Are offers of purchase of Mexican timeshares at inflated prices a scam? I have an offer for my timeshare until at Vidanta Grande Luxxe- Nuevo Vallarta

[seema]

I have Grand Luxxe week - at Neuvo Vallarta- 2 bedroom unit at amusement park (whenever building gets built) - equivalent to loft in Grande Luxxe in main part of the Vidanta complex.

Several real estate agencies (based in USA) for several months have (on an unsolicited basis approached me about selling my unit
So I connected with one real estate agent - he said I could be offered up to 4-5x my purchase price.
I was told this agency represents Accor- which owns Fairmont, Raffles, and many other hotel chains from very luxurious to very basic.
I was told that by buying my unit at this extravagant price- Accor actually gets a tax write-off (with the American based IRA, even though Accor based in France)

I know most Mexican time share offers are scams.

The question is whether this is a scam.
I have a virtual appointment with a real estate agent Monday Aug 7 in the afternoon.

The agent has already told me the following:
a) full money will be deposited into my bank account (once they receive the paperwork)

and
b) I can pay their commission a few days later- from this deposit.


The areas of concern on my part:

a) if I sign the forms- even without any transfer of money- do I transfer ownership to this company?
b) I was told about closing costs in a previous phone call- I suspect I will be asked to pay this amount up front- then if this is a scam- that is the last I will hear of this person or this company or my ownership with the 2 bedroom unit.


is there anyway I can prove this is above board- assuming it is above board; or how can I confront the agent and prove this is a scam (if it is a scam)?

 

[Eric B]

It is a total scam and not worth your time trying to prove it to the agent, who already knows that. I get those calls all the time and tell them that it would be less expensive if they just bought the weeks they want from Vidanta. Then I politely ask them to take me off their call list.

Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) | Scammers Targeting Owners of Timeshares in Mexico

www.ic3.gov

 

[RX8]

@seema

“unsolicited”, “agency represents Accor”, “offered up to 4-5x my purchase price”,

Cold call - check
Says they have a buyer for your timeshare - check
big cash offer - check

These three things above are exactly what the classic Mexican timeshare scam is all about.

The scammers are very good at what they do. Your gut says scam but they still got you second guessing yourself. They claim you can pay after you get your money but it is a guarantee that they will eventually come at you with an upfront fee that must be paid in advance, likely calling it a Mexican government fee. And it won’t be one request and disappear. They will keep coming after you with more requests for various fees while promising you that it will be reimbursed. Only after you stop paying do they disappear.

How can we confirm that it is a scam? Their website will be new and their phone number will have no internet presence. Their address will likely be some high rise building in a random US city but they will leave out a suite number or will just say “10th floor”. Their phone number will be an internet number, not a landline or local cell phone provider, using a prefix of the random city they chose (the scammers are likely outside the US). They may be using the name and license of a legitimate agent. However, one could easily locate the real contact info of the agent and verify. It will be fairly easy to point out the discrepancies of their company leading to the conclusion of a scam but I wouldn’t recommend that you “confront the agent and prove this is a scam”. These are criminals running the scam.

If you have the company name, website address, agent name, and/or phone number, I would be happy to investigate.

 

[seema]

The 2 agents claim they are from city point real estate.
In none of their emails- they have a phone number or address listed.
They have never given me that information on the phone.

They have always called me- I have not ever called them- as I do not have their phone number.
Googling- I do believe that is a valid real estate company based in Boston.
But I guess they stole that company's name, when contacting me.

My question - why half a dozen different companies about this timeshare suddenly contacted me, "out of the blue"?
I have 2 other timeshares- one Westgate Lakes Orlando, and one Marriott Ko Olina Hawaii.
Why only unsolicited calls for my Mexican timeshares, but not my 2 American timeshares?

 

[RX8]

The scammers are calling Mexican timeshare owners because they are likely in Mexico, probably obtained your info from rogue employees at your resort, and they can use the excuse that the upfront fees are Mexican government or Mexican bank fees that are due. Most people don’t understand Mexican laws so it plays into their hands. That said, there are recent examples of these same scammers expanding out to US based timeshare owners. Only difference is that their buyer is located in Mexico so they ask for the same bogus Mexican fees.

Here is the exact scam that even a licensed real estate broker got duped for $24,000.

Scammers promising to buy man's timeshare con him out of $24K. Here's how they duped him

Darren Kittleson has worked in real estate for 30 years. Even he got duped.

www.azcentral.com

 

[Eric B]

The 2 agents claim they are from city point real estate.
In none of their emails- they have a phone number or address listed.
They have never given me that information on the phone.

They have always called me- I have not ever called them- as I do not have their phone number.
Googling- I do believe that is a valid real estate company based in Boston.
But I guess they stole that company's name, when contacting me.

My question - why half a dozen different companies about this timeshare suddenly contacted me, "out of the blue"?
I have 2 other timeshares- one Westgate Lakes Orlando, and one Marriott Ko Olina Hawaii.
Why only unsolicited calls for my Mexican timeshares, but not my 2 American timeshares?

Vidanta does a very poor job of protecting the privacy information of its customers. They frequently have breaches where employees or former employees sell off contact information as a side hustle. They are also headquartered very close to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, which the FBI has names as one of the major perpetators of timeshare fraud involving Mexican ownership/membership.

 

[seema]

Thank you, for the information.

Here are the names/email addresses of the 2 individuals who contacted me:

peter-vitale1@citypointrealestate.net; matthew-vandal1@citypointrealestate.net

 

[seema]

The scammers are calling Mexican timeshare owners because they are likely in Mexico, probably obtained your info from rogue employees at your resort, and they can use the excuse that the upfront fees are Mexican government or Mexican bank fees that are due. Most people don’t understand Mexican laws so it plays into their hands. That said, there are recent examples of these same scammers expanding out to US based timeshare owners. Only difference is that their buyer is located in Mexico so they ask for the same bogus Mexican fees.

Here is the exact scam that even a licensed real estate broker got duped for $24,000.

Scammers promising to buy man's timeshare con him out of $24K. Here's how they duped him

Darren Kittleson has worked in real estate for 30 years. Even he got duped.

www.azcentral.com

Even if I did not get your information above, I was planning to tell them if there are any such fees, that I would confirm about the existence of these fees by calling Vidanta directly.

 

[davidvel]

Stop being greedy, it's a scam. End of story.

 

[RX8]

There are current broker licenses for City Point Real Estate, Inc and Rick Otero in Massachusetts. Is it a Rick Otero who is supposedly calling you? His website is citypointre.com which was created in 2017. His phone number from that website and elsewhere that I found is 617 233-5538. I found a website citypointrealestate.net that has a Mexican registrar and my provider says the site is malicious. However, the supposed physical address is in Utah.

 

[RX8]

Thank you, for the information.

Here are the names/email addresses of the 2 individuals who contacted me:

peter-vitale1@citypointrealestate.net; matthew-vandal1@citypointrealestate.net

There is your proof right there. That is the website I located but I didn’t think it was correct because they are using a Utah address. That website was created September 2022. While this is supposed to be a US company the registrant is Tecnocratica Centro de Datos, S.L.

Don’t need to spend much time on this but wanted to say that the physical address they have on the website is 10 W. Broadway Salt Lake City. Just like I said earlier when describing clues as to how we would know it is a scam, they do not include a suite number even though this is a multi-story building.

Here is a sister scammer website that was created February 2023. They are the same scammer as the websites are very similar, including exact “About Us” verbiage. This supposed Kansas City company also share the same Mexican Registrant.

Realty Ventures

realtyventure.net