Dr. Phil Exposes Timeshare Scam

[DianneL]

On Dr. Phil’s broadcast yesterday he exposed a scam that took over $200,000 from an elderly lady. They pulled her in by telling her she was a part of a class action lawsuit regarding her Mexico timeshare, but she had to send money to get her $38,000. So, she sent money, and more money, etc until she had sent over $200,000, all the time with the promise she would not only get the $38,000 but also the money she paid. Of course, her money is gone and the scammers can’t be found. I would like to see more information on tv on the news or in documentary form to inform the general population about this. Tug does a great job exposing these scams, but unfortunately not all timeshare owners read tug.

 

[TheTimeTraveler]

Very sad situation.....



.

 

[RX8]

Sad indeed. Scammers go after the easy pickings. There will still be people scammed even if warnings were put out everywhere. We get people here on TUG that don’t want to believe everyone who says it is a scam because they see dollar signs. They ignore all the red flags because of their expected windfall. I also wonder if this is the second scam she has fallen for. Typically, the scammers start with a “buyer” for your timeshare. When they drain that well they return again to their proven mark and try the “class action” scam to supposedly recoup their victim’s first loss.

My wife’s grandfather fell for the cold call lottery scam. He sent money expecting to get a million dollars. He sent more money and then we found out. Everyone told him it is a scam, even had a police detective tell him it was a scam, yet he is still convinced we are all wrong.

 

[silentg]

Elderly are more susceptible to these scams. My mother always would answer the phone and talk to anyone but she told Timeshare sales reps, she was too old for a timeshare. We kept her timeshare in the family, my brother has it now.

 

[TUGBrian]

absolutely true, however we still get plenty of non-elderly that fall for these upfront fee scams because the promise of a big payday is difficult to ignore.

avoiding companies of any sort that ask for large upfront fees will protect you from every known scam in this industry!

Beware: Phone Call Claims of a Buyer or Renter for Your Timeshare Are Scams!

Attention Timeshare Owners: Beware of calls from companies claiming to buy or sell your timeshare. These are often scams! Stay informed and protect yourself.

tug2.net

 

[LannyPC]

absolutely true, however we still get plenty of non-elderly that fall for these upfront fee scams because the promise of a big payday is difficult to ignore.

It's not just a matter of age. The upfront fee resale/rental scammers see TS owners, regardless of age, as easy pickin's because if owners easily fell for the original "scam" of buying a TS from the developer, they will likely fall for the resale scam.

 

[pedro47]

I wish there were either federal or state legislation on the books that timeshare sale people could not sell to any one over the age of 70 years old. IMHO.

It is liked you cannot be served to be on a federal grand jury after the age of 70 years old.

 

[pedro47]

Sad indeed. Scammers go after the easy pickings. There will still be people scammed even if warnings were put out everywhere. We get people here on TUG that don’t want to believe everyone who says it is a scam because they see dollar signs. They ignore all the red flags because of their expected windfall. I also wonder if this is the second scam she has fallen for. Typically, the scammers start with a “buyer” for your timeshare. When they drain that well they return again to their proven mark and try the “class action” scam to supposedly recoup their victim’s first loss.

My wife’s grandfather fell for the cold call lottery scam. He sent money expecting to get a million dollars. He sent more money and then we found out. Everyone told him it is a scam, even had a police detective tell him it was a scam, yet he is still convinced we are all wrong.

RX8, my deceased Aunt was liked your grandfather. She has been deceased for over a 1 1/2 years now and she is still receiving letters from scammers.

 

[artringwald]

When I get calls from suspicious caller ID's, I let them talk to my parakeet. So far they haven't talked her into buying or getting rid of a timeshare. She likes when we go to our timeshare. She gets far more attention from our parakeet sitter.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

Many of those scam offers start with an email that is so badly written that people wonder how anybody could be fooled. That is actually deliberate by the scammers, to increase their success. With a well-written response they will get more responses, from people who wouldn't respond to a poorly written message. But most of the people in that group will realize it's a scam. So, from the scammers viewpoint, the badly written message is actually more effective than a well-composed message.

 

[DianneL]

The lady Dr. Phil interviewed could not be convinced of the scam until he sent people to Mexico to the address they were using. Of course the business name they used was not there, neither was lawyer Carlos. Prior to being on the show the two daughters told their mom it was a scam. She did not believe them and continued to send money.

 

[TheTimeTraveler]

Sounds like the mother was sending what would have eventually become the daughter's inheritance. Now the inheritance will be a bit smaller (or non existent) thanks to the scammers.



.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

video from Dr. Phil show.

 

[Snazzylass]

The lady Dr. Phil interviewed could not be convinced of the scam until he sent people to Mexico to the address they were using. Of course the business name they used was not there, neither was lawyer Carlos. Prior to being on the show the two daughters told their mom it was a scam. She did not believe them and continued to send money.

Sounds like the victims he's had on the show of online dating scamming. He's had women who are, sad to say, unattractive with nothing to offer except their disability check being scammed by pretty photos and sweet talk. It's so sad to see how desperate and brainwashed they are.

 

[Snazzylass]

absolutely true, however we still get plenty of non-elderly that fall for these upfront fee scams because the promise of a big payday is difficult to ignore.

avoiding companies of any sort that ask for large upfront fees will protect you from every known scam in this industry!

So true. I had a friend recently relate that she was trying to help a customer with a refi, but it could not go through due to the status of the customer's T/S.
Seems she had quit paying the T/S and instead was waiting for an attorney to fix the mess. She had paid the attorney $8K, or maybe it was a T/S exit co which referred her to the attny (?). I'm not seeing that ending well.

 

[TUGBrian]

its extremely common for those companies to play fast and loose with the terms "lawfirm" and "laywer" and or "legal assistance" when they offer nothing of the sort.

simply making it seem like to the owner, that they have certainly hired a company that employs lawyers or lawfirms to handle their cancellation for them, all under the guise of doing nothing more than collecting a hefty upfront fee.

deliberate misrepresentation is one of the cornerstones of this industry sadly, its proven for decades how profitable it is with little to no risk of reprisal.

 

[linpat]

A couple months ago I had a phone message one evening from a man who identified himself as being with Wyndham, and he was calling from the home office in either Oregon or Washington - don’t remember which. He wanted me to call him back right away concerning a problem with my timeshare ownership. The next morning I called the Wyndham phone number on my membership card and was confirmed that the home office was still in Orlando Florida and there were no problems about my account.

 

[pedro47]

A couple months ago I had a phone message one evening from a man who identified himself as being with Wyndham, and he was calling from the home office in either Oregon or Washington - don’t remember which. He wanted me to call him back right away concerning a problem with my timeshare ownership. The next morning I called the Wyndham phone number on my membership card and was confirmed that the home office was still in Orlando Florida and there were no problems about my account.

It is ashamed our society is full of crooks and liars.

 

[Larry M]

absolutely true, however we still get plenty of non-elderly that fall for these upfront fee scams because the promise of a big payday is difficult to ignore.

avoiding companies of any sort that ask for large upfront fees will protect you from every known scam in this industry!

Beware: Phone Call Claims of a Buyer or Renter for Your Timeshare Are Scams!

Attention Timeshare Owners: Beware of calls from companies claiming to buy or sell your timeshare. These are often scams! Stay informed and protect yourself.

tug2.net

Brian, maybe you remember the thread I participated in, maybe 5-10 years ago. A Canadian user wanted someone in North Carolina to visit the Charlotte, NC office to which he had been sending money to unload a Mexican timeshare, since he had been getting no response to his queries. I do internet forensics as you may recall.

To his surprise, I determined that the address was the 17th floor of a skyscraper at the corner of Tryon and Trade Sts. in the heart of downtown Charlotte, at the two main streets. This location was way too expensive for a timeshare exit company. It turned out to be a Pitney-Bowes mail-forwarding and PO Box service. So I dug a little deeper and determined that the website was being hosted by a Mexican company, using a US-registered .com domain. And a little deeper to discover the name and address of the registrant, in Mexico City. I documented this with IP addresses and host names as appropriate, as well as the building record for the mail drop.

Needless to say, the user was a little disappointed to learn this.

 

[Arusso]

Brian, maybe you remember the thread I participated in, maybe 5-10 years ago. A Canadian user wanted someone in North Carolina to visit the Charlotte, NC office to which he had been sending money to unload a Mexican timeshare, since he had been getting no response to his queries. I do internet forensics as you may recall.

To his surprise, I determined that the address was the 17th floor of a skyscraper at the corner of Tryon and Trade Sts. in the heart of downtown Charlotte, at the two main streets. This location was way too expensive for a timeshare exit company. It turned out to be a Pitney-Bowes mail-forwarding and PO Box service. So I dug a little deeper and determined that the website was being hosted by a Mexican company, using a US-registered .com domain. And a little deeper to discover the name and address of the registrant, in Mexico City. I documented this with IP addresses and host names as appropriate, as well as the building record for the mail drop.

Needless to say, the user was a little disappointed to learn this.

Technology has made perpetuating scams way too easy today. Because such scams involve the mail, telephony and other communication methods, all of these, if used in the commission of a crime, are under federal jurisdiction. This is where the weakness in the system lies. There really doesn't seem to be enforcement because criminals can hide behind the technology. In your example, you were able to trace the IP addresses to servers in specific locations and uncover the registration of the URL owner. You notified the victim, but that's only the beginning. The appropriate federal agency should intervene in such cases.

 

[RiesTravels]

Internet has also made it real easy to verify with a google search. Any address can be looked up using google maps and zoomed in on so you can see if its legit location. IP address and web address can also be looked up using free online tools. Many states also allow you to look up the name of a company to see its info.

Unfortunately lots of folks are not savvy. I'm on a few homeschool groups and the same items are posted daily no one even skims the group post

 

[Larry M]

Technology has made perpetuating scams way too easy today. Because such scams involve the mail, telephony and other communication methods, all of these, if used in the commission of a crime, are under federal jurisdiction. This is where the weakness in the system lies. There really doesn't seem to be enforcement because criminals can hide behind the technology. In your example, you were able to trace the IP addresses to servers in specific locations and uncover the registration of the URL owner. You notified the victim, but that's only the beginning. The appropriate federal agency should intervene in such cases.

Kinda tricky to get the Feds to help with a fraud being committed from Mexico. The only thing going on in the US was the rented mail drop.

I imagine you can get the Feds to extradite for murder, or some really big financial scam, but not claims <$10K.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

Back about 2000, shortly after I joined TUG, one of the big scams was a supposed investor group that was a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) to own timeshares. The get the REIT to buy the timeshare, the owner first had to pay for an appraisal; IIRC, the appraisal firm charged several thousand dollars for the appraisal. Victims were led to believe that the REIT would buy the timeshare for the appraised value. Of course, after getting the appraisal nothing happened.

The Feds ended up taking down that scam. The appraisal turned out to just be an extension of the group operating the supposed REIT. In the end, it turned out the operation was being run by an organized crime syndicate in the Northeast US>

 

[TravelTime]

I wish there were either federal or state legislation on the books that timeshare sale people could not sell to any one over the age of 70 years old. IMHO.

It is liked you cannot be served to be on a federal grand jury after the age of 70 years old.

I wish they had this as a law for President of the USA! LOL

 

[dioxide45]

Outside of Fraud, we won't see any kind of federal legislation. Timeshare is real estate and real estate is a state issue.

That said, I don't think we need laws based on age. What if I am 72 and do want a timeshare and am informed of the costs. Perhaps I have lots of money and buying it won't be a burden? I should be able to buy it.

Perhaps what we need is something similar to truth in lending laws. Which are kind of useless anyhow. But some type of disclosure that shows the annual cost of the timeshare all in given a certain percentage rate of increase in annual fees. So include upfront costs, interest, maintenance fees over 10, 20, 25, 30, 40 years. Then the buyer can truly determine if what they are buying has value to them. This is often a trick the sales people try to use to sell timeshare, but this needs to be written and signed disclosure.