In a jumbled mess of phony invoices, misappropriated trademarks, and concocted credentials, New York businessman Joseph Ehrenreich's elaborate scam has come crashing down over the course of the past year.

Like most intricate travel-related frauds, Ehrenreich's scheme began with a simple premise: heavily discounted vacations. Working from his home in Niagara County, N.Y., Ehrenreich would reach out to local businesses, offering them the chance to pay several thousand dollars a year in return for unlimited vouchers for cruise-line travel.

In peddling this product, Ehrenreich generously padded his résumé with a number of bogus accomplishments. He was, he told potential clients, a member of two international trade groups for travel professionals. And he was able to score exclusive deals, he would claim, because of the cozy relationship he had developed with cruise lines during his stint as a travel agent for Fortune 500 companies. To promote these close ties, he employed various tactics, including the unauthorized use of cruise line Royal Caribbean's trademark.

When businesses took the bait and bought the unlimited-voucher package, Ehrenreich would tell them that they could use the free trips to reward hardworking employees or even to donate to charity fundraisers. When the companies distributed the vouchers, Ehrenreich would charge recipients a booking fee and attempt to get them to pay thousands of dollars to upgrade their reservations.

The catch? Ehrenreich never booked the tickets. When customers complained, he would finally take action, but only by getting access to their credit card information and charging them a second time for a purchase they thought they had already made.

When Ehrenreich was indicted last year, the charges exposed a network of defrauded organizations scattered across western New York. His victims include a hospice, a magazine, and a local Meals on Wheels branch. Earlier this month, he pleaded guilty and agreed to pay $130,000 in restitution.

Ehrenreich's fraud is hardly an isolated case. As peak travel season approaches and millions of Americans contemplate vacations, con artists are lining up to cash in on what has become a massively profitable business. But it's not just outright fraud that has consumers concerned. Instead, more subtle maneuverings, such as terms buried in fine print or misleading advertisements, also have the potential to drain billions of dollars from consumers' pockets each year.

Here are some tips on how to weed out the specious offers as you plan your next vacation:

Read the fine print. Vacations are rarely, if ever, truly free of cost. "Chances are, if you're getting something free, there are strings attached to it and you're going to have to do something in order to prevent being charged in the future," says Alison Southwick, a spokesperson for the Council of Better Business Bureaus.

Travel clubs that offer gift certificates are a prime example. Often, when consumers cash in the certificates, they get locked into membership agreements.

To avoid situations like this, read the fine print carefully on all travel offers, and make sure that what you see matches up with what the salesperson told you. "If you have to take it home and sleep on it, that's fine," says Southwick. "But don't just take them at their word. You absolutely have to make sure what the salesperson said to you is represented in the contract."

Do some comparison shopping. Cheap vacations to exotic places do exist--at least at certain times of the year. But during peak travel periods, you should expect prices for hotels and airfare to be relatively high.

That means that when you hear from a company that offers to drastically undercut the competition's prices, you should look at the deal with added scrutiny, says Gabe Saglie, the senior editor at Travelzoo, a website that reviews and publishes travel deals. "So much of pricing is dictated by seasonality ... that a lot of red flags come up merely from having an understanding of where prices should and should not be at different times of the year," he says.

Research the company offering the deal. Some scams are easy to spot, but even deals that have an aura of legitimacy can turn out to be fraudulent or misleading. "When you're offered $99 for a seven-day getaway to Mexico, I think common sense dictates that there is some kind of catch," says Saglie. "I think the consumer is perhaps more readily subjected to practices that on the surface may not be that obvious but ... that do end up inflating the actual cost of the vacations above and beyond what companies are used to advertising."

To make sure the deal is sound, do some background research on the company that is offering it. "It never hurts to research even the well-known names, but if it's a company you've never heard of, definitely research them because you have no idea what kind of reputation it has until you do your research," says Southwick. To help consumers, local Better Business Bureaus maintain reliability reports on a wide range of companies.

With the rise of online travel promotions, it has become even more important for consumers to do their homework. "Some of the best opportunities exist online, but some of the major pitfalls live on the information superhighway as well," says Saglie.

 

Taking the Kids Fishing in Alaska

Eileen Ogintz

We are on the world-famous Kenai River in Alaska with one of the river's best guides, Steve Fickes, who jokes that he's been guiding 'ever since I got my accounting degree' – more than two decades ago.

"The fish must hate us," moans 13-year-old Miles Singer.

We are on the world-famous Kenai River in Alaska with one of the river's best guides, Steve Fickes, who jokes that he's been guiding "ever since I got my accounting degree" – more than two decades ago.

It's like Grand Central Station on the Kenai this morning – about 50 small boats within a quarter-mile stretch on the river hoping to catch one of the 50-pound King Salmon making their run up the river to spawn before dying.

We've gotten up at 4:30 a.m. and are on the river by six – so early that we've lost my young cousin, 12-year-old Max Weinberg. "You don't have to go," I told him. "Really?" he said, decamping to go back to sleep.

His choice – I knew he'd be safe where we're staying – at the simple Great Alaska Lodge (www.greatalaska.com) right on the Kenai River. The lodge attracts serious "fishers," as well as families seeking an alternative to seeing Alaska by cruise ship, and offers the opportunity to fish, kayak, hike and nature walk along the spectacular Kenai Peninsula.

"We thought a cruise would be boring," the kids said. "This has been the coolest trip ever," added Mary Ann Quigley, visiting from Florida with four kids 14 to 24. Some budget-minded families opt for the adjacent tent camp – complete with hot water showers, camp cots, fluffy towels and cooks. "Great Bonding," said Californian Becky Roth, traveling with her husband and grown kids on their first family trip in 11 years. They were hiking, fishing, kayaking all together. Had they opted for a cruise, she said, "We'd all be going our separate ways."

The Kenai, meanwhile, is chock-a-block with boats, some reeling in Kings, others (like ours) looking on enviously. The guides confer by cell phone to find the best fishing "holes" where the salmon stop to rest on their way upstream. We find plenty of these holes – Mud Island, Eagle Rock, Poacher's Cove, Old Faithful – staked out by plenty of boats – but the salmon elude us. We get four bites (I get three!) but we don't catch any fish.

"It's about patience," says Steve Fickes, one of the best guides on the river. But that doesn't lessen our frustration. We munch on granola bars and sandwiches we made at breakfast. The sun peeks out from behind the clouds. We peel off windbreakers and fleece jackets. But no fish. Fickes tells us the second and largest run of salmon has started on the river – more than 50,000 sockeye salmon in one day and more than 1,000 of the King Salmon prized for their size.

We see one jump to the side of the boat; another jumps in front, but they avoid our hooks and lures. So frustrating!

Miles Singer, meanwhile, is already thinking about how much money he can make from selling the sockeye salmon he has already caught from the beach at the lodge. I think back to my kids' excitement when they first fished for "keepers" on Minnesota's Lake Vermillion at Ludlow's Island Resort (www.ludlowsresort.com). The key to their interest, whether they're three or 13, of course, is the catch. But that doesn't deter anyone from trying – or bringing kids along. Roughly 34,000 visitors to Alaska – one in five – go fishing every summer, Alaska tourism officials report.

Alaska fishing resorts – here and elsewhere – are finding more families seeking them out and welcome their business. The Waterfall Resort in Ketchikan (www.waterfallresort.com), for example, has designated the week of July 4th for families. (Kids can stay and fish for half price.) We fished in Glacier Bay from the deck of the Sea Wolf, a small, reconstituted World War II minesweeper we called home during a kayak trip, courtesy of a Thompson Family Adventures (www.familyadventures.com).

On our boat, I'm getting a little cranky. How long until we catch the Big One? "Kings can be temperamental," says Fickes. "Sometime they bite, sometimes they don't. The hours of boredom are worth it for the payoff," he promises.

That doesn't make us feel any better, as we try to keep warm in the damp morning air.

We make our way up and down the lake – 20 miles in nine hours – but no luck. Steve Fickes explains that we are approaching the best of the salmon run, which people come from all over the world to fish every late July and early August. This just makes us feel worse.

Miles focuses on the two sockeyes (almost 10 pounds of meat) he has already caught. (They will cost $150 to ship home.) I keep thinking about how amazed my gang will be if I reel in a 50-pound king salmon.

But it is not to be. While others take pictures of their trophy fish, we wonder why we're having such rotten luck.

Fishermen are only allowed to reel in one King Salmon, our guide explains. At this point, we'd settle for one for the boat. A bald eagle passes overhead. Seabirds munch on salmon carcasses thrown back in the water by fishermen after they've cleaned their catch. Our guide confers some more via cell phone with his fellow guides.

Three bites, nine hours on the world-famous lower Kenai River, and no fish later we call it a day. We can't help but be disappointed when we return empty-handed. Why couldn't the salmon choose another day to be temperamental?

Just like kids, I think.

 

© Eileen Ogintz

Travel | Travel Anatomy of a Travel Scam

 

 

 

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