it was 10:30PM. It was 8:06 PM in Las Vegas. He argued about the time too.
He spoke Indian accent and I asked which place he was from India. He said except him, all his coworkers were Indians.
Out of all, the Davis Stewart, when I picked up the phone asked me “Do you speak English”? when I did not understand what he said in the beginning. Well, I asked him to call on Monday for me to think about it.
He was Just rushing me to make this deal.
I just got off the phone with “American Shopping Center” and I myself like to play with these people.. I ended up talking to 3 different people b/c I pretended that I was crying and upset that they wouldn’t give me a telephone number to call back on and I was going to lose my new Sony 8.0 mega pixel digital camera that I had just won… I even asked the person if they could use there credit card and I would send them the $3.95 in the mail… That didn’t work… My sister-n-law and I were laughing like crazy… I finally talk to Rose and she finally told me that they were calling from Las Vegas, Nevada but couldn’t give out their telephone number for security purposes… Not sure what that means… They called me on my cell phone (and I never give out my cell phone number EVER!!!) and the number that was on my caller id was 574-312-7014.. When you call this number it says that it has been disconnected. They are going to call me back on Monday to see if I could have gotten a credit or debit card from a family member or a friend (I told them that I don’t have a credit/debit card). I will tell them what I have found out… Thanks for your guys info and do you happen to have the website?? I would like to check that out.. I am from Indiana and would like to know what other states they are trying to con… These people are crazy… oh and when I asked them if they could use their credit/debit card they said that was not possible b/c you have to be an American citizen to be able to get this “Wonderful Offer”. Also, I have Verizon Wireless cell service.. do you all have this service and if you do I would like to know cause I sure would like to call up Verizon and let them know what they won!!! Have a great weekend!!!
Has anyone ever sucessfully gone through with the offers? I keep getting the calls too… Mine was from a local number.
i wonder if that was the same gavin that talked to me! and that’s a new website…i haven’t heard that one before. it certainly doesn’t seem to match anything they talk about, though.
@lisa: i had never thought of playing with them! we don’t have verizon…we’re with alltel, so it couldn’t have been the actual carrier that was involved, i don’t imagine. if you’re looking for their website (the one they told me about), there’s a link to it in numbers 23-27 above, if you want to check it out. and i’d love to know if they actually called back today.
@iDeal: i really, really hope nobody has actually given them their credit card info. heaven help them if they have. interesting that yours was from a local number. where (generally) do you live? both the websites they’ve given out seem to be from Vegas.
Over the last several days I have received many calls from these guys on my land line, not my cell phone. I keep telling them I am on the national do not call list and to stop calling me. Of course, they don’t care. My caller id indicates the name as “Intl. Number” but shows a local (505) area code. Interestingly, when they called five minutes ago, after “Hello” all I said was could I have their mailing address. Big shock, they hung up.
mrs. gonzalez, that’s a good tactic! i kept asking them to mail me some information so that i could decide and call them back, but i never thought of asking for their address! nice work =]
I live in the Minneapolis area, but I have received the calls from Vegas also, those I never answer because I don’t know anyone in that area.
I received another phone call last Tuesday and the guys was VERY rude… I advised him that I am on to his tricks and that he must be a fool to think that I will be giving him my credit/debit card information…. After a few minutes of me yelling at him for keep calling me an not obeying my wishes to stop calling me and take my name and number he told me that “I love you!” I said excuse me and he then said again “I love you!” I went off on him and then he asked me “Are you alone tonight, do you need someone to talk to?” I told him no I am not alone and said “here tlk to my husband”. I passed over my phone to my husband and he said “what did you just say to my wife??? the guy hung up and they haven’t called since last Tuesday.. I am keeping my fingers crossed hoping that they will stop calling me… That may just being wishfull thinking… Thanks for your response…. have a great week!!!
man, now i’m depressed…no phone scammer ever professed their undying love to me over the phone. *sniff*
i need chocolate.
=P
At 7:40 pm on 8/5/2008 I received a harassing phone call from Gavin, at American Shopper Center. He said I had won a 3 day vacation and a digital camera. I asked him to remove my name from the list and refused. He read off my address and said he would mail the gift to my house. I repeatedly refused the offer and he continued to harass me. I asked him for his phone # and he gave me 9-1-943-222-8412. I told him I would report him to the police for harassment, as he said “I am the police”. I called my local police department and they advised I file a complaint with the BBB.
Ok.. had to jump in here… Here is a new one for you.. he tried to act hot and tell me I used a Bank of America card to make the purchase I won with… (1 out of 155 people right?) and I said I don’t have a Bank of America and never did.. and he goes back to the script.. I was like “oh wow”. I can’t believe how stupid this is… He was like “you use your card in the stores we already have a record of that card” I was thinking “then tell me the last 4 digits and I will know I am already screwed and we can go on with life!!!!”
Oh and the website they gave me isn’t even legit. It is an esy site builder and a free one at that with no site as they suggested on it. The site they gave me was
http://www.vacationgetawayincentive.com
Hi all,
I have also received fake call from so called “American Shopping Centre”.
Bye the way, I am Indian. Person who is talking with me since last 1 or 2 weeks has given below web site.
http://www.vacationgetawayincentives.com/
I am trying to get their e-mail id or address so that I can log complaint against them.
If any one succeeds to get their mail address or e mail address, please post it over here.
I am telling him to give me his mail address so I can mail them cheque (check) of $3.95.. lets see how it works.
Thanks!
I just received a call my a man with an Indian accent. He said he was from American Shopping Center and I won a digital camera and a 3-day vacation. As soon as he mentioned I had to pay $3.95 for shipping which was to be charged to my credit card I knew it was a scam. I told him I wasn’t interested. I then looked up ASC and found all these responses. Glad I didn’t fall for their scam. Thanks.
Thank you so much for posting this. I just got off the phone with them and had asked them to call me back. I wanted to research them before giving them my info. Obviously I will not be supplying them with it when they call again.
Well I think that I may have finally gotten rid of these freaks…. Ever since the guy professed his love for me and wanted to start a phone sex relationship over the phone that night I haven’t heard from him… Maybe its b/c he is upset I have a husband… ha ha!!! If i was thinking then I should of told him that I charge $1 for the first 3 min and then $5 for each additional minute after that… ha ha ha!!!! I love messing with these freaks…. I hope you all have enjoyed my stories with our friends from American Shopping Center… I hope you all harass them and hopefully they won’t be calling you back either!!!! GOOD LUCK!!!!
I am getting these calls very freequently. once they offered me same free gift of dizy cam and a holiday trip. Then I had ask them to send me that. then they started asking my bank details then I realised. and I said look for some body… After long time they started calling me again… Some body please let us know if you have any information abt this company. so that we can log a complaint on this company.
I am getting these calls from 800-555-4455 number. I there any way to track these people. When i call back this number is not in use.
sunny…i don’t think the bbb could do anything because i doubt these guys are in the u.s. though i guess that a complaint would at least be there for others to find as they’re researching the company. thanks for the suggestion!
sarah k…so they’re dropping names now? that’s interesting, and even more considering that he didn’t even listen to the fact that you don’t have a b of a card!
carol and kym…glad we could help. =]
lisa…wow! they really don’t call back? i just don’t think it would work for me, trying to pass the phone off to my wife…i’ll have to come up with something new.
jim…i doubt that they will ever give anyone some verifiable information. if they did, they’d have been shut down long ago. i guess we can at least give them that much credit. and yeah, their calls came in spurts for me, too, frequent for a couple of days, off for a couple of months, then on again. grr.
I have been getting these calls a lot lately as well. Usually, as soon as they say that I’ve won something I tell them I’m not interested, to stop calling me, and then I hang up before they can start on their script. Since that obviously wasn’t keeping them from calling back, this time I decided to get some more information.
The rep that called me today (I couldn’t understand her name, or much of anything else she said), kept getting irrate with me and interrupting me and just saying the same scripted lines over and over again. I asked to speak with her supervisor, and after arguing with me for another minute or so and telling me she had a supervisor but he doesn’t take phone calls, she finally handed the phone to him.
Supervisor “Adam Willis ID# E731952” got on the phone and apologized for the rep, saying it was her first day and she didn’t really know what she was talking about just yet. He explained that I had bought a major brand with my credit/debit card and the brand just wanted to show me their appreciation.
When he asked for my verbal authorization to charge my card for $2.95, I asked him how he was going to do that if I wasn’t going to give him my credit card #. Apparently he thought I was asking him why they were going to charge me 2.95. He started spouting of U.S. law code ###, section ### stating that a company cannot give something away completely free, they must charge at least a small base charge, such as shipping and handling, per this law.
He said he was going to transfer me back to a rep to get my verbal credit card charge authorization. I pretended the call was breaking up as I was on my cell phone, and asked for a number to call back in case I got disconnected. He said their number is (800) 511-9165.
I hung up and then called that number back, and a recording said I’ve reached the Identity Sweep Customer Service line, and if I want to cancel my identity theft service to press 1 and all other callers remain on the line for the next rep. I waited on the line for several minutes, and then a recording came on and said all reps are busy, and to leave my name, phone number, credit card/account number, and reason for my call! Scary!
Oh, the supervisor also kept telling me that they were registered with the BBB, so I just sent in an inquiry to the BB to see if a company by that name is actually registered with them. I’ll post any response I get.
wow, michelle…obviously their tactics are developing! that phone number is scary, though. yikes. i hope no one falls for that one. please, please do tell us if the bbb returns any findings. and the last time i heard, a company can give you anything they want for free. heck, we’ve hit a number of toy stores that gave our kids balloons without us buying anything, and they didn’t charge a “small base charge.” i’ll be the numbers sounded very official, though. =]
I just got off the phone with Gavin! I Googled the company while I was talking to him. I told him that it sounded way too good to be true, especially since he couldn’t tell me which company gave him my information. I also told him that I never give out my credit card information over the phone, but he was desperate. Finally I had to hang up on him. He’s calling me back again. This is the fourth time I’ve ignored his call.
I spoke to this guy and he had me so ticked off that i called him every insult i could think of oh and i can think of many lol. after about 10 minutes of cussing him up one side and down the other i hung up. he called back again and i acted like i did not speak english and he tried a few other languages and i still acted as if i did not understand him. finally he hung up and i was happy about that and he has not called back since.
I got this call too! Today, August 29, 2008, I got a call at 7:30pm from 800-555-4455. This guy had my full name and exact home address!! He kept arguing for about 45 minutes and even called his supervisor, Victor “sir”, when I refused to give out my credit card number. Both of these guys were Indian and were pretending to be Americans. I am a supervisor myself at my University’s Phone Program and knew the protocol pretty well to handle them. Victor , the supervisor just hung up on me soon after claiming that he wont hang up after he got my card information. I am an Indian myself and felt ashamed of these guys’ actions as I could easily see through their plot.
I just got off the phone with one of these guys. I talked with him for about 15 minutes, he was trying very hard to get a credit card number. I ended up telling him I didn’t have a credit card, and he called me a liar. I bantered back and forth with him for a while, and when he realized I wasn’t going to give him anything he went off with a ton of profanity, mostly saying “f**k your mother” over and over. Very nice.
Thank God i googled the information as I was speaking to gayvin from Inda. He kept begging me to have my account credited for $3.95 just for vertification of where i lived. I told him iwasn’t going to pay for someone to figure out where I lived. He was stone cold crazy. I was having a really bad day when he called. My pipes had busted in my house and the brace in the pith of my roof was bowing. I had very little sense of humor for that foolish man. I was already depressed about how much I was going to spend and he wanted $3.95 go to hell. People like that get on my nerves when I am having to spend more than my daily caloric intake on my house for repairs.
I really think I would turn them into consumer practices because evidentially there is no such company. All they are trying to do is scam the public with just $3.95 like a pozzie scam. Where you sell one item over and over again.
because if you google vacationgetawayincentives.com Gayvin keeps telling you that they are part of the telemarketers. Well I told him the telemarketers claim that you will have to pay $99.00 for the certificate and it is only for the hotel no food, or airfare.
I have dug deeper into the Gayvin or however you spell his name. Yes, it is a recorded voice for sure. his company or whoever he represents is only trying to scam for identity theft.
Stay away from Gayvin.
Quit obsessing on them they are crooks.
check them out with http://www.snoopes.com
Today I am grateful for the internet, because in a matter of seconds you can find pretty much anything.
Today I got a call from…..yep y’all guess right, Gay-vin.
He was telling me all these wonderful things I could have for a s/h charge of 3.95..and that my package will be arriving via UPS.
He kept telling me over and over and over, that he is not a scammer, not trying to steal my money, trying to sell me anything and so forth…..well being smart as I was (thank heavens) I went online while we were having a lovely conversation (him rambling on in a bad English that was so hard to understand I bout had to force my phone into my ear canal to make a word understandable)
He was giving me all these websites and addresses and telephone numbers, that were suppose to prove of how legit him and his company was. Finally I stumbled across you guys and I started reading while he was talking….he said please do this for me and that he was from SC…I started laughing and told him to stop trying to take me for a fool, that I knew what he was up to, he was not going to get anything out of me and that, for all I care…he could go to hell for all the poor people that actually fell for this…He called me the B, the C and many other names, I just laughed and hung up……..he has called back 11 times, I just ignore his calls.
I will make sure that I will put a thread of this onto my website, notify everybody I know about this gentleman and his techniques and protocol to real you in.
Thanks a bunch you guys, great help!!!!!!!
Hey guys I got a call from America Shopping Center also today and was informed I would receive a $40 Gas voucher and a free vacation! This is such a joke! I stumbled across this website while on the phone with Gavin and called him out on all the BS he was feeding me, it was hilarious! He kept trying to sell me this nonsense! I asked for his number and could not get him to give it up. I live in Alabama and it showed up on my cellphone as a local number, by the way I have tmobile. Oh and for fun next time he offers you this wonderfull package and all you have to do is pay 3.75 for shipping ask him why can American shopping center afford to send us free gifts but can’t afford shipping charges! He will be baffled beyond belief!
WOW!! I just got the phone call from the American Shopping center! First of all I live in Houston,Tx(especially right now) remember we just had a HURRICAN!!! I asked him where he got my number and the man said that it was computer generated. He told me of all of the trips $1000 gas card that is all free to me . I was in my kitchen and thought let me google this company really quick. While waiting he said that it shows that I live in Houston and asked for my address. I told him if he knew that much then he should know my address, he then said they got the phone number but not the address. I asked him where are they located,how long have they been in business, what companies are they representing and how can they just give me all of these things (again at no cost to me!)? He started to talk and I interupted him and said NO THANK YOU and DO NOT CALL THIS NUMBER OR I WILL REPORT YOU TO THE FCC!! The man then hung up and I smiled. Oh the google was quickly reading the comments on this website about the same calls you all received before me!
Thank to you all and CAUTION TO THE REST OF YOU OUT THERE!!! If the don’t have your information do not freely give it to them! That’s like giving someone on the street your social security number and valid ID, and credit card and telling them to have fun at your expense.
Be blessed.
OMG…. thank God this was the first website when I googled American Shopping Center.. Cuz as the Indian had me on the phone tryin to convince me this was important to my life,I found this page informing me that as I believed they were the DEVIL lol. Bottom line I hung up on the Indian and the Indian’s Indian Supervisor. They kept askin whats wrong, why would I not be interested?? BECAUSE I SAID SOOOOOOOOOOO. CLICK! How is that for an authorization? lol They had called my cell 3 times this week and for some unknown reason I finally answered the call. I hope people dont fall for this:(
DONT DO IT!!!
I sat on the phone forever talking circles with them. I gave them all my numbers but the secured ones on the back. They kept pushing for those last numbers very aggressively, but I refused. Finally, I flat out said no and Mr. Nice Indian Guy Who Cant Speak English began cussing me out using ever profane word in the english language. I sat stunned thinking…. wow I sure am glad I didnt give them those last numbers
Thanks, and I knew this sounded too good to be true. I told them I wanted to check in on their company first before I further pursue anything. Then told them to call back. I’m def going to say, NO!!! 😉
I got a call from an indian sounding man with the english name of “David”. I had won a free trip to anyplace in the US and I could take anyone with me. All I need to do was to pay give him my credit card number and I would be charged $3.50!! That’s all there was to it! I told him that I had never heard of the company and that I would not give my number over the phone. He kept on pushing then said I could speak to his supervisor. His supervisor told me that they worked with all these stores in Indiana. That meant that they already had my numbers, trying harder to get my approval. I told him that I was still not going to give it to him. When he would not stop, I just hung up.
umm… ya i got a call from 000000000. that was the 7th one. so i decided to answer it. like you all said, it was some foreign sounding guy saying that i shopped at walmart and i was chosen to receive a giveaway. I ask him how he got my number, he said i shopped at walmart and used my credit card there and thats how he got my number…..weird. well, i did shot there but how he got my number idk. He informed me of a 4.95 charge for shipping. I would be receiving a 100$ gas card, and a paid trip. me all excited, i grab my GIFT CARD VISA. not knowing if this was legit, i gave him the 16 digit number. the card doesnt have much on it so if they do start charging me for then 5 bucks, it would bounce :p. he gave me a bunch of numbers and i tried calling them back after he (autin something) gave me my conformation number. Those numbers didnt work, and the website he gave me was a load of crap. they have my mailing address….not physical. thank god! and a credit card number that will bounce when they start charging more then the “shipping” fee….so although i fell for it, i think i was pretty smart. if they call again i will attempt to cancel the “free” services they signed me up for and i will tow with them. hehehee
When I get these calls (and I’m not at work) to answer, I almost always:
1. Appear extremely interested, only to shoot them down at the end, when they want any money (even for the $1.95 handling charge).
2. Lewdly flirt with the speaker if they’re female.
3. Be very rude with the males and really disagreeable.
4. Hang up the phone when they begin their first sentence.
5. Am polite enough to say: “Whatever it is, I don’t want it. Goodbye.”
6. Have AT&T, which drops my calls for me- sometimes anyway.
I will try:
1. Only speaking Spanish.
2. Make up a fake accent.
3. Come up with a crazy event I’m currently in (ie being robbed, burglarizing, running from a shadow creature that only I can see, being whipped by Mom, etc.).
4. Pretending to be insane & laugh hysterically.
5. Give them a big piece of my mind, via my dirty mouth.
Thanks for your stories! American Shopping Center called me 7/19/09 – I won a vacation for 5 and a $500 shopping card just because I spent some money somewhere. I only needed to give them a card number to bill the $6.95 shipping to. I refused to give them my info until I had checked them out.
They gave me these as their current address and website although I’m sure when I pass them on to FCC (since I began the call telling them to end the call and remove my name from their call list yet they kept haranguing me for 20 minutes even calling me back when I hung up) the address and website will just be fronts to make them look legitimate.
If it seems too good to be true, it is.
By the way, here’s their supposed address and website: American Shopping Center 2600 Lake Lucien Dr Maitland FL 32751
http://www..journeypass..com (the extra dots were added on purpose by me since I don’t want a link to them on here.
Thank you for the internet and to the posted comments. I just received a call myself today with American Shopping Center- telling me my name was one of the drawn lucky 2 shoppers in CA who won a prize -bottomline I insisted to them…this is a scam and I don’t need their prize of $500 free shopping cert and a 3 day vacation package anywhere in US for 5 people in exchange for my credit card info to charge the $5.90 shipping and handling. Anyway, here’s their suppose to be customer service no. 1-800-303-2359 in FL and the person who called me is James with ID # CC8084…The call was pass on to the supervisor Kevin and tried to convince me further….well, I told him to call me back because I have to do my own research as their style is the same as a scammer….
Thanks for this info, it’s nice to get the confirmation of what I suspected.
‘American Shopping Center’ told me they represented Wal-Mart and Target among others (“not a lot of people know that”) and were holding a “customer appreciation month”, wanted to give me a free vacation, and $500 shopping voucher for the small fee of $5.90.
I asked them repeatedly to take my number off their calling list, and reputable companies, even rude ones, normally hang up at this point. I let him ramble while I Googled and then told him he had to take my number off this list, because if he didn’t would be in violation of federal law. (Like he cares) At this, he said “What, you can’t afford $5.90?”, and I hung up.
I’m only sorry they haven’t caught up with these con artists yet. I’m resigned to receiving several more harassing calls before they realise thye’re wasting their time.
FYI, the complaint site for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC):
http://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov
When they call back (I’m sure they will) I’ll try to get more info out of them to report. The more the FTC has the easier it will be for them to find them and jail their asses.
There’s nothing wrong with this.
Hi,
I just received a call from these guys telling me the same thing.
American Shopping Center’ told me they represented Wal-Mart and Target among others (”not a lot of people know that”) and were holding a “customer appreciation month”, wanted to give me a free vacation, and $500 shopping voucher for the small fee of $5.90.. I told him I do not give out cc# over the phone and ask did they have a website….he say no.. as he ramble on I told him that i need to investigate what he’s saying and ask if they had a number that I could call back.. he gave me 1-800-303-2359 says it’s their customer service number.. I called and it’s not.
He verified my phone and address .. now this is scary… Thanks for information provided here.
wow, it looks like we’re starting to see a new round of calls from these guys! after a few months’ break over the winter, they’re back! yay! glad to see that this is still a good resource for those receiving these calls. make sure you tell your friends/family about these guys…the only reason they keep calling is because some people fall for it. be smart! =]
I got a call from these guys, claiming to be calling from LosAngeles.
To cut a long story short, since its the same BS they gave me about a camera, vacation and $500 card to spend within the US ( he took pains to tell me I could not spend it outside US, just to make it sound genuine, by putting some restrictions), I finally said I am not going to give my CC over the phone, and he called his supervisor, another Indian pretending to be American. I am from India, so I could easily see thru the accent. When I told him that he sounds like and Indian and just changed his name, and that I was not interested, he got REALLY upset. He shouted back saying, “If u were not interested, why did u ask to speak to the supervisor!”. I told him I didnt ask, I was offered by your colleage, and that I just think this is a scam, he shouted back, “I have a 10 inch long d***, I will f*** you!”. What bozos. Anyway, its quite obvious this is a big scam, they likely will charge hundreds of $$ to ur CC if u give them the number.
We are receiving these calls again after a few months of a break. The new approach is that they want to refund my CC $100 because of a mistake, but their data base has lost my CC number. After a long wrestleing match with my wife the began to shour F*** You, F*** You,… and I want to F*** your daughter. If anyone finds a way to get these guys silenced please post here. Thanks
I received a call on my cell phone today from a lady in Indiana – I live in Minnesota. She informed me that American Shopping Center had called her offering a gift card and a credit card with $200 on it. The person who called her gave her my name, home address & cell phone number – which I never give out to anyone I don’t know on a personal basis. They then gave her my bank card number. She was told that the manger would be calling back shortly and she was to give him my info – name, address, phone #, and bank card #. Fortunately, this exceptionally kind woman called me right after she notified the local sheriff department – using the phone number they gave her – to warn me what she had just experienced. I have never spoken to anyone from American Shopping Center. I would certainly like to get my hands on these folks to find out how they got my information!
Wow. Obviously the FTC isn’t very efficient. I just received a call from this same “name” – Gavin. Considering the first entry on this blog is from 2008, I guess there isn’t much hope of ever stopping this guy/these people.
Wow. This has been going on a long time. I just got the “Wal-mart , Target” card offer, from Castor Dawson at 560 Sylvan Ave in Englewood Cliffs, NJ. After I hung up, I got several calls back AND a nasty message on my voice mail!!
2/22/10
Freaking Gavin. “called himself Kevin” called me from LA telling me that i won a three day two night stay at a five star resort and 500 walmart spending spree. it sounded very convincing. i gave him my credit card. then they ask for the authorization code so i told them to call back in an hour. i quickly googled “American shopping center” and i found this site. this site save my ass. i called my credit card to cancel it. thank god it was just in time. they ran though a $0.00 to check if it works. once he calls back, i started to question him. after liek five minutes, i started making fun of him. these people are not professional at all. they cannot even defend themselves with insult. all they can say is “i got a 9 inch”. i told them to stick it up their supervisors vagina who they said happened to have a huge ass.
Looks like these guys are getting quite a fan club!
I live in central maine and just got a call from american shopping center telling me I had won a $500 pre-paid credit card because I bought something at wal-mart with a credit card.All I had to do was give them my credit card # so they could charge $1.95 shipping.While I asked questions about their company,I had my son google them only to find that,to no surprise,they were a total scam!these guys do not like taking no for an answer at all!He was begging and pleading for me to give my credit card #
while telling me what a great thing I was going to miss out on.I finally told him that these was no way I would give him any info.and not to call back.I may have played along for a while just for fun if I was not so busy just to waste his time so he could not try to scam someone else.The caller id said out of area and the scammer claimed to be from Jersey but I will bet he couldn’t find it on a map!DO NOT FALL FOR THIS SCAM!!!!!
Now I feel like an idiot. I was promised a $500 Wal-Mart give card for trying out the American Buyers Shopppers Club for $3.95. My card was charged to a company Travel Innovations from Arizona. But the callers that called were James and Kevin.