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SALT LAKE CITY — Congratulations, you've won two free airline tickets to anywhere in the U.S., no strings attached.
Many Utahns, including Becky Vilos of Kaysville, received that exciting news in their mailboxes but wondered if it's really as wonderful as it seems.
Vilos received an official travel voucher, a check for $1,229 good for free travel on a U.S. airline. It looked official in every way, but Vilos wondered why it showed up in her mailbox.
"This one is for $1,229, and why would someone randomly send that to me?" she asked.
She didn't enter any contests or sign up for anything. The letterhead said Delta Sky Rewards.
"I've never heard of that," she said. Neither has anyone else because Delta Sky Rewards doesn't exist. The logo is nowhere close to the real Delta Air Lines' logo, but it does look like it's from an airline.
"If you weren't paying close attention you might think, cool, I just scored," Vilos said.
Jane Driggs with the Utah Better Business Bureau said, "They're using great deceptive marketing."
She said residents across the state have been peppered with similar airline vouchers. They come from company names that sound legitimate, like Delta Sky Rewards or Continental U.S., or U.S. Airlines. But the companies really don't exist.
"They're deceptively using it to make you think it's a real airline offering tickets, not a voucher," Driggs explained.
When you call the phone number on the voucher, you'll learn the only way to get the promised tickets is to attend a 90-minute presentation.
"They want you to join a travel club for thousands of dollars," Driggs explained.
It usually costs anywhere from $1,500 to $8,000, plus an annual fee, to join. You can't go to the presentation without a major credit card and you can't go alone -- a spouse is required.
"Otherwise you could say, 'My husband doesn't want this or my wife doesn't want to do this. Let me check with them.' They want you trapped there so that you will sign up," Driggs said.
Even if you endure the sales pitch you won't walk out with free tickets. The presenters hope you'll give up trying to get tickets long before they have to send one to you.
Instead, they offered two free cruise ship tickets to the Bahamas with Caribbean Cruise Lines, which is not a real cruise line. The company doesn't own a ship, but it does have more than 1,400 complaints with the Better Business Bureau.
Numerous restrictions, deposits, taxes and other fees can add up quickly for what you thought was a free gift.
Several companies are involved in the scheme. You probably won't know which one you're dealing with.
"You really won't know anything," Driggs said. "And they can deny they know anything because they're a separate company."
Would you go into business with a company that doesn't tell you who they are up front? Vilos said it's not worth giving her personal information to even try calling the phone number.
"I wouldn't go," she said. "They started out shady. I'm not going to look into something, give more money, to go into business with someone that shady."
