Shares in Vidanta ????

[70George2]

Has anyone been contacted about shares they own in Vidanta that are valued at $1850 per share?Sounds like a scam to me.Would like feedback.

 

[Eric B]

The giant red flag should be that someone contacted you about it out of the blue - that's a scam as a general rule. Additionally, Señor Chavez isn't in the habit of giving away anything for free; Vida Vacations sold you a right to use a particular resort for a particular amount of time at a particular cost, but didn't sell you shares in anything. Vidanta is quite good about following the terms of its contracts as they are written and they generally hold their customers to those terms, too. None of my contracts with them have ever included me owning shares in the privately held company.

 

[70George2]

The giant red flag should be that someone contacted you about it out of the blue - that's a scam as a general rule. Additionally, Señor Chavez isn't in the habit of giving away anything for free; Vida Vacations sold you a right to use a particular resort for a particular amount of time at a particular cost, but didn't sell you shares in anything. Vidanta is quite good about following the terms of its contracts as they are written and they generally hold their customers to those terms, too. None of my contracts with them have ever included me owning shares in the privately held company.

Ty for your reply.I am also quite leary of this /I called the financial office of Vidanta to verify and they gave me a "booking entry" number to give to the Trading company.This is wwhat seemed strange to me.Also at Vidanta they said the transaction must be complete by Nov.3.The trading company wanted me to open account and have 5% of sale of shares in account.This was another red flag.Anyway thanks for your feedback.I did not go for it.

 

[pittle]

Did you call the 1-800-292-9446 Customer Service number and get transferred to the Finance Department? If you called a number a number given to you by the caller or email about this, they would make it sound real. There are a lot of scam emails and calls happening now.

I got an email from Vida Vacations a couple of weeks ago reminding owners of the actual Vitanta email addresses. If you got something else to contact the official Vidanta # 1-800-292-9446. I always remember it as 1-800-AWAY-I-GO. The Customer Service number has been the same since we first bought in February 1999.

This was in the email I recieved on October 14th. It was close to the top of the email. I just copied and pasted it as it shows up in the email. It was the first time I remember this statement being in red type and in a box.

 

[davebmoore32]

Has anyone been contacted about shares they own in Vidanta that are valued at $1850 per share?Sounds like a scam to me.Would like feedback.

On 10 Sept. 2021 I was contacted by a Mr. Ross Basri of The Stock Broker LTD, Corp in New Jersey notifying me of “shares” that I was entitled to from my timeshare at the Grand Luxxe, Grupo Vidanta, or Royal Marina Vallarta. He instructed me to contact the finance department at Vidanta to obtain a Book Entry # for my shares. After attempting to upsell me on other freebees they gave me my book entry number. I provided this to Mr. Basri who told me I had 89 shares valued at $1850 each totaling $164,650 USD. He instructed me to contact my bank so he could trade these shares and send the money to that account. On his recommendation I contacted The Clearing House, Inc. in NYC and spoke with Alex F. David with whom I have had numerous daily discussions. Alex stated he is the underwriter for Vidanta’s IPO (which appears to be non-existent), he instructed me to open an account with him by wire transferring 5% of this amount, $8,300,on 16 Sept. to activate the account with CitiBank with the beneficiary Vector Casa de Bolsa SA, located at 111 Wall St. NYC 10005, with reference “Sistemas Y Control EMSY, SA DE CV 088001262257”. Basri was informed and transferred the $164,650 into this account. Further, Basri informed me that an additional 116 shares previously blocked by Vidanta had been released. Mr. David instructed me to wire an additional $10,300 on 20 Sept. to activate this additional amount to the same aforementioned account. A total of $18,600 had been very reluctantly wired from my Wells Fargo account. Now 205 shares were deposited totaling $379,250, plus my activation amounts which totaled $397,850. When attempting to withdraw this amount on 22 Sept. I was told by both Basri and David that Vidanta on 20 Sept. was holding the transfer up due to delinquent “Assessment fees” amounting to 13 years at $850 totaling $20,050 which was required to be wired with Mr. David. I reviewed my Vidanta contract and spoke with Vidanta HQ accounting who stated that I was correct that there is now and never was any assessment fees and that this was a scam. I googled Mr. Alex Francis David, registered with Morgan Stanley and called him at his office in NYC. This was not the Alex Francis David at The Clearing House who previously rendered to me his CRD#5829569, which is the real Mr. David’s #. It appears that Mr. David at The Clearing House is impersonating the real registered broker with that name. Mr. David cancelled my agreement today while I was investigating the bogus assessment fees. He had told me numerous times that my $18,600 activation fees were totally returnable if the transaction did not complete as these funds, “were my money”, but when asking for the return of my $18,600 activation fees, he stating he would not return them, that they were in Mexico and hung up on me. I notified my bank which has initiated a recall of these funds but advised me that if Vector Casa de Bolsa refuses I will have little recourse. Please let me know if you have any advice to return my badly needed money.

 

[T-Dot-Traveller]

On 10 Sept. 2021 I was contacted by a Mr. Ross Basri of The Stock Broker LTD, Corp in New Jersey notifying me of “shares” that I was entitled to from my timeshare at the Grand Luxxe, Grupo Vidanta, or Royal Marina Vallarta. He instructed me to contact the finance department at Vidanta to obtain a Book Entry # for my shares. After attempting to upsell me on other freebees they gave me my book entry number. I provided this to Mr. Basri who told me I had 89 shares valued at $1850 each totaling $164,650 USD. He instructed me to contact my bank so he could trade these shares and send the money to that account. On his recommendation I contacted The Clearing House, Inc. in NYC and spoke with Alex F. David with whom I have had numerous daily discussions. Alex stated he is the underwriter for Vidanta’s IPO (which appears to be non-existent), he instructed me to open an account with him by wire transferring 5% of this amount, $8,300,on 16 Sept. to activate the account with CitiBank with the beneficiary Vector Casa de Bolsa SA, located at 111 Wall St. NYC 10005, with reference “Sistemas Y Control EMSY, SA DE CV 088001262257”. Basri was informed and transferred the $164,650 into this account. Further, Basri informed me that an additional 116 shares previously blocked by Vidanta had been released. Mr. David instructed me to wire an additional $10,300 on 20 Sept. to activate this additional amount to the same aforementioned account. A total of $18,600 had been very reluctantly wired from my Wells Fargo account. Now 205 shares were deposited totaling $379,250, plus my activation amounts which totaled $397,850. When attempting to withdraw this amount on 22 Sept. I was told by both Basri and David that Vidanta on 20 Sept. was holding the transfer up due to delinquent “Assessment fees” amounting to 13 years at $850 totaling $20,050 which was required to be wired with Mr. David. I reviewed my Vidanta contract and spoke with Vidanta HQ accounting who stated that I was correct that there is now and never was any assessment fees and that this was a scam. I googled Mr. Alex Francis David, registered with Morgan Stanley and called him at his office in NYC. This was not the Alex Francis David at The Clearing House who previously rendered to me his CRD#5829569, which is the real Mr. David’s #. It appears that Mr. David at The Clearing House is impersonating the real registered broker with that name. Mr. David cancelled my agreement today while I was investigating the bogus assessment fees. He had told me numerous times that my $18,600 activation fees were totally returnable if the transaction did not complete as these funds, “were my money”, but when asking for the return of my $18,600 activation fees, he stating he would not return them, that they were in Mexico and hung up on me. I notified my bank which has initiated a recall of these funds but advised me that if Vector Casa de Bolsa refuses I will have little recourse. Please let me know if you have any advice to return my badly needed money.

Unfortunately the money is gone -
As the person at the real Vidanta said "this is a scam"

I am sorry to read your story.

 

[dioxide45]

Sorry this has happened to you, but it would seem you have clearly been scammed of the $18K. Any time someone is asking you to send money by wire in relation to a timeshare resale transaction, it is 100% scam. So many red flags in this story. WIsh you would have found us here sooner.

 

[big bird]

Has anyone been contacted about shares they own in Vidanta that are valued at $1850 per share?Sounds like a scam to me.Would like feedback.

I was contacted by Daniel Cechino from Excange Management LLC in Minneapois. I called back and office clerk told me that he was away on a personal emergency. I called again and was given to Richard Vitale. He tol me that Daniel was away on business. He wanted me to set up a security fund account for him to trade these shares with. At first he was wanting me to have a $60,000 account available. I asked for the CRD number which was given as 775539500035 and then asked him for the SEC number which upset him aat he was going to go ahead without me in this transaction without me and that I should go F### myself forwasting his time. I checked out their address and could not find one on line that matched what he gave me. Beware and do your homework...

 

[sceptical timeshare owner]

Has anyone been contacted about shares they own in Vidanta that are valued at $1850 per share?Sounds like a scam to me.Would like feedback.

I have been contacted by a company called Exchange Management LLC out of Minnesota saying my shares are worth $850 U.S. each. I am a Canadian citizen, still living in Canada so that would be a lot of money for me considering he said I own 166 shares. I too received two of those numbers and they said that I had not claimed the first 59 shares so I lost them. I asked my son in San Diego to do a search for me and he found the same thing - these companies contacting us are fraudulent and are scammers of the worst kind. I was going to deal with them - I asked for the documents proving I have these shares - from a company called DeSarollo Marina Vallarta which is the name of the umbrella company on my contract with Vidanta but he gave me the phone number to call, so I am not really certain that it was the actual company I called or some scammer pretending to be a representative of that company. I decided to look up Vidanta going public and fell on this site - with which I had registered a while back but had forgotten. I am happy that this is where my search took me, as now I know that when Franklin De Santa calls from Exchange Management LLC, I can simply block his call.

Has anyone been contacted by that man?

 

[sceptical timeshare owner]

I have been contacted by a company called Exchange Management LLC out of Minnesota saying my shares are worth $850 U.S. each. I am a Canadian citizen, still living in Canada so that would be a lot of money for me considering he said I own 166 shares. I too received two of those numbers and they said that I had not claimed the first 59 shares so I lost them. I asked my son in San Diego to do a search for me and he found the same thing - these companies contacting us are fraudulent and are scammers of the worst kind. I was going to deal with them - I asked for the documents proving I have these shares - from a company called DeSarollo Marina Vallarta which is the name of the umbrella company on my contract with Vidanta but he gave me the phone number to call, so I am not really certain that it was the actual company I called or some scammer pretending to be a representative of that company. I decided to look up Vidanta going public and fell on this site - with which I had registered a while back but had forgotten. I am happy that this is where my search took me, as now I know that when Franklin De Santa calls from Exchange Management LLC, I can simply block his call.

Has anyone been contacted by that man?

 

[Eric B]

Not sure if it's the same guy, but that doesn't really matter. I'm constantly contacted by folks that pitch that same sort of scam. Thanks for the thorough security of my personal identifying information and the prompt corrective action taken for its loss or theft, Vidanta! You guys are doing great!

 

[Eric B]

Sorry, couldn't find the sarcasm emoji....

 

[cb5]

I have been contacted by a company called Exchange Management LLC out of Minnesota saying my shares are worth $850 U.S. each. I am a Canadian citizen, still living in Canada so that would be a lot of money for me considering he said I own 166 shares. I too received two of those numbers and they said that I had not claimed the first 59 shares so I lost them. I asked my son in San Diego to do a search for me and he found the same thing - these companies contacting us are fraudulent and are scammers of the worst kind. I was going to deal with them - I asked for the documents proving I have these shares - from a company called DeSarollo Marina Vallarta which is the name of the umbrella company on my contract with Vidanta but he gave me the phone number to call, so I am not really certain that it was the actual company I called or some scammer pretending to be a representative of that company. I decided to look up Vidanta going public and fell on this site - with which I had registered a while back but had forgotten. I am happy that this is where my search took me, as now I know that when Franklin De Santa calls from Exchange Management LLC, I can simply block his call.

Has anyone been contacted by that man?

I was contacted by Cecil Rhodes from same company. Seems to be the latest scam. My motto - zero information goes out (including if I even own anything) and zero money.

 

[haveasunnyday]

On 10 Sept. 2021 I was contacted by a Mr. Ross Basri of The Stock Broker LTD, Corp in New Jersey notifying me of “shares” that I was entitled to from my timeshare at the Grand Luxxe, Grupo Vidanta, or Royal Marina Vallarta. He instructed me to contact the finance department at Vidanta to obtain a Book Entry # for my shares. After attempting to upsell me on other freebees they gave me my book entry number. I provided this to Mr. Basri who told me I had 89 shares valued at $1850 each totaling $164,650 USD. He instructed me to contact my bank so he could trade these shares and send the money to that account. On his recommendation I contacted The Clearing House, Inc. in NYC and spoke with Alex F. David with whom I have had numerous daily discussions. Alex stated he is the underwriter for Vidanta’s IPO (which appears to be non-existent), he instructed me to open an account with him by wire transferring 5% of this amount, $8,300,on 16 Sept. to activate the account with CitiBank with the beneficiary Vector Casa de Bolsa SA, located at 111 Wall St. NYC 10005, with reference “Sistemas Y Control EMSY, SA DE CV 088001262257”. Basri was informed and transferred the $164,650 into this account. Further, Basri informed me that an additional 116 shares previously blocked by Vidanta had been released. Mr. David instructed me to wire an additional $10,300 on 20 Sept. to activate this additional amount to the same aforementioned account. A total of $18,600 had been very reluctantly wired from my Wells Fargo account. Now 205 shares were deposited totaling $379,250, plus my activation amounts which totaled $397,850. When attempting to withdraw this amount on 22 Sept. I was told by both Basri and David that Vidanta on 20 Sept. was holding the transfer up due to delinquent “Assessment fees” amounting to 13 years at $850 totaling $20,050 which was required to be wired with Mr. David. I reviewed my Vidanta contract and spoke with Vidanta HQ accounting who stated that I was correct that there is now and never was any assessment fees and that this was a scam. I googled Mr. Alex Francis David, registered with Morgan Stanley and called him at his office in NYC. This was not the Alex Francis David at The Clearing House who previously rendered to me his CRD#5829569, which is the real Mr. David’s #. It appears that Mr. David at The Clearing House is impersonating the real registered broker with that name. Mr. David cancelled my agreement today while I was investigating the bogus assessment fees. He had told me numerous times that my $18,600 activation fees were totally returnable if the transaction did not complete as these funds, “were my money”, but when asking for the return of my $18,600 activation fees, he stating he would not return them, that they were in Mexico and hung up on me. I notified my bank which has initiated a recall of these funds but advised me that if Vector Casa de Bolsa refuses I will have little recourse. Please let me know if you have any advice to return my badly needed money.

Got same call today from Brokerage Alliance, NY and told that my share is worth of $850. They gave me vidanta fiance department phone number to claim Book Entry # and Private Placement Memorandum. Luckly with your posting and my call to vidanta membership, I found out that they are scams. Please be aware of this ongoing scam...https://www.sec.gov/oiea/investor-alerts-and-bulletins/fbi-and-oiea-warn-public-fraudsters-are-targeting-owners

 

[Slogun]

My wife was contacted by Jakob Wells of Broker Union in NYC about Vidanta (Desarrollo Marina Vallarta S. A. de C. V.) going public very soon. Jakob was aggressive on the phone with her about Vidanta shares she needed to handle before the company goes public. I took over the conversation at that point.

Jakob gave me a phone number (888-997-7118) to Vidanta Corporate HQ and told me to speak to their Finance Department to get a Book Entry Number for our Vidanta shares. He suggested those shares that Vidanta wants to buy back from us before they go public are worth a lot of money. He said he couldn’t understand why we hadn’t taken action yet. He asked multiple times why we haven’t responded to Vidanta’s offers that were supposedly sent to us via certified mail and via email notifications, none of which we received. He asked if we could prove that we were never notified because he said he could make a case to Vidanta to cash out for us despite Vidanta’s nearly expired buy back deadline.

Jakob insisted we need to act quickly because of the nearly expired buy back timeline. I told him several times we weren’t aware of owning any shares in Vidanta. Nevertheless, I said I would call the number he provided to ask for the Book Entry Number. Jakob gave me his email address to send the number to (contact@union-broker.com) (he assured me it is his email address despite not having his name in the address) and his personal work phone number (914-223-7556). I called him back at that number shortly after we ended our conversation. It’s actually answered by a “receptionist” who routes the call to Jakob. During that second conversation, I asked Jakob what Broker Union gets out of helping us. He said, “well, of course, a commission,” and then he said until we know for sure that Vidanta will buy back our shares that any discussion of commission at this time is moot.

I called the number provided by Jakob. I was passed to the Vidanta Finance Department. They confirmed that Vidanta has an active buy back program and that they had tried to contact us at our old home address but hadn’t yet heard back from us. I asked how many shares we own and the current value of each share. I was told that they (that department) has no way of determining the number of shares we own but that this can be determined by our broker using the Book Entry Number associated with our shares. I was given this number and told that it represents the total of all shares across however many contracts we have with Vidanta. I was told the current value of each share is $635.25 per share. I was also told the buy back program ends on Aug 22. Additionally, I was told that Broker Union is a recognized company in NYC. Finally, I was told that certificates for our shares would be sent immediately via certified mail to our current home address, and that it typically takes 5-8 business days to arrive.

I did send the Book Entry Number to Jakob at the email address he provided. I haven’t yet heard back from him.

Frankly, this smells like the latest scam to come our way since we bought into Vidanta. Clearly, that company isn’t doing a particularly good job of protecting our information. Jakob knew a bit too much about our purchase, though in discussion it became clear his information was out of date. I would say there were many red flags popping up throughout my conversations with him. I called the number he provided out of curiosity, and sent the Book Entry Number to the email address he provided to see what happens next. Doing so strikes me as circular activity so far, giving them nothing they don’t already have.

Subsequent to this exchange with Jakob and the folks at the Vidanta number he provided, I researched online about Vidanta going public. As far as I can determine, it isn’t happening.

 

[Eric B]

Total scam that's been going on for a while. Call the Vidanta customer service number you use to make reservations and they will confirm it for you. If you hear from Jakob again, tell him you contacted Vidanta directly, they purchased your shares back since it was just in time, and they'll be sending him a commission check shortly to his address on file.

 

[Slogun]

Total scam that's been going on for a while. Call the Vidanta customer service number you use to make reservations and they will confirm it for you. If you hear from Jakob again, tell him you contacted Vidanta directly, they purchased your shares back since it was just in time, and they'll be sending him a commission check shortly to his address on file.

Eric, will do!

 

[mike_eager]

I received two calls from a Jacob Dale claiming to be with a brokerage named 360 Global Trade in Atlanta. Similar story: Vidanta is going public, I have 70 unlisted shares that will be cancelled soon, I should have received a notice in the mail, etc.. Instructions to get the book entry number from Vidanta (although he gave me a different phone number) and call him back.

The 360 Global Trade website is hinky, with essentially zero information. The domain was registered on Nov 30, 2023. If you attempt to scroll the map, a message pops up in Spanish saying not to use the scroll wheel. (Hmmm, why would an Atlanta company have popups in Spanish?)

I spoke with Vidanta membership services and they confirmed that Vidanta is not going public and this is a scam. I also asked about the calls I get to rent my timeshare when there is a golf tournement. That's another scam.

 

[WorldT]

Glad you suspected it was a scam because it is.

 

[T-Dot-Traveller]

Hi @mike_eager
As WorldT said - Vidanta Shares is a Scam

There are no current or prior Vidanta contracts that note an ownership of shares.

The goal is to gave the scammers "shares in the $ in your wallet "

 

[TJinWA]

Received a call today ref shares, we get 2-3 calls a week, sometimes a day, about Vidanta weeks, the shares call seems to be a renewed scam effort. I have always just said no and blocked the number but some are so rude they call back immediately from another number, so very annoying.

I did recently get a call from my “grandson”… i played along for a minute, listened to his tale of woe as his concerned grandma then informed him I did not have a grandson… that was at least mildly entertainino…

 

[pittle]

Vidanta is not a publicly traded company. The Chavez family owns Vidanta and they do not share with anyone! They just take our money for the privilege to use a few weeks per year by paying them more money to stay there.

 

[easyrider]

My advice is don't answer the phone unless you know who it is. If they don't leave a message and you have the ability to block the number, block it. If they leave a message that is from a known source you can call it back if you want. I'm to the point that I have the ringer and notifications off on my phone. When I started the no answering the phone dealio I was receiving over 20 calls a day from sources I had no interest in. Now I get maybe 10 a week.

The thing a person should know from childhood is don't talk to strangers applies to phone calls.

Bill

 

[dioxide45]

I received two calls from a Jacob Dale claiming to be with a brokerage named 360 Global Trade in Atlanta. Similar story: Vidanta is going public, I have 70 unlisted shares that will be cancelled soon, I should have received a notice in the mail, etc.. Instructions to get the book entry number from Vidanta (although he gave me a different phone number) and call him back.

The 360 Global Trade website is hinky, with essentially zero information. The domain was registered on Nov 30, 2023. If you attempt to scroll the map, a message pops up in Spanish saying not to use the scroll wheel. (Hmmm, why would an Atlanta company have popups in Spanish?)

I spoke with Vidanta membership services and they confirmed that Vidanta is not going public and this is a scam. I also asked about the calls I get to rent my timeshare when there is a golf tournement. That's another scam.

Anyone who calls YOU, is trying to scam you.