Nightmare story of a man and his dealings with Timeshare Resale

TUGBrian · Oct 16, 2010

What a fantastic article!

http://www.stltoday.com/business/co...cle_b9cb8550-227a-5b7f-8183-1cdb21526773.html

This guy was hit by upfront fee scammers multiple times, and some "advocacy" groups as well!

Really illustrates the norm and what uneducated consumers can expect to encounter when dealing with trying to sell their timeshare in the resale market.

Larry6417 · Oct 16, 2010

Someone needs a TUG membership!

And a hug. Unfortunately crooks are members of the digital age. Senior citizens are frequently repeat victims.

Rent_Share · Oct 17, 2010

Potential link to independent "Third Party" confirmation of the TUG recommendations that seems to need to be posted daily

The more threads posted increase the likelihood the potential victims inquiring will land here

e.bram · Oct 17, 2010

The prime scammers are the credit card companies who allow the charges which they must know are fraudulent by the number of complaints the must receive!

timeos2 · Oct 17, 2010

Shut them down - cut off the funds at the source

e.bram said:
The prime scammers are the credit card companies who allow the charges which they must know are fraudulent by the number of complaints the must receive!

e.bram - You are right on with this comment! I am amazed that these groups are able to obtain - and maintain - active credit card acceptance accounts. The rules for those are usually quite strict and with a few complaints/charge backs they are often terminated or suspended. Why so many seem to be given a pass - card users told the charge is OK despite the many bogus claims made to get the mark to OK the charge - that on the surface it seems the red flags should wave and the clearing house look deeper into what is being done by these companies.

Without that ability to take credit cards they would have a far tougher time getting those upfront fees extracted from the unsuspecting and often desperate timeshare owners looking to find a new owner for their week(s).

e.bram · Oct 17, 2010

John:
Far tougher? I say IMPOSSIBLE!

timeos2 · Oct 17, 2010

e.bram said:
John:
Far tougher? I say IMPOSSIBLE!

They can be extremely convincing & get people to wire money or get money orders or checks or even Western Union - but it makes it much harder and less likely they will succeed. I'd bet 60% plus would be gone with that simple move by the cc processors to protect card holders.

AwayWeGo · Oct 17, 2010

Cracking Down On Timeshare Rip-Offs.

TUGBrian said:
This guy was hit by upfront fee scammers multiple times, and some "advocacy" groups as well!

Whoa !

Maybe that hypothetical nightmare scenario of timeshare bamboozles & hornswoggles isn't so hypothetical after all.

timeos2 said:
I am amazed that these groups are able to obtain - and maintain - active credit card acceptance accounts. The rules for those are usually quite strict and with a few complaints/charge backs they are often terminated or suspended. Why so many seem to be given a pass - card users told the charge is OK despite the many bogus claims made to get the mark to OK the charge - that on the surface it seems the red flags should wave and the clearing house look deeper into what is being done by these companies.

Without that ability to take credit cards they would have a far tougher time getting those upfront fees extracted from the unsuspecting and often desperate timeshare owners looking to find a new owner for their week(s).

It wouldn't hurt if the state attorney generals that are currently going after the up-front fee hornswogglers & bamboozlers also sent pointed letters to Visa & MasterCharge & Discover Card & American Express.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.

prickler · Oct 17, 2010

Fool me once, shame on you...

Fool me twice, shame on me...

Fool me three times, are you serious?

TUGBrian · Oct 17, 2010

We actually had a meeting just this week where I asked the very question of why they simply dont go after the merchant account holder (after all, its highly unlikely that all these fly by night operations open their own merchant accounts).

a good answer (well, lets say a satisfactory answer) was not provided.

DeniseM · Oct 17, 2010

How's this for an answer: The credit card companies are making a lot of money off these transactions!

Dave*H · Oct 17, 2010

prickler said:
Fool me once, shame on you...

Fool me twice, shame on me...

Fool me three times, are you serious?

That is easy to say, but con men can be really good. Nobody thinks they would fall for a con man's scam until they actually do.

prickler · Oct 17, 2010

I know con men are good, and I'd be lying if I said I've never been the sucker. But to fall for basically the same scam 3 times? No wonder these guys won't go away.

mecllap · Oct 17, 2010

Unfortunately there are gullible people, and really bad people in this world. I'm actually pretty smart, but have been sucked into bad decisions more than once (nothing huge, tho -- altho I did buy my first TS from the developer, but I actually don't regret that, because it got me into Timesharing, which I really enjoy, and may not have gotten into otherwise. And I love the resort. The sales experience was actually fairly pleasant, not annoying, altho I have since gone to some really annoying ones [and of course, not purchased] ). There are bullies in the adult world, too; I suspect that many TS sales people were bullies as kids, and the resale field seems to have a lot of them (I expect there are some good folks in the resale business -- the company I got my DVC points from seems to be fine -- I would want to have their help if/when I ever needed to sell).

Nightmare story of a man and his dealings with Timeshare Resale

TUGBrian

Larry6417

Rent_Share

e.bram

timeos2

Tug Review Crew: Rookie

e.bram

timeos2

Tug Review Crew: Rookie

AwayWeGo

TUG Review Crew: Expert

prickler

TUGBrian

DeniseM

Dave*H

prickler

mecllap

Tug Review Crew: Rookie