• The TUGBBS forums are completely free and open to the public and exist as the absolute best place for owners to get help and advice about their timeshares for more than 30 years!

    Join Tens of Thousands of other Owners just like you here to get any and all Timeshare questions answered 24 hours a day!
  • TUG started 30 years ago in October 1993 as a group of regular Timeshare owners just like you!

    Read about our 30th anniversary: Happy 30th Birthday TUG!
  • TUG has a YouTube Channel to produce weekly short informative videos on popular Timeshare topics!

    Free memberships for every 50 subscribers!

    Visit TUG on Youtube!
  • TUG has now saved timeshare owners more than $21,000,000 dollars just by finding us in time to rescind a new Timeshare purchase! A truly incredible milestone!

    Read more here: TUG saves owners more than $21 Million dollars
  • Sign up to get the TUG Newsletter for free!

    60,000+ subscribing owners! A weekly recap of the best Timeshare resort reviews and the most popular topics discussed by owners!
  • Our official "end my sales presentation early" T-shirts are available again! Also come with the option for a free membership extension with purchase to offset the cost!

    All T-shirt options here!
  • A few of the most common links here on the forums for newbies and guests!

What is this web TUG address? Who owns & operates TUG?

DeniseM

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Certainly not!

Brian Rogers (TUGBrian) is the owner of TUG

www.tugbbs.com

The link you posted is on another website.

Some of the upfront fee companies would like you to believe they are affiliated with TUG! :hysterical:
 

presley

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You can look up domain name owners on whois.net. This one is listed as private which means that they paid extra to keep their info private.
 

TUGBrian

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is of no affiliation to TUG whatsoever...

and note, the page doesnt even load for me.
 

Jasmine658

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Anyone else victim of fraud by a timeshare reseller?

Looks like this particular reseller is not part of the TUG website but dishonestly using TUG.

However, TUG seems to be selling advertising space to these resellers since pop-up ads are all over TUG like parasites, so am not happy about this fact. This should stop!

Hope the Attorney Generals can close all these PCC's down, along with their "transfer" companies that have no licenses as Realtors or as Escrow agents, as I have found only a bunch of telemarketers and telemarketing managers working in boiler call centers. The last set of papers I got from "fly by night transfers" LLC (Elite Resort Transfers) was to sign and notarize what they called "missing pages" for documents (just single pages) and my Notary Public looked at this and said SCAM & run as fast as you can. Sure enough, they closed their doors the same month, mail being returned, no one answering phones.

I've notified Attorney Generals for several states now about a string of PCC companies that have opened and closed doors repeatedly stealing clients' money, and so far over 16+ have been reported along with police reports as well.

Am working to arrange a class action suit to close these unqualified unlicensed resellers down that are not qualified to be drawing up contracts, doing real estate transfers, or handling escrows.

If you have been a victim of fraud, and have had your money stolen, please post here:

Name of Timeshare
Reseller Company
City and State of Reseller
Amount Lost
Date of Loss
 
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presley

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However, TUG seems to be selling advertising space to these resellers since pop-up ads are all over TUG like parasites, so am not happy about this fact. This should stop!

I've never had a popup on TUG, other than to notify me that I have a private message. What popups are you getting?
 

rrlongwell

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Looks like this particular reseller is not part of the TUG website but dishonestly using TUG.

However, TUG seems to be selling advertising space to these resellers since pop-up ads are all over TUG like parasites, so am not happy about this fact. This should stop!

Hope the Attorney Generals can close all these PCC's down, along with their "transfer" companies that have no licenses as Realtors or as Escrow agents, as I have found only a bunch of telemarketers and telemarketing managers working in boiler call centers. The last set of papers I got from "fly by night transfers" LLC (Elite Resort Transfers) was to sign and notarize what they called "missing pages" for documents (just single pages) and my Notary Public looked at this and said SCAM & run as fast as you can. Sure enough, they closed their doors the same month, mail being returned, no one answering phones.

I've notified Attorney Generals for several states now about a string of PCC companies that have opened and closed doors repeatedly stealing clients' money, and so far over 16+ have been reported along with police reports as well.

Am working to arrange a class action suit to close these unqualified unlicensed resellers down that are not qualified to be drawing up contracts, doing real estate transfers, or handling escrows.

If you have been a victim of fraud, and have had your money stolen, please post here:

Name of Timeshare
Reseller Company
City and State of Reseller
Amount Lost
Date of Loss

What are the terms and fees associated with joining the class action suit? Also, what percentage will the lawfirm retain, if a settlement is reached.?
 

hypnotiq

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However, TUG seems to be selling advertising space to these resellers since pop-up ads are all over TUG like parasites, so am not happy about this fact. This should stop!

Are you refering to the tug2.net page? If so, those aren't popups, just ads on the page and from looking at the source code to the page, TUG is using Google ads. Google uses words it finds on the TUG site to find targeted ads to present to the user that is on the page.

TUG isn't selling ads to the resellers based on the above info.
 

DeniseM

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The Ads are Google Ads - this advertising helps pay for TUG. However, Google selects the Ads - not TUG. If there is an Ad that is objectionable, then TUG can block it.

BTW - Are you sure you are seeing pop up Ads? A pop up opens up a new window.

I admire your enthusiasm, but you are preaching to the choir here.

How do you plan to sue a multitude of fly-by-night companies with one lawsuit? Are you an attorney? How much money can you spend on this?

You have some good ideas, but I think your goals are probably unrealistic. I don't think you need a class action lawsuit, and I don't think you can sue everyone at once. These companies are breaking the law, and the Attorney General can go after them, without a lawsuit. If it were me, I'd focus on the company that ripped you off, first.
 
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rrlongwell

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is of no affiliation to TUG whatsoever...

and note, the page doesnt even load for me.

Here is what appears when I click on the link. Please note the 2nd paragraph. According to it, TUG was founded with multiple owners. BAD JOKE: It appears you have partners you did not know about.

TUG

The acronym TUG stands for Timeshare Users Group and is one of the largest online database of timeshare owners and timeshare information, guidance, reviews, advertisements, etc. on the internet today. Both timeshare owners and those wanting to buy timeshares or even to rent a timeshare should first turn to TUG’s plethora of unsolicited timeshare information before considering their next course of action regarding timeshares.

TUG started when its owners were given a dreadful timeshare in exchange for their own high cost, well-maintained timeshare unit. Due to the deceptive description of the timeshare as well as a lack of updated pictures, the founders of TUG wasted their vacation time as well as having to still pay the hundreds in timeshare maintenance fees for their own timeshare unit. When they complained with the company dealing with timeshare exchanges, their only form of compensation was a refund of the timeshare exchange fee.

Cost of membership to join TUG is $15 per year or $30 for three years. With membership, timeshare owners and those wanting to learn more about timeshares have access to timeshare resort reviews, ratings, current pictures and videos for accurate portrayals of resort rooms and amenities, as well as thousands of timeshare advertisements for rent, exchange or buy from other timeshare users. Members of TUG can view the 4,000 reviews of timeshare resorts worldwide. In fact, membership is not limited to just those residing in the US. In addition, the website boasts of having more than 5,000 timeshare advertisements at all time and over 55,000 advertisements posted in the past year. TUG is also responsible for enabling thousands of timeshare sales and exchanges since its start in 1993.

One of the free advices TUG emphasizes on is never paying an upfront fee to sell a timeshare. In other words, timeshare resale companies who charge upwards in the thousands before listing a timeshare show little to no results and most TUG members were never refunded even when promised. These are, essentially, timeshare resale scams many timeshare owners fall victim to prior to accessing TUG or other trustworthy websites.

Another piece of sound advice from TUG that Timeshare Relief also adopts is the sinking cost of owning a timeshare. TUG states that any timeshare owner wishing to list their timeshares for sale should consider a price of 30-50% of what their timeshare was initially worth when purchased. Even then, the demand for such timeshares is slim to none, as a quick search on marketplace sites such as www.ebay.com will result in hundreds of legitimate timeshare listings for bids as low as $1. Many timeshare owners can only understand the time and cost constraint of owning timeshares after repeated (and failed) attempts at timeshare resales.

Overall, the process of owning, renting, selling or exchanging a decent timeshare has many pitfalls. In order to avoid many common mistakes of timeshare owners, it is best to have access to firsthand experiences from other timeshare owners. Hence, one of the sites people should turn to for reliable information and advice related to timeshares is www.tug2.net.
 
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TUGBrian

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doesnt suprise me, that company loves to steal content without permission and make it seem like TUG somehow supports them.

youll find all sorts in the timeshare industry for sure.

-------------

per the other issue, there are no popup ads on any page on TUG....anywhere.

if you are referring to google ads, and you see some that are scams...email them to me at tug@tug2.net and they will be removed asap.

currently our blocked ads list contains more than 200 urls.
 

RX8

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doesnt suprise me, that company loves to steal content without permission and make it seem like TUG somehow supports them.

youll find all sorts in the timeshare industry for sure.

-------------

per the other issue, there are no popup ads on any page on TUG....anywhere.

if you are referring to google ads, and you see some that are scams...email them to me at tug@tug2.net and they will be removed asap.

currently our blocked ads list contains more than 200 urls.

Dont the Google ads try to solicit you with advertisements based on what you have previously searched for? Since the OP has been researching scam companies, it doesn't surprise me that she has been seeing ads for these timeshare "relief" type companies.
 

TUGBrian

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there are different ads displayed for different people most definately (also impacts them if you are logged into your google account).

most of the ads are derived from the content of the page they are displayed on however. (ie timeshare stuff)
 
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