Innovative International

Just got a phone call from a Patricia Miller saying my husband listed with them on December 17,2009 and apologizing for taking so long. She gave me the last four digits of our credit card as proof of contact. Stated they had a buyer for our Florida property and asked us for $2899 for title insurance prior to closing the deal that would be reimbursed at closing, or alternatively, we could supply them with the name and license information of a title attorney of our choosing.

Does the seller pay this much for title insurance? Do we need a title attorney?
Do they actually have a buyer? Does a timeshare need title insurance? My husband does not remember talking or listing with them. Is this the latest scam? How did they get our cc number?

Would appreciate any info you can give us.

sounds like a SCAM to me!

It is a TOTAL SCAM - don't do it!

There is no buyer, and once they get your money, you won't hear from them again!

ANY company that charges a large upfront fee is trying to scam you. They make their money with the upfront fee and then they make no attempt to sell your timeshare.

There are a lot of scammers out there taking advantage of desperate timeshare owners these days. Most timeshares are selling for 0-10% of retail, but that's a bitter pill to swallow, so owners grasp at shady offers, hoping they are for real. Legitimate resellers charge a commission after the sale, but the scammers all ask for a large upfront payment.

Here are some warnings signs with these kinds of companies:


If you answer yes to any of these questions, then this is the usual scenario:


To see what your timeshare is really worth on the current resale market:

They likely got the last four digits of a credit card off of your credit report. You can opt out of things like that by contacting the credit reporting agencies.

Beyond that, this sounds like a scam and I would not pay a dime. There is no buyer and no reason to pay exorbiant fees upfront.

This is a total scam. There is no buyer and you will not get your money back because there will be no closing.

There are a lot of different entities running this kind of scam. They get you to agree to pay a large sum for some service (in this case title insurance) and then the deal "falls through." They will not provide the promised refund because you agreed to pay for the service which they will say they performed.

Hi neighbor!

First your Marriott TS in florida is worth a fair amount of money and you should be able to sell it ( none of this " you may have to give it away" of the other lessor TSs)

Second, Title insurance is cheap (<$300) but often not needed since the purchase you're insuring isn't like a house and worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Read the how to sell your TS article and post it for sale here or one of the other websites which offer a super low cost place to sell your TS.

Good Luck and GO HUSKIES!!

Sell if you can - you won't see much

Bill4728 said:

Hi neighbor!

First your Marriott TS in florida is worth a fair amount of money and you should be able to sell it ( none of this " you may have to give it away" of the other lessor TSs)

Second, Title insurance is cheap (<$300) but often not needed since the purchase you're insuring isn't like a house and worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Read the how to sell your TS article and post it for sale here or one of the other websites which offer a super low cost place to sell your TS.

Good Luck and GO HUSKIES!!

Click to expand...

Bill is basically correct. If you have a deeded, high time week it's worth perhaps as much as $5000 - most likely less - but that is far more than average now days for almost any timeshare week. None are immune to the fact that purchase price gets you nothing except the rights to use the time (good) and be on the hook for all fees (bad). Number 2 tends to all too often far offset number 1 when you compare it to all other options such as trading in, owner to owner exchanges and especially the past few years and for the foreseeable future renting which also gives you far more control over what exactly get when & where.

The high costs and lack of owner control/input for developer controlled resorts even such nice ones as Marriott also push down the value. So no sale is easy, today there are but a handful of extremely rare locations/units/times that will ever realistically sell for more than $5K. You can 99% surely assume you do not own one of those rare cases.

The majority of good to great resorts will still bring $2000+ for the right buyer. Anything other than top equability, top times and sizes will be a give away for the closing and if it's off season in any way you may have to pay the transfer just to be done with it. It is sad but a fact of life as it stands.

The intentionally ambiguous "SOUND ALIKE" name should be clear to run away as fast as you can

I would double check the credit card statements to make sure there were no charges and close that account and get new cards issued

The likelihood that they accessed your credit report is scarier than having a single credit card account number


SCAM

Rent_Share said:

The intentionally ambiguous "SOUND ALIKE" name should be clear to run away as fast as you can

I would double check the credit card statements to make sure there were no charges and close that account and get new cards issued

The likelihood that they accessed your credit report is scarier than having a single credit card account number


SCAM

Click to expand...

If you haven't opted out with the credit reporting agencies, any company can access portions of your credit card (for example, not entire account numbers) for 'promotional purposes'. Where do you think those credit card applications in the mail come from that say you are 'pre-approved'?