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Faithful Vacation

Faithful Vacation - Latest Malaysian scratchie scam

The Malaysian scratchcard scam has proven to be a winner for fraudsters for years and years.Faithful_Vacation_scratch_s

You get a fancy, professional-looking brochure in the mail, with two scratch cards. One’s a loser and the other a winner. When you make contact to claim your prize you are asked to pay government taxes or fees to access your winnings, which don’t really exist. You will also be asked to give secure personal information, such as a passport and bank account details, which puts you at risk of identity theft.

Every time authorities publicly name a bogus travel company scam, the scammers simply re-invent themselves with a new name. Generally they don’t alter the design of the scratchies and colourful brochures and that’s certainly the case with the latest ‘Faithful Vacation’ mail-outs.

As with the last Malaysian travel scratch and win scam that WA ScamNet named (Flaming Ace), this one under the name ‘Faithful Vacation’ is also claiming to be a promotion to celebrate the 11th anniversary of the organisation and even uses the same fonts and formatting as the ‘Flaming Ace’ scam scratch cards. 

Even though Faithful Vacation is supposed to be celebrating its 11th anniversary there’s no evidence of the travel company being in existence for that many years and the now deactivated website www.faithfulvacation.com definitely wasn’t around for long.

While visiting Western Australia, a couple from South Australia reported their concerns about the ‘Faithful Vacation’ scheme to WA ScamNet, only to receive confirmation it is a scam. They had lost just over $6,000 trying to claim a non-existent US$165,000 prize after receiving a brochure and a ‘winning’ scratch card in the post.

Upon contacting ‘Faithful Holiday’ they were put in touch with a supposedly Hong Kong-based financial services group called Andrew and Hannah Holdings, which is listed as an organisation associated with the prize promotion on the ‘Faithful Holiday’ scratch card. Andrew and Hannah Holdings went on to request fees, in writing but with the incorrect spelling Andrew and Hanna Holdings, in order to release the prize funds owed to the ‘winning couple’. Faithful_Vacation_Letter_s

WA ScamNet’s research has found the company, Andrew and Hannah Holdings (www.andrewhannahholdings.com), are not listed on the Securities Commission Malaysia website’s Public Register of Licence Holders. 

WA ScamNet works with Australia Post to seek interception of scam mail at the Perth sorting facility but sometimes items slip through the net. Here are our scam prevention tips:

  • If you get a travel company brochure and scratch cards in the mail, rip them up and throw them in the bin or report them to WA ScamNet so that we can warn others.

  • ALWAYS be suspicious of out-of-the-blue post offering a prize – ask yourself why you would win something you haven’t entered and why would you have to pay upfront to claim a prize. An internet search about the organisation will usually reveal it’s a scam.

  • NEVER give your personal identification and bank details to anyone you do not know and trust, or whose identity you have not independently verified.

Other names used in the Malaysian scratchie card scam previously include: