To whom it may concern,I write this story with much regret about my family’s first overseas trip. My wife studiesdentistry and she finally had the free time to go overseas for the first time in twelve years. We havedecided to travel to Dubai for its warm weather. It all started when we set foot to the airport. Wepassed passport control and while fishing for our luggage I was approached by a friendly guy who askedus our names. He said there is a fun event going on at the Hilton hotel where you get to walk around thehotel, meet other families, get a free gift and enjoy a free breakfast or lunch. He said it’s just apromotional event for Hilton and that it will take us around 30min. We would be picked up by their taxidriver. He insisted that the event is happening today only and that we take our passports with us inorder to receive the free gift. After renting a car, we were tired and jet lagged. We rushed to our resortand decided we were too exhausted to go to the promotional event that was going on.The next day, the same guy who wrote down my phone number texted me and insisted thatthere is another promotional event going on today and that we go down there to have some fun. Wewere finished with our breakfast and we thought we have an hour to do this. Their taxi has arrived anddrove us to Hilton at Al Habtoor Place. Upon arriving I saw many workers in green suits whom I thoughtwere Hilton sales team. My family and I were lead upstairs to the 39 th floor where there was an officialfront desk and a beautiful meeting area with lots of tables and chairs.A guy who had the same name as my son greeted us. At first my wife and I thought it’s acoincidence. We roamed around different villas, suites and the three hotels at the Al Habtoor Place. Byfalsely using Hilton and Alhabtoor’s name, the sales representative asked us if we like the idea of joininga vacation club where we can always come at fixed rates and never have to worry about overpaying. Hesaid this is not a timeshare. He walked around with a green folder that said “Lifestyle Luxury VacationsClub”. He showed us different membership prices. The second my wife pulled out her phone to lookup Lifestyle Luxury Vacation Club on google the rep funnily took away her phone and mine. He said don’tdo any calculations now.We were again led back to the meeting room. At this point we didn’t realize how two to threehours had gone by. His manager greeted us and gave us the breakdown on the membership again. Hesaid it would cost us a fixed price of $700 a week to stay at any five star resorts. Being exhausted and jetlagged we were excited that Hilton offers such memberships. We were told our friends and family canalso go to any of these Hilton resorts across the world and still pay a fixed fee. We even asked if this wasa time share scam at some point and they said how can they represent Al Habtoor’s name and do anykind of crime. The manager said he will do a special deal. He offered us a free stay for the rest of ourvacation at Hilton, he said we will be driven in a Rolls Royce from our current hotel to the Hilton, theyalso offered free Perlei show tickets, unlimited dinner at Summer restaurant and two week villa stay inthe Dominican republic. We were appalled that they have such outreach within Dubai and were hookedinstantly.I bargained with the manager to give us a good deal and wanted to go back to my hotel to thinkabout it. The manager insisted that this is a today only deal and that the contract can only be signedtoday. We signed the papers which specifically stated that we can cancel within four days if we changeour minds. After spending 6 hours at Hilton we finally made it to our own hotel at night, exhausted andsleepy.<br />
My wife said she hasn’t slept all night when I woke up the next day. She said she googled this vacationclub thoroughly and figured out that it’s a complete scam. It was a Ponzi scam of getting as much moneyout of clients as possible. There were YouTube videos, actual reviews of real people. The reviews thatthey have on google were all fake possibly written by their taxi drivers or customer servicerepresentatives.My wife and I were distraught that such level of scamming could exist within Hilton building andthat they could use such as powerful man’s name. We were also shocked that they said one Muslimbrother will not lie to another Muslim. In Islam, lying and fraud is strictly prohibited. Being such areligious State we thought scamming would be punished by law.I took a day to absorb what I have just done. I spend countless hours and roaming minutes to get intouch with my credit company. The payment was still pending and I was in great hopes to dispute it. Ihave spoken to customer service three times with Citizen bank on 7th and 8th of November 2022 while payment still was pending and all with a promise that it will be disputed.My children and my wife heard the conversation. I have explained my situation thoroughly to both thecustomer service and the fraud department. The account still said pending until the next day when thestatus said the payment went through. This was already day two of our vacation day wasted. Mychildren and my wife stayed and patiently waited for me to sort it all out.On day three I went to Hilton hotel to cancel my contract. They took me to a small sound proofroom. It was nothing like the first room I was when I first came. When the representative saw that shecould no longer push me to keep this contract, another more experienced manager came in. They said Iwas not obliged to do future payments just whatever my credit card was charged for and started givingme more handouts such as free stays and spa visits. I told them in writing that I am cancelling thiscontract and my request was dismissed.When I called my friend who is a local, he accidentally called the police due to his fear of mysafety. The Dubai police told me there is nothing that can be done on their part and stronger forces suchas FBI or Dubai intelligent agencies would need to be involved.This vacation club has originated in Dominican Republic and is now in Dubai, at the airport, atthe beach. Their representatives are everywhere. I am deeply saddened that our first family vacationoverseas turned out to be such a bad experience due to my own lack of reason and possibly jet lag. I’membarrassed in front of my own wife and children that I fell victim to such scam.
