Letter from Hamilton Gates about free airline tickets

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[UPDATE 9/19/10: I have included more information in a post about another letter here.] (See other posts here.)

Today I received a letter from Hamilton Gates telling me that I have qualified for an award of 2 roundtrip airline tickets. It says to call 866-391-0391. It looks like it was actually signed by Brittany Dale, the Vice President of the Travel Awards Division.

The www.hamiltongates.com website exists. Here’s the whois info: http://www.whois.net/whois/hamiltongates.com — registered July 6, 2010.

My envelope has a 44 cent actual stamp, postmarked from Phoenix AZ 852 on July 19 and my address is hand written (although on this one they were writing very quickly)!

Here are some things that seem to be related in some way:

http://vimeo.com/13355376

An actual story: http://www.kgun9.com/Global/story.asp?S=12741861

Notice anything similar to hamiltongates.com with these?

Garrison Finley: http://www.garrisonfinley.com/

Sampson Phelps: http://www.sampsonphelps.com/

Burton Malone: http://burtonmalone.com/

Anderson Pratt: http://andersonpratt.com/

Morgan Stanfield: http://morganstanfield.com/

Maddox Wright: http://maddoxwright.com/

Strickland Penn: http://stricklandpenn.com/

Harris Fields: http://www.harrisfields.com/

Lexington Duke: http://www.lexingtonduke.com/

Hamilton Gates: http://hamiltongates.com/ (http://twitter.com/hamiltongates)

Madden Hall: http://maddenhall.com/ (http://twitter.com/maddenhall)

Davidson Powell: http://davidsonpowell.com/ (http://twitter.com/davidsonpowell)

Nicholson Barnes: http://www.nicholsonbarnes.com/ (http://twitter.com/nicholsonbarnes)

Warner Rowe: http://www.warnerrowe.com/ (http://twitter.com/warnerrowe)

Larson Keller: http://www.larsonkeller.com/ (http://twitter.com/larsonkeller)

Robinson Rhodes: http://www.robinsonrhodes.com

Stanton Carney: http://www.stantoncarney.com/

Foster Simmons: http://www.fostersimmons.com/

Swanson Carr: http://www.swansoncarr.com/

Morrison Banks: http://www.morrisonbanks.com/

Stanton Carney: http://www.stantoncarney.com/

Zimmerman Cain: http://zimmermancain.com/

Thompson Fuller: http://www.thompsonfuller.com/

Shelton White: http://sheltonwhite.com/

Gilbert Turner: http://gilbertturner.com/

Richardson Blake: http://www.richardsonblake.com/

Sutton Perry: http://www.suttonperry.com/

Chapman Lane

Sullivan Lang

Spencer Burns

Hammond Reed

Lambert Steel

Peterson Burke

Watson Brooks

Bradley Tate

Stevens Cole: http://www.stevenscole.com/

Hudson Stone

Hoffman Sims

Patterson Bell

Erickson Wade

Emerson Ross

Welsh McCormick: http://welshmccormick.com/

Jensen Sharpe: http://www.jensensharpe.com/

Jefferson Greer: http://www.jeffersongreer.com/

Henderson Gill: http://www.hendersongill.com/

Finn and Gilliam: http://finnandgilliam.com/

Brooks Spade: http://brooksspade.com/

I have found the answers to this mystery thanks to the great work of the folks at BBB in Tucson, AZ:

http://www.bbb.org/tucson/business-reviews/travel-clubs/southwest-travel-club-in-tucson-az-20007983

I am the proud recipient of a replica of this letter with the name of Madden Hall.  See my earlier blog post about that letter.

Oh look what someone posted about me anonymously, of course: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/5201222/brian_morris_tech_fraud/

Here is the letter and envelope (click to see larger image):

TEXT:

I am pleased to inform you that you have qualified for an award of 2 roundtrip airline tickets. Congratulations. These tickets are valid for travel anywhere in the Continental U.S. The retail value of this award is up to $1,400.00. Certain restrictions apply.

We have attempted contacting you several times without success. This is our last attempt. If we do not hear from you soon, we may need to issue the ticket vouchers to the alternate.

Please call me today at 866-391-0391.

Regards,

Brittany Dale

Vice President, Travel Awards Division

info@hamiltongates.com — www.hamiltongates.com

AW-25473 at the bottom

46 replies
  1. Chris says:

    I just received the same letter today w/ the exact info from Brittany Dale, hand written and 44 cent stamp. I think this is a scam. I am going to call over my Ooma VoIP phone and find out. I will report back with what I found.

  2. Wendy says:

    Thank you so much for posting this. My boyfriend received the EXACT same letter postmarked Phoenix, AZ 852 on 7/27/10. I said I would try to investigate it for him, but I don’t think we would ever have learned the truth without your post. The BBB doesn’t have Hamilton Gates listed yet, but I sent messages to both the Phoenix and East Tennessee BBBs to please add it to the list of scam companies with F-ratings. I heard the other day that Tennessee was one of the #1 states for being targeted with internet spam, which is just a newer version of the letter scam…

  3. Dan says:

    Thanks for posting this. As an FYI, I received the same letter today (7/30/10) in Columbus, OH.

  4. Courtney says:

    I too live in East Tennessee and have received phone messages at home and received a letter from Hamilton Gates today. Reeked of scam so I decided to google it. If I had ever entered any kind of drawing I would have put my cell number, not home, so that was my first tip. Thanks for the info. What do they try to do if you call? Anyone tried it?

  5. brmorris says:

    It looks like they try to get you to come to a sales presentation. Read the BBB link in the post.

  6. William Miller says:

    I received the same letter today! The date on the letter is July 26, 10 and have till just Wed. Aug 4th to reply. Envelope was out of Arizonia and hand addressed.

  8. Michael Yaros says:

    I/we live in east Tennessee. I LOVE the Internet and our new found tool to research companies. The BBB report suns it all up.

  9. Steve B says:

    Same letter, stamp, address, phone number and hand-written envelope. Clearly a scam. Doesn’t the fed investigate “mail fraud” like this?

  10. Michelle Feldman says:

    Another one that’s in East Tennessee that got it..gotta love Google!
    Thanks for the info folks!

  11. Shirl Vernon says:

    I have received this same letter today (Aug 2). Like the rest of you, I am wondering what this is about, since they NEVER tried contacting me ‘several times without success.’ I am glad I have found this website to know that others have received this too.

  13. Susan says:

    We got a Hamilton Gates letter today. Their letterhead boasts New York, Chicago and Lost Angeles as branch sites, but no mention of a physical address for any of them. Hmmm… at least they used spell check.

  14. Sherri A says:

    I received this letter yesterday. The letter head was ‘ Hamilton Gates ‘. It seems they are now operating in Ohio. They have been trying to contact me by phone for more than 2 months. However I did not recognize the number and refused to answer. Happy to know my first instinct was correct. Thanks all for the info.

  15. Frances says:

    I got the same letter in E.Tennessee. I have been doing something I have never done before and that is return the Publishers Clearing House letters. Wondering if somehow they are connected. I haven’t ordered form Publishers and haven’t given my phone #. I also got a scam letter from International Award Advisors. It could just be coincidence. I have been getting lots of calls from Unknown numbers but I don’t answer them.

  18. Amy M. says:

    Got my letter from Hamilton Gates yesterday. I actually laughed when I opened it. I hope no one falls for it.

  21. marc says:

    Live in LA. Received same pitch. I called and they want you to goto a travel agency and hear a pitch. In return you get a voucher for free tickets. “All we ask is that you pay the airline taxes.”

    Seems VERY scammy to me. I told them ‘no thanks’

    good luck to everyone else. seems like a total waste of time.

  22. Chris says:

    That BBB link was all I needed to see…any time cash/credit card is asked for before you are handed any kind of “certificate” is fo sho a scam. It was fun to see everyone else got those too 🙂

  24. mary macdonald says:

    I’m in Lenoir city, Tn and I received the same identical letter shown above. Looks and sounds official, but I’m sure it’s a scam. I’m sending it to the bbb in Arizona.

  25. Tim says:

    I assumed it was a scam, but was curious as to who they were shilling for (GLOBAL DISCOVERY VACATIONS). Went to the presentation but got turned away because my wife wasn’t with me. The letter to me only, so I never mentioned her to the phone rep. I had a bit of a tizzy fit about how they ripped me off by having me drive over only to get turned away and what a scam the whole thing is. A few “winners” obviously heard me, but not sure if it did any good. Looks like it is either a scam for selling time shares or vacation packages.

  27. M says:

    Got the same letter from “Strickland Penn.” I live in OH. They used my nickname, not my given name, so it would be interesting to know the source of their list.

  28. brmorris says:

    I’d love to get a copy of that letter and envelope. Anyone that reads this, please scan them and email them to me.

  29. Angela says:

    We live in Pittsburgh PA and received a letter from “Strickland Penn”. Checked on the BBB web site and there is no listing for this company at least for my zip code. filed a complaint so they can be investigated.

  30. sharon says:

    9/13/10- Just got the same awards letter but from Strickland Penn. We live in Pittsburgh, same hand-written envelope, 44 cent stamp post mark Phoenix. SCAM

  32. katy says:

    Got a letter today from Strickland Penn today. We live in PA, north of Pittsburgh. Same as everyone else, handwritten envelope with a real stamp and AZ postmark.

  33. cHammel says:

    I live in East TN. Got a letter on 9/10 from Strickland Penn. Figured it was a scam, but still googled info on it. The company looks real, but I’m sure the letter is a scam. Hand written letter from Phoenix, AZ 852. Not to mention the letter is identical to the ones coming from Hamilton Gates.

  35. Petey says:

    What a scam. That’s an awful lot of winners who weren’t able to be contacted by phone! I received the EXACT same letter from Strickland Penn in Tennessee. If you enter Strickland Penn and Scam into google it gives you pages and pages of Strickland Penn links and video. They have done a bit of work with the word SCAM so hundreds of their pages would come up first potentially blocking anyone who is trying to find out if their “award” is a scam. I hope this post with several repetitions of the word scam works its way up the google chain of results for the words scam and strickland penn. That way people will know what a scam this scam is before they get scammed.

    P.S. Sorry for the reposting regarding this scam. I was so angry about being sold/harvested to/by some scam organization that I made a few typos. — Thanks for the post on this scam issue.

  36. kevin r says:

    Scam is showing up in columbus OH. Got my letter today can’t wait to call and get scamed. Get real! I hope the people read this that sent me this. Try again, get a real job and earn your own money.Thanks for wasting your money on me.

  38. PS says:

    I got the same letter from Strickland Penn, signed by Denise Laye, instructing me to call 1-866-951-5595 no later than September 15th, 2010. It came from Phoenix, but the cities listed at the bottom are New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Definitely a scam! I had to search pretty hard to find this page.

  39. Steve says:

    Just got this letter today in Nashville, from Strickland Penn, signed by Denise Laye.

    I kinda feel bad for the minions working for these guys who have to hand-sign and address each one of these things that go out. I’ve had lousy jobs like that…can’t be fun. I guarantee ‘Denise’ is not the Vice President of anything.

  40. Marilyn Carver says:

    yes, I received the same letter yesterday from Strickland penn sent out Sept. 17. The letter was dated Sept.6 signed by the now famous recluse Denise Laye, according to others who have heard from Denise. I am so glad I checked this web site before being scammed!We live in Marion, OH,(go Bucks)a small city. This is insulting to all of us. How dumb do think people think we are? After Bernie Madoff we all need to check things out.

  42. Donald Dozier says:

    I received one of her little epistles today (17.) It was written September 6 and I had a deadline of September 15 to reply. They had tried to contact me several times and this was my final notice. I suppose I missed out (sniff, sniff.) The letter didn’t tell me what I had done to qualify for the tickets.

  43. Lauren says:

    My mom received a letter from Strickland Penn and gave it to me because you have to be married to qualify. After researching I finally found this website. I told her not to call on this junk and she did anyway. They told her to refer a married couple and she would get 2 free round trip airline tickets and would the couple referred. Letter was signed D. Laye. —Nashville TN

  44. Nan says:

    Thanks for posting this. I am in Pittsburgh, PA and today received a similar letter dated November 8, 2010. The postmark is Phoenix, AZ 850. However, instead of Strickland Penn or Hamilton Gates, the company’s name is Foster Simmons. My VP is Catherine Ray (the letter is hand-signed C. Ray), and the phone # is 1-866-995-7046. The body of the text is identical to the one you posted. If you search on the web for Foster Simmons, you will find that there are videos and a company site which could make a susceptible person believe that this company is legitimate.

  45. L Curry says:

    I received this same letter Friday 11/12/10 but it’s from “US Airlines” and signed by Barbara Dion – Vice President. Thye’re now trying to scam in South Carolina!

  46. Wexford-pa says:

    I got this letter too, dated nov 15th, 2010; I live in Pittsburgh PA. My version also is from Catherine Ray.. For them to waste 44c a pop, they must be getting many naive people taking their bait…

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