Family Time Connections, Kathy McCarty, Allison, Lauren, Contacted about a win, hoodwinked into lengthy time share presentation, sent $100 to redeem prize Tarrytown New York

We were suspicious from the get go, but scam artists are good at what they do and we were lured by the promise of a big pay off. Or any prize for that matter.

Got a voice mail message saying we won a prize. Call back to find out details, which we did. Parameters to be eligible: still married, earn over $65k and not over the age of 72. We were given a claim number.

Told we entered a contenst a couple of years ago, and we made it to the final round. We could win a Ford Explorer or cash, or at the very least, a gift certificate to Best Buy or Walmart, minimum of $50. We were told by the "marketing department" we would need to spend a few minutes in order to collect our prize, which days / times were good for us.

We drove to 200 White Plains Road for a 90 minute presentation, with an extremely hard sell to buy a time share. Note: many locations, very alluring... cost went from $7k to $3500, to $2k over the time we were there. 

Since we couldn't be persuaded to join the time share, the price (and options) dropped to a very affordable several hundred dollars, which we also declined. After much waiting around, we finally were able to go, signing a release form that we were not interested and would not participate in their demonstration again.

Our prize: (we got to choose from a variety of cards, very exciting), was round trip airfare and 3 days and 2 nights in the Wyndham, Marriot or Choice family of hotels. And a 3-day car rental voucher and $50 hotel gift card. To cover handling costs, we sent $50 per person, $100 in total certified bank check made out to ETTSI, to a PO box in Daytona Beach, FL. The rules of disqualification were a quarter of a page long, extensive.

Since June 2015 we have attempted to contact this company to no avail. It seemed very very legit.

Numbers of marketing people and names include:

Lauren 315-623-0796
Allison 866-220-7864 x458
877-670-6706 was initial incoming call number 

We called the marketing company to complain and they gave us a number to contact:

Kathy McCarty at 914 202 2060 and of course, never heard anything back.

Update: as I am writing this report, I FINALLY reached a human being, Debbie the receptionist. I asked her what is going on with our prize. She told us the Tarrytown office was closed Monday and Tuesday, and that a man named Craig Armstrong would be calling us back Wednesday but after 4pm. I asked for his number and Debbie informed me that I could call him at the number I just called. (It would forward to his office). She also told me that the Validation Center in FL got thousands of registration forms (filing for their prizes), and that's probably why it has taken 6 months!

SO, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.