I was approaced by Astar via an internet site I had been using and trusted. I was the 1 millionth person that day logged on and qualified for a discounted travel package.

I spoke with Patrice initially, who rambled off a whole bunch of information non-stop about what a great package she had to offer me, hotel bookings, free rental car and/or tickets to Florida's theme parks, for an extra fee I could also include a Bahama's cruise for 3 days... blah, blah, blah.

My marraige had just broken down and I felt like my kids and I really deserved a nice holiday like this so "stupid me" I got sucked in by what a great deal it was and agreed to give them my credit card details. I did confirm with them first that if I changed my mind I wanted a full refund. By this time I was talking to "Artiste" who confirmed that if I returned my tickets within a 30 day time frame I was "GUARANTEED" a full refund of the purchase price. My details were taken over the phone and they recorded the information to cover their sorry arses, and within 4 days NZ$1372 had been deducted from my credit card as agreed with them.

I received a confirmation by email advising the transaction had been successful, and everything looked just great. The tickets arrived 2-3 weeks later, by which time I had changed my mind, so I contacted them with the details they had given me and said I wanted a refund. No problem, send the tickets back but hurry because you are running out of time they said.

OK, so I put them in the mail, then called them about 10 days later to check they had been received. The person I spoke with was very accommodating, yes everything was fine, the refund had been booked into their system, and should be processed in the next batch of refunds they were processing... blah blah, blah

I have since contacted them and now all I get is the answer phone message. It is now 4 months later and I have not seen penny of my money.

THESE GUYS ARE A TOTAL SCAM. DO NOT GET SUCKED IN.

If you have already been scammed like me DO NOT GIVE IN. Complain to every agency you can find. The more noise we make the more likely they are going to be caught and then we all get our money back. Keep fighting these people have to be stopped.

I have contacted the Federal Trade Complaints authority, where I have submitted an official complaint. I contacted them today to find out my chances of getting my money back. They have also suggested I contact Federal Business Buerau on 827-535-5522. FTC have advised the more complaints they receive as an organisation they will then begin proceedings against this company. Federal Business Bureau because they are based in Florida can also take action.

Let all stick together on this and bring these thieves down. Are you with me???? Lets do this thing.

I received notification that I had won a prize and asked to select the destination for the prize being a holiday at that destination. I was then adviced that they would make phone contact. ASTAR rang early this morning (whilst I was still asleep) and proceeded to outline the 'prize'. After awhile I established that we had to get to Florida at our own cost, we had to pay port taxes for the 'free' cruise of $299 and we had to pay $998 for the privelage of receiving the prize. I had to confirm on the spot that we accepted the prize. When I asked for confirmation of the detail in writing so I could discuss with my husband before agreeing to accept the 'prize' I was referred to an 0800 number for customer service (which they were anyway).

I smelt a rat and as soon as it became clear to them that I was sceptical and unlikely to take the offer their tone changed and they became very hostile on the phone. Shortly thereafter they hung up.

This was a personal intrusion on my time and clearly the 'travel' and 'prize' was a scam. Fortunately I did not provide any credit card information.

This leaves a sour taste. New Zealanders should not be preyed upon by fraudster US companies - i f nothing else it does nothing to change the image of the USA overseas - and President Obama, I am sure, would be less than impressed.

You need to act and close down these internet scamming companies

I had a call from Astar Travel at 6am saying that I had won a holiday. I was sceptical as I know i hadn't entered into any competition - the guy on the phone said if I wasn't excited, I wasn't invited after I was disinterested.

They transferred me a couple of times for details and then it got to credit card and they were insisting that to proceed they needed that. I didn't give it to them.

I am now the recipient of early morning phone calls from Florida where they hang up on me and am reporting them as a nuisance call.

I want to say thank you to all those who have posted this on the internet, as after the first call I investigated the company and came across all the information about the company being a scam - so THANK YOU ALL. It is worthwhile posting things like this, it saved me money and being involved.

I decided to post my incident with Astar having read and benefited from the complaints I found on this site. One year ago I entered a draw online and was later informed that I won a vacation with Astar. As this was not a random ad that I clicked, I thought that maybe indeed I won a prize (after all, some people do win real prizes). Astar called me one year later! There was the typical blabla - a package of only $998 with Astar covering 85% of the expenses - that sounded good. The agent then asked my for my credit card details and after I refused to give in, he called the "security department" where another man tried to intimidate me and then hung up (when he realized I wasn't giving the card anyway). 1 month later Astar called me back around 30 times and I finally answered to get rid of them. This time, there was a lady slicker and smarter than the previous agent. After a lot of useless convincing, she realized I wasn't giving my card details on the phone and offered to verify her identity (I asked for that). She gave me her name and travel agent number. I called the toll free number on Astar's website and they confirmed the identity of my interlocutor. In the meantime, I had the opportunity to call a couple of friends to see what they think. They suggested I google Astar and stumbled upon this website. Needless to say that when the agent called back, I told her about my findings but then she answered that this is a ripoff attempt by some blackmailer and asked me to go to www.easyripoffreport.com (which doesn't exist!) to verify her claims. At this point I ended the conversation.

Having spent a bit more time on the net, I found the following: Astar vacations do take place but their quality and actual expenses are far different from what they claim (http://boakes.org/talk/topic/astar-vacations). In addition, it seems that they try to sell timeshares (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071122051805AAJXnma). The full scheme is described here: http://boakes.org/florida-travel-vouchers/. So the deceit is subtler than what it first seems to be.

I'd like to thank the people who posted here before for helping me figure out this scam.

This is a further complaint about ASTAR travel - timeshare holidays. On the 29th Nov 2008 my wife accepted a "free" holiday offer from ASTAR travel reps not realising it was for a timeshare holiday. The holiday was offered at a discount price of £536 for two weeks in Florida. Debit card details were given over the phone. The following day my wife wrote a cancellation notice and sent emails saying that she had changed her mind. These were ignored and the transaction progressed. They have promised a refund within 14 - 21 days but this has now passed and it looks like we have lost our money.

I have asked the local police in Tampa to look into the matter but not sure if they can do anything.

This company should be banned from trading.

If anyone gets a call or email from ASTAR - BEWARE this is a SCAM