Travellers to Bali be warned - there is a scam currently operating in Bali where you get a call in your hotel from an expat english speaker (in our case an Irish lady by the name of Joyce) and are informed that your name has just been drawn as one of only three major prize winners of a family holiday in Bali. Expressions of surprise and disbelief are met with the information that this is a competition being run by Bali Tourism in order to encourage return visits to the country and names are drawn randomly from those tourists entering the country on holiday. They tell you that information (including current hotel details) comes from the entry card everyone completes on the ‘plane and which is collected for government purposes only – thus giving this scam an air of legitimacy! Once your initial disbelief has been overcome (my God, I’ve never won anything in my life, let alone a big prize!) you are then informed that you are being invited to breakfast in their hotel in Nusa Dua at which time they will make the presentation of the prize and show you the hotel you will be staying in when you come for your free holiday! They then make a time for a car and driver to collect you at your hotel. On arrival at the hotel you are asked to complete a registration form (in order to collect your prize) which also includes an agreement that you will give them 1 hour of your time to listen to their presentation(!!). You are directed to their restaurant (pretty basic!) and offered a drink and told that your host will be with you soon to take you to breakfast. Any questions seeking to clarify the fact that you are there only to pick up your major prize are met with smiles and reassurances that ‘yes, of course you have won this prize – we just have some processes to go through first!’. Our ‘host’ when he arrived was a tall, obnoxious Welshman by the name of Paul, who seemed to love the sound of his own voice (rather like Beau Tyler of ‘Big Nuts, Memphis Meltdown fame) and immediately made snap judgements about us (we’re Kiwis therefore obsessed with rugby). He took us to breakfast (extremely mediocre – the breakfast we had given up in our hotel was vastly superior) and proceeded to aggressively bombard us with words. First he told us how clever he and the company were being (they pay Indonesian Immigration officials to hand over all the contact details of tourists entering the country). Then he told us how very lucky we were to be invited there so nicely (he was very proud of the fact that he usually ‘abducts’ people off the street and more or less forces them into a van). Then he told us how little it costs the company to bring us there (about NZ$3, including transport and breakfast) and then followed this up with the fact that we should be incredibly grateful to have our holiday interrupted in order to sample this mediocre breakfast in his company. When I finally interrupted him (I was getting indigestion) and told him that we had clearly been lured here under false pretenses, that I had many things I would rather do than spend a breakfast listening to him (going to the dentist would be one!) and that this was a very precious holiday for myself and my family which he and his company had hijacked – he became extremely abusive and told me that he didn’t like my attitude, then stormed off shouting that we would be sent away without our prize!
Anyway, the long and the short of it is that this company (Peninsula Hotels) are selling time shares (surprise!) and when we did eventually get our ‘prize’ it was a voucher for 7 nights accommodation, but with a whole lot of ‘hooks’ including that if you take it up you agree to attend another presentation!!!!!!!!
So, if you get a phone call in your hotel telling you you have won a major prize – DON’T WASTE ANY OF YOUR PRECIOUS HOLIDAY going to claim it.
That little voice that tells you ‘I never win prizes – this only happens to other people’ is right!
