Timshare Resale Scam Alert Do your research!

WATCH OUT FOR TIMESHARE SALES SCAMMERS

 

I was recently scammed out of $2200 by a timeshare resale con. I thought that I had done all my due diligence but it turned out that the scammer was really good and I was very trusting and needed desperately to get rid of my timeshare.

 

In hindsight the first red flag I should have seen was that they called me, I didn't call them. But I have been advertising the timeshare on line so when he knew details about my timeshare he was believable.





Secondly was about the second day of talking to him I was told there was a refundable fee of $2200 I had to pay to process the sale through a title company. But the red flag was that they only accepted payment by pre-paid "Reloadit" debit cards.

They made everything seem so legitimate. They sent me documents for every step of the sale. First and "Offer to Purchase" with the name of the buyer and their signatures, detailing that transaction. Then a "Contract to Sell". It looked almost like the forms that I signed when I made my original purchase at my resort so I believed it.

When I gave them the information from the debit cards the sent me a receipt for the transaction within an hour. He then called and told me to have a nice Labor day and that he would get back to me when the sale closed. He did as promised with one hitch. He said everything was fine. The check was ready to be sent all I had to do was take care of the Luxury taxes owed on the property of $2800. I asked him where this came from and he directed me to read the contract. The contract says the buyers are responsible for the closing cost and the seller is responsible for the luxury tax. He once again wanted  me to pay the money by "Reloadit" cards. I asked why it couldn't be taken from the proceeds of the sale or why I couldn't pay it directly to the IRS, He made several excuses. It was in the contract. It was company policy. Legally it had to be paid through them etc. I didn't feel good when I first sent the money to him by debit cards, now I knew I was a victim of a scam!  I called my brother who is a lawyer in Florida and he checked the BBB web site and found that there was a fraud alert on the company. The alert was not there the day I checked. If it had been I wouldn't be doing this blog.

So I hope that you read this and learn from my mistakes.

1. Be very suspicious of cold call businesses. (ones that you didn't contact first)

2. Check them out on the Better Business web site.

3. Check the entire web site for complaints not just the page that has the name and the rating. You have to click on the complaints tab to get the whole picture.

4. Call the company's number listed on the BBB web site to see if you are communicating with a real representative of the company. My scammer used a number with the correct area code and prefix. He also used a email address that looked like it should belong to the company.

5. Don't pay anything by "Reloadit" cards. They are like cash and untraceable.

6. Don't operate out of emotion, or panic. That what the scammers use against you.

7. Below is the BBB review for the company I thought I was dealing with. Notice that now there is a "Fraud Alert" on the page.

The sad thing about this is that the legitimate business is also hurt by this con. Paradise Timeshare Resale is a reputable company with licensed brokers. They may loose business because of the "Fraud Alert" on their page. You can check out the page below.

NOTE:  This is not the only company that these cons have used. They are hitting almost all the timeshare companies.

Paradise Timeshare Resale, Inc. Review - Timeshare Resale and Rental Marketing in South Lake Tahoe, CA - BBB Business Review - BBB serving Northeast California