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DON'T LET POP-UP ADS FIZZLE YOUR VACATION
USTOA Offers Tips on Recognizing Web Fraud

You have been selected to win a World Class Vacation Package offer! A pop-up ad appears offering a free trip to Florida or Bermuda. You sign up, phone the number, to learn that you will have to pay for your airfare plus a $50 per person fee, and that it's really a timeshare property visit and presentation in disguise.

Misleading ads such as these, and other free trip offers through e-mail solicitations, banner and pop-up ads, are occurring with increasing frequency, according to the United States Tour Operators Association (USTOA).

While most offers are legitimate, the Federal Trade Commission cites vacation promotions as one of the top ten "Dot Cons." So it is best to take some precautionary measures before packing your bags, recommends USTOA, a nonprofit organization representing many of the country's top travel companies.

Travel sales via the Internet represent a new frontier in consumer purchasing. Forrester Research, a technology research firm, reports that 38.8 million American households went online to plan leisure travel in 2001, with 17.8 million of these actually purchasing travel on the Internet, for a total expenditure of $14.2 billion. According to Web Travel News, an Internet publication, online travel is expected to account for 15% of all travel business for 2002.

Many travel e-mail offers and Web sites are genuine, and are valuable tools for researching destination information, comparison-shopping and booking a trip, acknowledges Robert E. Whitley, USTOA president. However, computer users should protect themselves by being aware of trickily-worded claims or fraud, he cautions.

Web fraud generally falls into two categories. The most common are e-mail distributed "special offers," e-mail messages or pop-up ads using misleading language, and often claiming the recipient has won a contest. Net surfers should also be wary of fraudulent Web sites, Home pages of phony companies. The page advertises false travel deals, or it has a form for consumers to fill out, and sometime later they receive an e-mail announcing they have won a vacation. USTOA also cautions Web surfers not to judge a company solely by the appearance of its Internet site.

"If you are buying a vacation package, for instance, find out whether your purchase is protected in case the company closes or goes out of business. Does the company belong to an organization offering a consumer protection plan, such as the USTOA Travelers Assistance Program? These are just some of the questions today's computer-shopping traveler should ask," notes Whitley.

For a listing of USTOA-Member companies, consult www.USTOA.com on the Web or phone 1-800-GO-USTOA for a free copy of USTOA'S Smart Traveler's Planning Kit.