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  • Report:  #819299

Complaint Review: Mike Sparks and Nicole Dunn - Kissimmee Florida

Reported By:
jaime-ryan32 - St. John''s, New Foundland, Canada
Submitted:
Updated:

Mike Sparks and Nicole Dunn
8003 Bow Creek Road Kissimmee, 34747 Florida, United States of America
Phone:
407-508-2358
Categories:
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Ebay Seller nlast2011 also known as Mike Sparks and Nicole Dunn from Orlando, Fl. posted a Classifed Ad on Ebay which stated they were selling Walt Disney World Tickets, Universal, Sea World, cirque du soleil la nouba for $1500 US. As my family are travelling to Florida to bring our 4 year old son to an Autism Treatment Center there, we thought we would check out this great deal.

We are a family of 4, travelling with our son's home therapist to Orlando so we really needed 5 tickets for everything. I contacted the seller and we emailled back and forth for a couple of days and then I told him about my son's therapy. He called me saying that he had an 8 yr old daughter with Autism and gave me a big story on how his wife walked out on her leaving her alone for an entire day, etc, etc....He played on my heartstrings and he was good at it!

He told me that both himself and his wife Nicole were Disney Cast Members. I didn't really know what to believe but he gave me our reservation codes to call Discovery Cove to verify the names and dates and she also told me that it was booked by a Disney Cast Member. When I said "Yes, Mike Sparks", she agreed. This was a legitimate phone number. I looked it up on the internet first and it was listed under Discovery Cove, so I really had no reason NOT to believe him. I wanted these tickets before someone else grabbed them!

Payment was a hassle, every which way. It did set off warning bells in my head, but I really thought that this guy was just more unlucky that I was..lol. NOT SO.

BUYERS BEWARE: This guy came up with every story in the book when it came too why he couldn't use PayPal - oh they hold the money for 21 days, he said, and we need the money to buy our airline tickets to fly home to California, he said.

I couldn't use the MoneyGram through Walmart as we do not have it here in Newfoundland so I sent the money...like an idiot...through Western Union. This gets better......Western Union called me and told me that because I purchased this item on Ebay, they wouldn't permit it to go through because it was more than likely a scam! Yeah...those bells went off again, but W.U. told me that the computer randomly selected me as the clerk wrote in "Internet Purchase". He didn't say he had anything on this person at all, just that they do not advise I allow this to go through. So I didn't.

I figured if this was a scam, I better make sure I have a paper trail on these two and pay them through Paypal. They insisted that I not pay them that way as it was held, so they sent it to me as Bill Payment through an old account they suddenly found. It wasn't a bill payment and I wasn't paying it that way.

When it came down to the crunch and they finally gave me the reservation codes to verify, I was stupid enough to give him my credit card number. He sent me pictures of the tickets going into a FedEx bag and a picture of the tracking number.

The next day, I went online and tried to track it but the number came back as "Unknown". I called him, emailed him, texted and after two days he gets back to me with "Oh sorry, when I got there, it was in the wrong fedex parcel so I had to put it in another one." No tracking number, no nothing. Two more days later he gets back to me with another bogus tracking number and tells me that the parcel got held at customs and then it got sent back to Disney and that he may loss his job for using Disney Fedex Services for personal use.

He still sounded legitimate to me. He sounds like a real sweatheart. I actually felt bad for the guy. He said he would refund me my entire amount to my card and send my tickets as well and send me the tracking number from the Fedex office.....NOT!

I cancelled my credit card and I'm now out $1700. Money they can't be replaced and now a trip to Florida with no Disney World or Discovery Cove at all. My kids are devistated and there's absolutely nothing I can do about it. The police will work on it, I'm sure, but may never catch these two creeps that play on peoples desires to make their children's dreams come true.


4 Updates & Rebuttals

crmatch

Maitland,
Florida,
Arrests

#2Consumer Comment

Thu, May 02, 2013

Disney World security has sting operations and drag nets of people who defraud guests in this way.  It is against employee policy to sell "comp tickets" and it is grounds for termination.

Report Attachments

Joe Schmo

Possible Mike Sparks LinkedIn Profile...

#3Consumer Comment

Thu, April 18, 2013

Mike "Sparky" Sparks' LinkedIn...

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/mike-sparks/58/607/954


Bushwacker

Oklahoma,
United States of America
Associated scam still being offered

#4Consumer Comment

Sun, January 13, 2013

I ran into this same scam with the brother in law of Mike Sparks.  Jeff Palmer (Jeffpalmer76) supposedly of Kissimmee Florida listed an eBay auction for an unbelievable vacation package saying that he was selling his employee cast member hotel stay and tickets that could be used as Friend and Family reservation.   The scammer used my payment information to attempt to purchase an American Express Gift card online for over $2000.  Shortly after discovering enought to suspect it was a scam, I called the number given as the office number and noticed the two names on the phone number given (888-355-8633) were Jeff Palmer and Mike Sparks.  I searched for Mike Sparks on-line and found this Ripoff Report.  This confirmed my suspicions but I needed to follow through with the process to get a confirmation number and employee number to be able to confirm the fraud.

When I asked Jeff how they were affiliated, he said they work togehter.  When questioned about Nicole Dunn, he said she was his sister in law and then said that Mike is his brother in law.  Jeff used a bogus "cast reservation line" to book the hotel under his name.  I called Disney to validate the information and found no such confirmation or employee existed under the numbers given.  The name given by the bogus reservation line agent was Amber Jensen.

Be on the lookout for the names used in this process of Mike Sparks, Nicole Dunn, Jeff Palmer, Amber Jensen, and a variation of these names (Nikki Dunn, Amber Nicole Dunn, etc).

Be aware that 407-603-5375 is not a Disney affiliated number for cast reservations or any other matter related to Disney.

Please be aware and do not purchase from non-Disney sources especially eBay.  Had I not questioned this, we would have ended up at getting to the hotel with no reservations and no valid tickets.


Joe Schmo

United States of America
I may know this Mike Sparks...

#5UPDATE Employee

Tue, December 04, 2012

I was an employee of Disneyland in CA between the years of 2000-2006, and I knew an 'area manager' named Mike "Sparky" Sparks. From what I've heard, he moved from Disneyland park to California Adventure (DCA), then to Orlando Florida.

The man I remember: Mike Sparks was a weasley little man who had a severe Napoleon complex. He was condescending and unapproachable. I had a few interactions with the man, and he was utterly terrible to "work under'...if that's what you want to call working under middle management. In reality he was just a yes man.

If this is the same Mike Sparks of Disneyland CA, I wouldn't at all be surprised that he would scam a nice family out of a lot of money. HOWEVER, if this isn't the actual Mike Sparks that I know, I would be willing to bet some shyster used the same name based off of the same Mike Sparks as a cover as they wouldn't mind besmirching his name to scam someone else.

If you want to get in touch with people who may have records of Mike Sparks to aid in the investigation, you can call Disneyland's operator  (714) 781-1651

I'm sorry you were taken by this snake. I hope you as well as the law finds Mike Sparks so he can get his.

-River Rat

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