Shelton & White Travel Rewards: Legitimate Offer or Scam?

On Saturday, my wife received a letter via U.S. postal mail from a company named Shelton & White:

"April 26, 2010

Note: You must respond no later than May 5th, 2010

Dear Alison,

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 us today at 800-363-8017.

Regards,

Cynthia Lux
Vice President
Travel Awards Division

New York - Chicago - Los Angeles
info@sheltonwhite.com - www.sheltonwhite.com"

My wife thought that this letter was suspect. She said that she hadn't entered any sweepstakes or contests, and hadn't received any prior letters or phone calls from Shelton & White.

After reading the letter, I agreed wit her. It seemed questionable. Several things about the letter didn't seem quite right.

First, the phrase in the letter "qualified for an award" seemed suspect. Either she won the award or not. And the poor grammar reminded me of the phishing e-mails we all receive online. Second, the letter emphasized an immediate reply within a short time period. A high-pressure offer always sets off alarms for me.

Third, the envelope was addressed by hand, and it was postmarked Phoenix Arizona. The actual letter didn't mention a Phoenix address, and only listed the three cities above: New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

Fourth, we did a Google search on the company name to see what we'd find. I always do this because McAfee Site Advisor is integrated with Google search in my web browser. I like Site Advisor because it helps me avoid entering Web sites that are infected with computer viruses and malware. Our Google search results included an item from the Better Business Bureau (BBB) of Tucson, Arizona:

"Better Business Bureau of Southern Arizona is alerting consumers to Patterson Bell, Shelton White, Zimmerman Cain, Davidson Powell, Morrison Banks, Sutton Perry, Gilbert Turner, Sullivan Lang, Stanton Carney, Emerson Ross, Swanson Carr, Thompson Fuller, Richardson Blake, and Hoffman Sims, self proclaimed “Awards Redemption” agencies mailing letters to local consumers that state the recipient has qualified for airline tickets. Since Dec. 10, BBB has received over 30 inquiries about Patterson Bell from consumers seeking to determine if the offer is legitimate. Consumers who spoke to BBB said they had no recollection of ever entering a sweepstakes or contest for the airline tickets... Phone calls to Hoffman Sims and Patterson Bell each led the same representative who declined to provide any information regarding the mailings and refused to disclose either company’s Tucson address. The representative also refused to say whether Patterson Bell and Hoffman Sims were in any way affiliated."

That confirmed my suspicions. Other consumers also thought that the travel rewards offer was questionable. It was good to see alert consumers taking action by submitting inquiries to their local BBB office.

Fifth, just for kicks I visited the Shelton & White web site since Site Advisor indicated that the site was clean of malware. In my opinion, the site looked like somebody threw it together in 10 minutes. It didn't give me any confidence. I browsed to the "Our Locations" page and noticed that the city locations listed did not match the city locations in the print letter above:

(Click on the image to access a larger version.) This was icing on the cake. We decided to ignore the travel rewards offer. It seemed questionable at best.

Even if the offer was legit, I question a company's competence when they can't list something as simple as their office locations consistently on both their web site, print letter, and envelope. If you look closely, the web site lists the company name as "Shelton White" compared to "Shelton & White" in the print letter my wife received. If they can't get their address and name consistent, I wouldn't trust them with handling my sensitive personal information.

Last, I submitted an inquiry to the BBB. It's easy to do. Just enter the ZIP Code where you live and select the "BBB For Consumers: Check Out a Business or Charity" link. Complete the inquiry form and the site will direct your inquiry to the nearest BBB office. My inquiry:

"My wife received a letter on Saturday May 1, 2010 from Cynthia Lux, the Vice President of Travel Rewards Division at Shelton & White. the letter said my wife had "qualified for an award of 2 roundtrip airline tickets..." and that they had attempted to contact her several times previously.  (They had not.) The letter said that she had to reply by May 5, 2010. We checked online to verify this is a legit company and the locations in the web site (www.sheltonwhite.com) do NOT match the locations listed in the print letter. The letter is postmarked from Phoenix Arizona, but it lists locations only in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. My wife and I live in Boston, Massachusetts. I write about identity theft and this Shelton & White offer seems like a scam. Please investigate and verify."

I would like to know if any readers received this offer from Shelton & White? Did you reply? What was your experience with the company? Did you receive the airline tickets promised? What personal and bank account information did Shelton & White ask that you share?

Comments

[steve]

Thanks for the info. I'm from the Boston area too and received the same exact letter and like you was very suspect. I'm throwing the letter away...

[ThisIsJayna]

This post is working for the greater good! Luckily it's one of the first posts to come up when I googled "Shelton & White" (with the quotes). I also live in the greater Boston area so I'm thinking they must have purchased a list of local names. Thanks for writing up and confirming my suspicions in this post.

[shar]

Yes, I live in a small town in South Carolina and received the exact same letter in the mail today.
Too good to be true; I googled for information on
whether this was a known scam yet. Thanks for the info; I am contacting the BBB here too. I wonder
how many people are going to lose money.

S. Pierce

[Mr. Burns]

Got my letter today and it looked like a scam from the start as you have pointed out very eloquently. I called for kicks and got fed into a call center that then put me on hold, heard a lot of folks in the background for a VP office. We live in NH, so it is clearly targeting the New England area. I waited for them to come back on the line and they hung up, so I am sure it is a scam. Thanks for the posting, i went right to the net to verify the company and got your post. Thanks for keeping us all in the loop on this obvious scam.

[Melissa]

Thanks for the posts. I live in a small town in southern NH and got mine today also. Haven't called any phone numbers yet. Wanted to check it out online first before doing anything. Definitely sounded and looked like a scam or trying to get me to buy something first. Everyone who gets this letter, BEWARE!!!!!

[Harvey Callegan]

I got the same letter today May 3rd from Shelton & White contact phone number was different 1-800-297-1528 ( Regards Cynthia Lux ) I live in the south Alabama area ..... BEWARE >>> If it looks too good to be true most likely it is !! Not going to SCAM ME !!!!!!!!

H Callegan
Orange Beach AL

[d owen]

I got the same letter in South Carolina!!!! Thanks for the help!!The letter has been filed in the trash!!

[Julie Zaccagnino]

I to just got one of these letters. It would be great if it was true? S.O.S. 2 tickets valued at $1400.00 I must respond no later than May 5th, 2010. What a horrible scam. I hope this happens to one of there family members, see how that feels. Don't these idiots know we have the tools to use to find out these are SCAMS? Thank you Julie

[christine]

just got this letter today in Boston. LoL and here I thought I was special...

[Sean]

I am in Boston and received this sh1t too. What is funny is that on the bottom of the letter it said:

New York * Chicago * Los Angeles

On the Location list of their website, only NY is listed ... haha, Idiots.

[Bill G]

Geez! You really had to think about/research this?
All items like this go directly to File 13!

[Melanie]

My husband received this letter also today. We live in Georgia. Guess they are spreading their scam nationwide!

[G. Doran]

We're California recipients - Shelton and White must have booked every airline there is!

[Pamela]

Ditto from Cape Cod! They must have hired gazillions of people to hand-address our envelopes last week since we all received them the same day. Are there children out there who are telling their parents, "When I grow up, I want to be a computer geek who scams people"?

[Betty]

I live in LA (lower Alabama) and I got the same exact letter yesterday. Like your wife, I was suspicious. Glad I checked it out - it's going in the trash can!

[Larry Marino]

I got the same letter in Boston!!!! Thanks for the help!!The letter has been filed in the trash!!

[Jay Mitchell]

I live in the Los Angeles area and received the exact same letter. This is obviously a scam.

[Ed]

Lower Alabama as well definite scam, Post on Facebook, My space everywhwere, lets shut these
idiots down.

[wilbur]

After reading all your comments I couldn't resist calling these pukes. Got a nice pick me up raising my blood pressure just enough to give me a little more energy to finish the day

[ken nadal]

Well did anyone call and find out if is for real???????

[A1steaksauce]

so cal recipients...whhaaaaaaaa???!! no free airline tickets!!!!!! damn you Cynthia Lux!!! lol

[Private]

I received the letter today, May 5th in Southern California, In the process of contact the BBB as we speak.

[john]

Got mine in savannah ga, wouldn't it be ironic if if was a legitimate claim, and all of us didn't collect our winning tix? T

[No fool]

Husband got his personally addressed, Phoenix, AZ postmarked letter, too! We're in coastal South Carolina. I'd already put it in file 13.

[Lord Na]

My wife, who lives in Los Angeles, received the same letter today, May 5. Below the Shelton & White logo at the top there was no actual address, nor was there any return address (corporate or otherwise) on the mailing envelope. This, plus the fact that so many people received the same mailing is a 100% tipoff that it's a scam mailing!

[El Toro]

Just received mine in the mail today... Pensacola FL...You can read the return address or the post mark.
Scam a Jam...

[erin madha]

scammers, period..

[Lou]

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

The BBB provides the rest of the details of the scam... I've gotten two of these in two weeks!

[JK Knox]

Now, all of us could be off on new adventures, I mean to win such great tickets-- mine is filed under chapter 13 also-- I hate scams.!!!!

[kristen]

I live north of Boston and I received a letter from Shelton & White today, mine was mailed from AZ too.

[Phil R.]

WOW... I'm a bit insulted. I received the letter today 5-6-10. This can only mean one thing... I wasn't the first choice. I wasn't even the 1st alternate. BooHoo. And thanks for throwing this post up, it was the first thing I saw when I googled S & W.

[Seamus]

I'm pleased to inform you all that i too have been named for 2 free air passes. we are all so lucky !!! Thanks for the posts. I too live near Boston.

[Tracy]

Thank you so much for posting this! I live in Savannah, GA. Like you, thought it too good to be true. Yours was the first that came up when I googled it. I appreciate your posting this.

[Joe]

I got the same letter yesterday. Out of curiosity I called the number and they tried to set me up with an appointment at a travel agency for a special presentation. I thought it was a scam, but had to check it out for myself.
P.S. The letter went in the trash!

[sue]

Just called the line, they want us to go to Hilton Head Island SC for some speal from a travel agency, then you get a voucher for the tickets, have to pay taxes when ordering the tickets. The tickets are good for a year. We live outside of Savannah, GA. We file 13ed it.

[Not duped]

I received the same letter from AZ too. I live in Pensacola, FL.

[Cesar]

Received yesterday in San Fernando Valley North of Los Angeles. Mailed from AZ. Exact same language.
Thanks for info.
Envelope addressing is printer font. Very good imitation of hand writing.

[Heather Klingebiel]

I CALLED! Im in Charlotte area - got the letter today. Spoke with Angelina. She told me they were working for a travel agency in SC. The name of the agency is USA Travel. She asked me if I was married. I said single. Asked me if I cohabited with someone, I said my kids. She then said it is a award for married couples only and if I got a married couple to go to this SC tavel agency, they would get two airfare tickets and I would get two tickets. She said the travel company was trying to get their name out. I am now going to look up the travel agency in SC to see if its legit! I told Angelina I would have to call her back. Not now!!

[Sarah]

I got the same letter here in Charlotte, NC and promptly threw it out!

[Liz]

In addition to everything said so far, the Home page of their website says "From the very start Shelton White's objective...... we are quickly making Gilbert Turner a household name." Seeing two company names confused in the opening paragraph makes me very suspicious. And I did a reverse search on this number and no information is available, leaving me to believe it is a new number created to hide the true identity of this company.

[lin]

Just got it in the mail, personally addressed to my husband from Phoenix. I vaguely remember someone calling about a special offer a few times this week but I usually don't even pick up the phone and let it go to voicemail if the person cannot pronounce my husband's difficult first name, cause I know it is a scam. I am curious - what do they want from you in return for the tickets?? Usually these people call from Florida and want your bank card number (had a foreign aupair who actually fell for that one year and it wasn't pretty...). Also, wonder where they got our info....

[Aimee]

I live in Savannah, Ga. I got my letter today. How exciting, if it were true. Cant believe anybody anymore. Thanks for posting, cause I know my husband wouldve been all over this, he falls for anything. What a moron!

[Lucinda Draine]

Gee, I'm glad I looked these guys up! Has anybody determined who these people really are? I got a letter today dated May 3rd, hand written envelope. Wonder where they got my name too.

[Dee Bravo]

Boston Area, also received a letter postmarked Phoenix, AZ. It never ceases to amaze me what some people will do to get a buck from someone else. Who cares what they are offering and how is a pair of airline tickets going to change your life? These companies feed off peoples' greed and lust for anything 'free'. I'm sure that's how they justify what they do for a living so they can sleep at night.
Remember to shred mail (and shipping labels) that contain personal info, don't just throw it away, who knows where it will end up.
If they are smart, they are monitoring these posts and mining for email addresses for future "more elaborate" scams...

[M Smith]

Another from Cape Cod. I'll send in the names and addresses of my favorite local time-share salesmen.
Handwritten address, legible, looks left-handed. I hope the address writer was paid $$$ and not given a trip of a lifetime!

I wonder where my address was harvested from, and gave this site a junk e-mail addy.

[Carter]

I got one today in the Los Angeles area. I can't believe someone's taking so much time to hand address and sign these things. Isn't earning an honest living so much easier? Defrauding people must be way more exhausting.

[Ellen]

Me, too!! I am deaf. I got one today in the Los Angeles area. First I read this, I knew this is false! I threw it away in trash after I read all your messages. Thank you.

[Lucy]

Also got the letter!!!! I have to respond by the 12th~~~
Glad I am not the onlu one who thought to look it up!

[Julie]

My husband got the same letter today south of Boston, but there is no post mark stamp on it so we don't even know where it came from. Pretty shady if you ask me. I had gone to the Shelton website too but didn't go far on to it and couldn't find them on the BBB website. I'm with you guys though...file under trash.

[THEODORE SMOLENSKI]

WE ALL KNOW THAT THIS IS NOW A NATION-WIDE SCAM TO HOOK PEOPLE INTO TRAVEL CONTRACTS AND MORE !!WE HAVE TO NOTIFY THE B.B.B.'S IN ALL AREAS WHERE THEY ARE MAILING THESE BEFOR SOME LITTLE OLD LADY LOSES ALL HER MONEY THINKING SHE CAN GO AND VISIT HER GRANDCHILDREN WHEN EVER SHE WANTS TO.

[steve devorkin]

Love this interweb. I wonder if this is one of those "make money at home" by stuffing envelopes. Hope the people at home are making some money from these gonifs

[Pat]

I got the letter in N. Hollywood, CA. I was concerned because I replied to a job posting for career-network.com and subsequent research revealed that others thought they were a scam for obtaining and selling addresses and trying to entice people into signing up for educational services. I have received spam job opportunity e-mails and facebook friends invitations from people I do not know. No one has personally called me about the job opportunities, but the e-mails say "they have tried to contact me". Not. This letter is going into the trash.

[G in Boston]

Ha! Just got it today - Fly me to the moon!

[KT]

we got the letter too and we are from Boston.

[clipperskipper]

I shot them an email to info @sheltonwhite.com and it was licked back, email address doesn't exist. Run, don't walk away from these people. It is funny, the verbiage sounds similar to the scams on craigslist; "so please letting me know if the item(s) are still for sale and make my shipper contacts you".

[Chris]

I'm from Boston and got the same letter: hand addressed envelope with no return address, postmarked Phoenix and signed by "Cynthia Lux". I shredded it after I found this page.

[SS]

Thank you for all of your comments. I'm in Los Angeles and I just got this letter today. Now my suspicion is confirmed. It's going to the trash!

[ML]

Looks like I'm in a good company. Got a letter from these crooks today. No return address, mailed from Phoenix, AZ. Same letter as everyone else. I'm in LA.

[Ali]

Another from Cape Cod. It looks personally addressed - but it's not - that's a typeface used to mimic a hand-written letter. Thanks for the info! Gotta love the Internet.

[Paul]

I got mine in Van Nuys, California. Looks like the cancer is spreading....

[Jack]

Mine came today -5/08 - Charlotte, NC. Imagine if they would put all this effort into a real job... Ali: I also thought it might be some kind of font, but the characters are not identical. Mine was definitely hand-addressed.

[Jim Kieran]

Another one received in the Boston area. Now the reply date seems to be "before may 12th". glad that I looked this up here and thanks for the info. Too Good To Be True. Hand written address??????..wow what a tip off to a fraud.
Thanks and Beware!!!!!!!!

[BostonKaren]

Got it yesterday. As soon as read it, I knew this was bogus. I "qualified" for an award? Uhhhh...I never "entered" any contests to "qualify" for anything. My mission now is to track down Cynthia Lux(if she exists) and get her address so I can rip this letter up and mail it back to her.

[Charlie]

Ditto to all of the above. another scam, no doubt. We got the same letter and investigated. And who the heck is Cynthia Lux?

[Barbara]

Got the same letter too and it has just gone through my shredder! I live in Seabrook, NH.

[Kathy]

Thanks for posting your experience! Wow what a response. I received the letter today in the greater Boston area and thought I'd google it because I agree you don't get something for nothing!

[Pjhansen]

I also received this same letter today. Thankfully Google pointed me here. Very interesting that all seem to have been hand addressed. Have sweatshops switched from making jeans to addressing envelopes now?

[NormaMason]

Same here in Guyton GA. I agree with all of the above and add my thanks to all for sharing.

[Cindy Miller]

Wow! Thanks, everyone! I live in the Greater Boston area, and just got a letter in today's mail. I'm overwhelmed by the number of posts here ... What I'd really like to know is whose list these scammers bought -- *those* are the people with whom I'd like to have words!

[gail]

Thank goodness for sites like this where others share their info with others. I got my letter today and here I thought I was sooooooo special to have won a trip!!! Where are you, wastebasket?

[Tomek]

Greetings,

I received this exact same letter today (greater Boston area) and knew instantly it was a fraud. I never entered any contests, and no company in today's economy can afford to be giving away free flights to someone who isn't spending (lots of) money on their products. Thanks for your detective work, but I strongly urge all recipients to file a complaint with their local state attorney general's office and consumer protection offices, to help protect some of our fellow less suspicious citizens!

[Russell]

Savannah, Ga. -- Wife got one today ... hand-addressed, regular first-class stamp. I too looked amused at the word "qualified." A real contest notification would have the name of the contest mentioned, yes??

At full-tilt 44¢ postage, that's a lot of "bait and tackle" money. They must reel in enough suckers to more than cover that overhead.

What's sad is, there are clearly enough gullible morons out there today, even with blogs like this to help folks spot these scams for what they are.

[Bruce]

Me too me too! I live in the Southern New Hampshire area and got this:

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 today at 800-363-xxxx.

Regards,

Cynthia Lux
------------------------

Mine had the extra cute touch of having an "Animal Rescue" support stamp beneath the postage stamp.

George: thanks muchly for all the background work in preparing this page. Very useful!

[Mkazin]

I got one of these today.

Here's what I got calling them on the phone. Obviously I blocked my caller ID and gave them a bogus prize tracking number (of the form "AB-12345" the very bottom of the letter).

The representative of Shelton White I got said they were there to get consumers together with local travel agencies. Sounds innocent, right?

He claims the tickets are the same old sales-pitch giveaway deal you've heard about lots of times with regards to timeshares. Come on down, listen to a smooth-talker give a sales pitch and go home with some fabulous prize. Of course there's probably a bunch of catches in there he didn't mention, as you should expect.

He did actually mention the tickets don't include the $50 or so of travel taxes, which was just a confidence-building trick, making you think he's actually being honest and presenting you with the downsides. Remember kids: you owe Uncle Sam taxes on prizes, which add up to a whole lot more than airport fees. If someone neglects to mention that when talking about prizes, you're probably being tricked.

Thanks for keeping us safe George!

[George]

Mkazin:

Thanks so much for the informative comment. You filled in a couple info gaps nobody else had. Glad that you found my post helped. You are more than welcome.

George
Editor
http://ivebeenmugged.typepad.com

[Scott G]

Port Wentworth, GA. Got mine a few days ago, ignored it, assuming it was a scam. decided to investigate, as well.

Well, "from the very start" (from their website) makes it sound as if they've been in business for years, but a quick "whois" search of their domain (http://www.whois.net/whois/sheltonwhite.com) shows its creation date as March 23rd, 2010.

God bless teh intarwebs!

[G Costa]

Thanks for the info.. Received the letter also and it was good to know that this was obviously a scam before wasting any more of my time. Thanks to all

[Maria]

I'm in Boston too and got the same letter today. Thanks for reporting this and confirming my suspicions.

[duke]

savannah, ga. my sixth grader could have come up with something better.

[Patricia]

I just received one of these letters as well. I find it funny they have attempted to contact me several times yet this is the first time I have ever received any sort of contact from them. I plan to call them back and ask them how exactly they contacted me and since I live in Los Angeles what their address for the LA location is.