Suspicious ‘cash giveaway' caller claims to be from ‘St. Augustine Welcome Center'

A suspicious “cash giveaway” phone call has been making the rounds in Northeast Florida, from a caller claiming to represent the “St. Augustine Welcome Center.”

“This is Marcus calling in regards to an entry in a cash gift giveaway,” said the caller in a recording provided to Action News Jax. “It’s the St. Augustine Welcome Center.”

Action News Jax first reported on Friday that people like Marcus Paul have been getting suspicious calls about cash giveaways from phone numbers including 904-584-4076 and 904-670-9081.

An employee at the St. Augustine Visitor Information Center, which is run by the city and county, told Action News Jax the center has been getting complaints about these calls.

St. Augustine spokesman Paul Williamson said the center would never call people about a cash giveaway.

“The St. Augustine/St. Johns County Visitor Information Center would not. That’s not something that we do,” said Williamson.

Management at the Old Town Trolley St. Augustine Welcome Center said the calls are not coming from them either.

Just a short walk away from both is Old Town Discovery Center.

The Better Business Bureau put out an alert about the business, saying consumers report Old Town Discovery Center called to tell them they’ve won a sweepstakes, but they have to sit through a travel club presentation before they can claim their prize.

“I work with 50 different marketing groups. There is a group that does $50-$100 Visas,” said Old Town Discovery Center front end administrator Sarah Robertson.

Old Town Discovery Center is a fictitious name registered to Member Processing Center LLC, which shares the same address and management as travel club Premium Destinations LLC.

Regional Operations director Candy Barlow said she was looking into whether the cash giveaway calls were coming from one of the marketers that Premium Destinations LLC represents.

“If there’s an issue with one of our marketers, I would be more than happy to dig into it and find out what’s going on if they’re misleading somebody,” said Barlow.

Premium Destinations LLC has 27 BBB consumer complaints.

Cox Media Group