[Screaming Demons]

I know a moderator will probably move this to the review section but it's not a review. I'm trying to keep my fellow haunters from being cheated out of their hard-earned money.

There is a new company that opened up called America Is Haunted, with more than 40 big haunted houses all across the country. They have been promoting heavily on Groupon. If you go to their website http://www.americaishaunted.com/ it looks like you might want to check out the nearest location.

The problem is THERE ARE NO HAUNTS! This is a scam to get as many people as possible to buy presale tickets before anyone realizes the buildings are empty. Haunters across the country have been driving over and physically looking at the haunts that are supposed to open in a couple of days and there is nothing there. The main company address is a mail drop box, the inboxes for the phones are full, and checking out the background on the website takes you in circles.

If you plan on taking in a haunted house this month, DON'T BUY TICKETS FOR AMERICA IS HAUNTED!!!

 

[Gym Whourlfeld]

You pay for tickets in advance, to an empty building.. America IS Haunted! There is no one and nothing there! The ghosts took your money!
(Was it "Good" for you?")

 

[Terror Tom]

Thanks for reporting this Screaming Demons! I check out the location for Indianapolis. It's a trucking company lot!!!!! Not even abuilding there.

 

[Berserker]

good advice man. Appreciate.

 

[Woodsy]

I have re posted this in our Indiana Haunt site and on Facebook . Thanks to both Screaming Demons and Terror Tom for the update !

 

[Blarghity]

Heh. Their location in Philly is a Pep Boys auto parts warehouse.

I think the fact that they're claiming to run 42 haunts around the nation inside a 10 day window is a big clue to the fraud. Nobody putting on a pro haunt is going to start things up 10 days before Halloween. You want to run that thing as long as possible to recover as much of your investment as possible, and to accomplish that, you want to run the event as long as possible.

 

[Terra]

Oh my - that's just terrible. Have you notified Groupon?

 

[booswife02]

I really appreciate this post.

 

[Tzaddi93]

Looks like their website has also vanished...

 

[BarryJ]

Their website is down...

 

[Woodsy]

Good job to all. It would appear we may have helped stop a major scam. In this day and age it surprises me how people think this would work. I am sure they will never catch the folks who did this but it sure was not a quick scam and they really had big brass ones to make it SO BIG ! I just hope anybody who made the mistake of paying for tickets can get there money back.

 

[Saki.Girl]

thank you for posting this

 

[Blarghity]

Having done lotsa reading and research, none of the haunt locations was valid. they ranged from warehouses to storefronts in strip malls, to trucking company marshalling yards and gravel/concrete companies.There was even a residential address and a building under demolition.

The office location was a mail drop/virtual office location.

The website itself was useless,though filled with ripped off graphics from other haunts.

Information about the website registration was interesting.This pointed in many directions. Some of the info connects to hauntedamericatours.com out of New Orleans. However,reviewing their information,it actually connects to a web design company, Bachi Graphics.

However... The email address for americahaunted ties back to Monster Massive, a Los Angeles Halloween themed rave that ran from 1997 to 2011. They cancelled in 2011,then pulled the same stunt again in 2012 the day before the event. The promoter has numerous events they've scheduled, sold tickets to and cancelled throughout 2011, 2012 AND 2014. That promoter is a company called Go Ventures.

But the phone number seems to also be connected to at least one event in the SF area, Bay Area Food Classic, which has bounced from 9/27 to 11/8 to 11/1.

Quite a complicated mess, overall. I'm laying odds on the fraud being perpetrated by the rave promoter.

 

[SpookyBlackKat]

How horrible! I shared this on my fb. It seems their groupon deal has ended. I wonder if that was timing or if groupon closed it. I have not checked but would not be surprised if they had posted on LivjngSocial also.

 

[Woodsy]

Blarighity- Great job on the research. Really seems odd to me that Groupon would even allow this to happen. They are going to have a real black mark for not researching this deal and confirming it was valid.

SpookyBlackKat- I get notices for both Groupon and Living Social and do not remember seeing this but its a good bet you are right.


The good news is anybody who paid this way will get a full refund. You have to wonder if they also ran ads locally and people will not get money back.

 

[Screaming Demons]

The good news is anybody who paid this way will get a full refund. You have to wonder if they also ran ads locally and people will not get money back.

They were accepting credit card orders on their website. Fortunately, all anyone has to do is file a chargeback and they'll get their money back. You would think the banks would go after them for this. It's not like the company just happened to get stuck with a containers of, say, bad TVs. This was outright fraud.