Fake vacation or travel prize package advance-fee scam — unsolicited email congratulating the recipient on winning a free vacation, cruise, resort stay, or travel package and requiring payment of taxes, processing fees, port fees, or activation charges before the prize can be claimed — a classic advance-fee travel fraud that harvests money and personal information with no actual travel prize delivered

Advance-fee fraud emails congratulating the recipient on winning a free vacation package, cruise, resort stay, or airline tickets — requiring payment of "taxes," "port fees," "processing charges," or "activation fees" before the prize can be claimed. These are high-volume travel fraud operations with no actual prize. Key facts: (1) Travel prize scams are one of the longest-running advance-fee fraud categories; the FTC receives 30,000+ annual complaints about vacation prize fraud; median reported loss is $500–$2,000 in upfront fees; (2) The "you won a free vacation" lure specifically targets consumers who have shared travel interest data — often harvested from online sweepstakes entries, travel loyalty programs, or social media quiz participation; (3) Once the initial fee is paid, victims are confronted with escalating additional charges — "resort fees," "mandatory insurance," "upgrade taxes" — with the promised vacation never materializing or being delivered as unusable timeshare-equivalent bookings; (4) Legitimate contest winnings never require upfront fee payments — any contest requiring payment to claim a prize is legally required to disclose that the payment is not a condition of winning. Warning signs: unsolicited vacation win notification, taxes/fees/processing charge required to claim, high-pressure deadline, phone number CTA to "activate" prize.