What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Maine
A bunch of us participated in LastMinuteTravel.com's "World for a Dollar" promotion, where they claimed that we could purchase a hotel stay for $1 per night. Only when we actually got through the booking process (and input our credit card number), they instead decided to offer the stay for FREE and are now threatening to cancel the reservations unless we provide a SS# so that they can send out 1099 forms for "winning" the hotel stay... in the terms and conditions, it says specifically "The Campaign does not constitute a prize, lottery, or sweepstakes. " (I've got the screen shot of the terms and conditions). Needless to say, we were not made aware ahead of time that we were taking part in a contest, all of its participants thought we would have to pay $1 per night. Are we REALLY on the hook for the taxes? And what to do if they actually do cancel our bookings?
Here is are two screen shots of the terms and conditions(couldn't figure out how to combine them, sorry...): http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt245/figment79/Terms1.jpg and http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt245/figment79/Terms2.jpg
Another issue here is that they are asking for your social security # and other personal information on an improperly setup web site in order to send these 1099 Tax forms they claim we need. This 1099 request web site is not securely encrypted. This means anyone who knows how to could get this information unencrypted and instigate identity theft. Not to mention it is done in a highly unprofessional way (using the IP address instead of a domain name, not having any privacy policy on the page, etc.).
Thanks in advance for any and all help! This is a great site.
A bunch of us participated in LastMinuteTravel.com's "World for a Dollar" promotion, where they claimed that we could purchase a hotel stay for $1 per night. Only when we actually got through the booking process (and input our credit card number), they instead decided to offer the stay for FREE and are now threatening to cancel the reservations unless we provide a SS# so that they can send out 1099 forms for "winning" the hotel stay... in the terms and conditions, it says specifically "The Campaign does not constitute a prize, lottery, or sweepstakes. " (I've got the screen shot of the terms and conditions). Needless to say, we were not made aware ahead of time that we were taking part in a contest, all of its participants thought we would have to pay $1 per night. Are we REALLY on the hook for the taxes? And what to do if they actually do cancel our bookings?
Here is are two screen shots of the terms and conditions(couldn't figure out how to combine them, sorry...): http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt245/figment79/Terms1.jpg and http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt245/figment79/Terms2.jpg
Another issue here is that they are asking for your social security # and other personal information on an improperly setup web site in order to send these 1099 Tax forms they claim we need. This 1099 request web site is not securely encrypted. This means anyone who knows how to could get this information unencrypted and instigate identity theft. Not to mention it is done in a highly unprofessional way (using the IP address instead of a domain name, not having any privacy policy on the page, etc.).
Thanks in advance for any and all help! This is a great site.