OFT visits airports

[November 12th 2008]

The Office of Fair Trading is at airports around the UK today to warn holidaymakers about bogus holiday clubs.

The OFT Scambusters team is at airports including Gatwick, Stansted, Birmingham, Manchester, East Midlands, and Belfast International handing out information and fake holiday club scratchcards. The scratchcards are designed to look like the ones handed out by bogus holiday club touts and ask ‘Have you won a luxury holiday?’

In a Europe-wide day of action staff from the European Consumer Centre are also at the arrivals area of Tenerife South airport today to reinforce the message about bogus holiday clubs. Ads have been place in the baggage hall at the airport as well as in Flybe and Thomas Cook in-flight magazines warning holidaymakers about the bogus holiday clubs.

The OFT says that every year large number of UK consumers are tricked out of thousands of pounds by the bogus holiday club scam at resorts around Spain, including Malaga, Marbella, Gran Canaria and Tenerife.

“Bogus holiday clubs ruin thousands of holidays every year leaving holidaymakers with large bills for near worthless holiday club memberships. The OFT is working hard to raise awareness of the tricks used by these scammers and to ensure that action is taken to combat the worst offenders,” explains OFT director of consumer protection, Mike Haley.

The OFT warns that scratchcards given out by touts for bogus holiday clubs are all ‘winners’ but the prize always turns out to be “a trip to a lengthy sales presentation and a chance to pay thousands of pounds for membership to a bogus holiday club”.

In most cases holidaymakers discover they have bought little more than access to an internet booking site offering the same service they could get at a travel agent for free. The OFT has conducted research that shows that 78% of bogus holiday club victims are aged between 35 and 64 and the average loss per victim is £3,030.

Written by: Nick Purdom