Junk Faxes and Fax Ad Scams: 800-723-5704, Employee Vacation Time

Junk Fax Scams
Employee Vacation Time,
800-723-5704,
Please be advised: for a limited time only we are offering to all employees access to our company vacation packages at wholesale rate.... Cancun, Mexico OR Mayan Riviera

Did you receive a fax with the sending number blocked, subject "Employee Vacation Time", saying to call "800-723-5704" and  "Please be advised: for a limited time only we are offering to all employees access to our company vacation packages at wholesale rate.... Cancun, Mexico OR Mayan Riviera"? It is a junk fax scam. While the names, numbers and exact wording may change, if it looks like the example below, it is just a sleazy attempt to send an unsolicited junk advertisement.

This "business" either bought your fax number off of a list of verified fax machine phone numbers, or made his own list, using an autodialer to randomly dial phone numbers until it hears a fax receiving tone on the other end.

The scams work the same way as in email or telephone; usually it is "hot stock tip" scam (see this page about stock and security scams) or it is a basic advanced fee fraud (AFF, also called "Nigerian 419 scams, see this page) or it is simply a really sleazy way to advertise their product or service.   Would you want to buy anything from a business that uses junk faxes to advertise?

Autofax dialers can produce, store, and dial telephone numbers using a random or sequential number generator. Often, they dial every number in a sequence, hoping that some are valid and they will connect to a fax machine. 

See this page for what you can do to stop the junk faxes, including suing them!

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Example of the junk fax "Employee Vacation Time" scam from 800-723-5704:

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More questions?

See this list of frequently asked questions, direct from the FTC.