tips to avoid common travel scams...

Travel season is heating up along with the weather, which means scammers are bringing their A-game in hopes of separating you from your money. Whether you’re taking the kids to Disneyland, spending a romantic week in Aruba, or heading to Duluth for your cousin’s wedding, you need to know what to look for to protect yourself.

The fact is, travel scams vary widely, from pickpockets to legal resort charges—don’t assume that legitimate businesses can’t legally scam you, because many can and will. The Better Business Bureau (BBB) reports that Americans are tricked out of $10 billion per year in travel-related scams. From shady cabbies to too-good-to-be-true vacation packages, here’s what to be aware of:

Time Share Scams:

If you live in the U.S. you’ve probably gotten calls for a free or incredibly cheap vacation to Mexico or some similar warm destination with the caveat that you sit through a time-share presentation. Seems reasonable, and who wouldn’t want a vacation home for which they don’t have to pay full price or maintain? The problem arises when you succumb to the hard sell, and then are never able to actually use the timeshare because it’s oversold. Many of the timeshare condos are illegal, or nearly so, and you could lose tens of thousands of dollars with no recourse but to complain to the BBB. If you are interested in a timeshare, do your research and go through a reputable company with good customer reviews.

Surprise Fees:

Surprise fees and charges are a problem in all corners of the travel industry, from hotels and resorts to airline tickets. Travel companies are legally allowed to quote ridiculously low prices and then tack on fees for things you expected to be included, such as use of the gym or pool, or the ability to check your bags. Even if you don’t use the gym or pool, resorts can require all guests to pay their “resort fee,” which can make your vacation a lot more expensive than you expected. Experts recommend using a travel agency that will give you an “all in” quote so you know exactly how much you’ll be paying before you go.

Rental Car Scams:

When you rent a car, you are given the opportunity to look for and report damage before you drive it off the lot so that you aren’t charged for damage you didn’t cause. However, some shady companies count on your either not doing the inspection, or not noticing hidden damage such as under the car so that they can charge you for it later. Customers can also be charged a “loss of use” fee and most will suck it up and pay, but then the car—damage and all—is returned to the fleet to gouge the next person who comes along.

Cabbies:

Cabbies, especially in foreign countries, are notorious for overcharging. They can do this by setting the meter for the night/weekend rate during a weekday, quoting an unreasonable price, or “dropping” your large bill, then switching it for a hidden, smaller one and accusing you of underpaying. You can protect yourself by calling a reputable cab company from your restaurant or hotel instead of hailing one on the street, and by knowing the going rate in advance.

In Las Vegas, a common taxi scam is for the driver to unload your bags in a hurry and then drive off without you realizing that one of them is still in the trunk. It pays to always be alert and on your toes when traveling, especially in Vegas.

Imposters:

A typical way travelers get scammed is by people pretending to be someone they’re not. For example, it’s becoming increasingly common for scammers to call hotel guests in the middle of the night claiming to be the front desk. They say there was a problem with your credit card and need the number again, counting on the fact that you’re too sleepy to be suspicious.

In other countries, scammers will pose as “tourist police,” and demand to check your wallet for counterfeit money. They’ll look official and may even flash a badge, but after they disappear you’ll realize your cash went with them. “Hotel inspectors” in Europe may ask to check your room—one distracts you while the other helps himself to valuables left on the dresser or desk. Don’t let them in, even if they look official.

Summer Vacation Shysters:

Summer is a busy time for scammers and con artists, and they work in a couple of different ways. Fake travel companies will advertise too-good-to-be-true package deals to college students who want to go somewhere awesome for their summer break and don’t have the patience or experience to do their research. The students will buy the cheapest deal, and then the company will disappear—with their money.

Another common ploy is for scammers to check Facebook or other social media for young people who post about their vacations. They can get a remarkable amount of information about people that way, and then they will contact the grandparents by email, claiming to be the traveling grandchild in need of wired money. If you ever get a message from a loved one who is traveling and needs money, always call and speak to them directly before sending it.

AWARENESS brings contentment, so follow these tips for a happier vacation. :-)

thank you DivineCaroline for this useful information.

52 Hertz: The Loneliest Whale in the World

By: Animal Planet For decades now, scientists at the NOAA have been tracking a mysterious whale song that sounds like the ghostly howls of a drowned tuba player. The sounds have been identified as belonging to a single whale, who sings at a frequency unlike any other whale in the world. Dubbed “52 Hertz” after the frequency range in which he typically sings, the animal has been called the loneliest whale in the world, since his love songs seem destined to go unanswered. Most other species of baleen whale, such as blue whales and humpbacks, sing at frequencies much higher, between the 15-25 Hertz range. Not only does 52 Hertz sing at a much lower frequency, but his calls are also shorter and more frequent than those of other whales. It’s as if he speaks his own language– a language of one. Even stranger, 52 Hertz does not follow the known migration route of any extant baleen whale species. He sings alone and travels alone. Could this individual be the last of a previously unknown species of baleen whale? That’s one possibility. Whale biologists have also proposed that he could be malformed, or maybe a rare hybrid– perhaps a blue whale and fin whale cross. Whatever the explanation, 52 Hertz is one of a kind. There’s also some evidence that he is maturing, since his voice has deepened slightly since the Navy first identified him in 1992, according to a 2004 article at the New York Times. Although 52 Hertz’s exact age is unknown, he continues to survive 20 years after his initial discovery. He was last recorded not far off the Aleutians and Kodiak Island, according to Alaska Dispatch– which is also the closest he has come to land since first being tracked. You can view a zigzagging map of his migration routes between 1992 and 2004 on the NOAA website. You can also hear recordings of 52 Hertz’s calls at the NOAA here, http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/vents/acoustics/whales/sounds/whalewav/ak52_10x.wav and you can even compare how he sounds to other baleen whales. While whale lovers may lament the mournful tale of the loneliest whale in the world, there is some reason for hope, too. 52 Hertz seems to be healthy, in spite of his loneliness. “The fact that this individual has been capable of existing in that harsh environment [for so many years] indicates there is nothing wrong with it,” said Dr. Kate Stafford, a researcher at the National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle, to the New York Times. The whale’s resilience could also be viewed as inspiration to anyone with a lonely heart. Despite 20 years of bellowing unanswered hymns into the cold echoes of the North Pacific, he sings on. A famous Zen koan asks: What is the sound of one hand clapping? Perhaps it resonates in 52 Hertz.

are we inherently good or bad?

When the Good Do Bad By DAVID BROOKS, OP-ED COLUMNIST for the New York Times Published: March 19, 2012 It’s always interesting to read the quotations of people who knew a mass murderer before he killed. They usually express complete bafflement that a person who seemed so kind and normal could do something so horrific. Friends of Robert Bales, who is accused of massacring 16 Afghan civilians, have expressed similar thoughts. Friends and teachers describe him as caring, gregarious and self-confident before he — in the vague metaphor of common usage — apparently “snapped.” As one childhood friend told The Times: “That’s not our Bobby. Something horrible, horrible had to happen to him.” Any of us would be shocked if someone we knew and admired killed children. But these days it’s especially hard to think through these situations because of the worldview that prevails in our culture. According to this view, most people are naturally good, because nature is good. The monstrosities of the world are caused by the few people (like Hitler or Idi Amin) who are fundamentally warped and evil. This worldview gives us an easy conscience, because we don’t have to contemplate the evil in ourselves. But when somebody who seems mostly good does something completely awful, we’re rendered mute or confused. But of course it happens all the time. That’s because even people who contain reservoirs of compassion and neighborliness also possess a latent potential to commit murder. David Buss of the University of Texas asked his students if they had ever thought seriously about killing someone, and if so, to write out their homicidal fantasies in an essay. He was astonished to find that 91 percent of the men and 84 percent of the women had detailed, vivid homicidal fantasies. He was even more astonished to learn how many steps some of his students had taken toward carrying them out. One woman invited an abusive ex-boyfriend to dinner with thoughts of stabbing him in the chest. A young man in a fit of road rage pulled a baseball bat out of his trunk and would have pummeled his opponent if he hadn’t run away. Another young man planned the progression of his murder — crushing a former friend’s fingers, puncturing his lungs, then killing him. These thoughts do not arise from playing violent video games, Buss argues. They occur because we are descended from creatures who killed to thrive and survive. We’re natural-born killers and the real question is not what makes people kill but what prevents them from doing so. People who murder often live in situations that weaken sympathy and restraint. People who commit massacres, for example, often live with what the researchers call “forward panic.” After having endured a long period of fear, they find their enemies in a moment of vulnerability. Their fear turns to rage, and, as Steven Pinker writes in “The Better Angels of Our Nature,” they “explode in a savage frenzy.” Serial killers are often charming, but have a high opinion of themselves that is not shared by the wider world. They are often extremely conscious of class and status and they develop venomous feelings toward people who do not pay them sufficient respect. In centuries past most people would have been less shocked by the homicidal eruptions of formerly good men. That’s because people in those centuries grew up with a worldview that put sinfulness at the center of the human personality. John Calvin believed that babies come out depraved (he was sort of right; the most violent stage of life is age 2). G. K. Chesterton wrote that the doctrine of original sin is the only part of Christian theology that can be proved. This worldview held that people are a problem to themselves. The inner world is a battlefield between light and dark, and life is a struggle against the destructive forces inside. The worst thing you can do is, in a fit of pride, to imagine your insecurity comes from outside and to try to resolve it yourself. If you try to “fix” the other people who you think are responsible for your inner turmoil, you’ll end up trying to kill them, or maybe whole races of them. This earlier worldview was both darker and brighter than the one prevailing today. It held, as C. S. Lewis put it, that there is no such thing as an ordinary person. Each person you sit next to on the bus is capable of extraordinary horrors and extraordinary heroism. According to this older worldview, Robert Bales, like all of us, is a mixture of virtue and depravity. His job is to struggle daily to strengthen the good and resist the evil, policing small transgressions to prevent larger ones. If he didn’t do that, and if he was swept up in a whirlwind, then even a formerly good man is capable of monstrous acts that shock the soul and sear the brain.