National Gifting Center Telephone scam offering "free" airline tickets and hotel accommodations. Must attend "award ceremony" to receive gifts. Portland, Maine
I received a phone call On Oct.17,2009 from a man with a very thick Indian/Asian accent, which made his speech almost unintelligible. He claimed that I had filled out a coupon on Jan. 15th of this year at a Marriott Hotel, and had won a prize of 2 fully paid round trip airline tickets including meals and accommodations to anywhere in the continental U.S. I had also won 3 days and 3 nights at a luxury hotel with all meals paid for.
He purported to be representing American Airlines and the Marriott Hotels. The gifts were being awarded through "The National Gifting Center" at an award ceremony the following day, and I had to attend one of three scheduled "ceremonies" to receive my gifts.
No doubt they count on most people not remembering what they were doing on a particular day 10 months ago. However, on Jan. 14th, I flew to Ohio to pick up a puppy, and on Jan. 15th, I took the puppy to the vets for a check up, so I knew I was nowhere near a Marriott Hotel on that day!
Like several of the reports from other states, the caller identified himself as "Angel", wanted to verify income of over $50,000 per year, and asked me to bring 2 forms of identification, including one picture ID, and gave me a call back number: 972-468-0975.I didn't bother calling the number, but did determine that it is a Texas area code.
This morning, I Googled this company and found reports of scams in other states. I called the police in Portland, ME to alert them that this scam was going on today. I gave them as much information as I could, and hope that they can stop some of the intended victims from giving up their personal information.
I received a call about 20 minutes before the start of my scheduled "award ceremony" to confirm that I would be attending. When I told the caller that I was not attending, that I was well aware this was a scam, and that I had contacted the police about this operation, he became very angry, aggressive and defensive. He angrily tried to convince me that it was not a scam. I told him that I was not interested but that the police might be and hung up.