HGVC Legit Reservation Check

[Jace]

I am looking to rent a 3br penthouse at Hilton Waikikian and posted on the HGVC rental bb here. I know it's unlikely to find this rental but this person DM'd me and said they hare owners and can't make this week. I'm sure it's likely a scam as the person just joined the group today. I pointed to the TUG rental agreement and asked for a screen shot of the reservation. The also provided a pronton.me (another red flag) ... Here is the screnshot sent to me of the reservation, pretty good detail as it's the right number of points and dates we discussed for week 32.

Is this is legit HGVC confirmation? the last name of this person and confirmation # were not a match when I did "Find Stay on hilton.com ... Suggesting a $4200 rental to cover his MF , and wants to get paid by wire transfer after signed rental agreement.

 

[dioxide45]

I sent you a DM about this. Many red flags

• The person who messaged you is using stolen photos in their Facebook posts. They've likely compromised someone else's account or created one many years ago and went back and edited old posts with stolen photos and changed the text.
• Wire Transfer is a HUGE red flag.
• A signed rental agreement only works between two legitimate parties. A scammer won't abide by a contract.

 

[vacation911]

Would never pay by Wire Transfer. I agree with dixide45....there are a lot of red flags! I would not trust this at all.

 

[echino]

Scam. That person's Facebook profile is almost empty and contains stolen photos as Jeremy said above. Do a reverse image search and you will find those photos are of completely unrelated people with names different from that Facebook account.

 

[dioxide45]

The font also looks slightly off. Though it could be email vs. web. The top 2025 is what I have in an email confirmation from HGVC. The bottom is from the screenshot in post #1. Close, but the screen shot seems more bold. Likely a manipulated confirmation screen shot.

 

[davidvel]

I sent you a DM about this. Many red flags

• The person who messaged you is using stolen photos in their Facebook posts. They've likely compromised someone else's account or created one many years ago and went back and edited old posts with stolen photos and changed the text.
• Wire Transfer is a HUGE red flag.
• A signed rental agreement only works between two legitimate parties. A scammer won't abide by a contract.

And he's "from" Florida, but the construction company he works for is in Myanmar.

 

[Jace]

Red flags are all over this. I blocked him and reported him to the Facebook group admin. Thanks to this community for validating my instincts. These scammers are crazy. Someone who isn’t familiar with TUG and the valuable information here could have easily fallen for this.

 

[RX8]

Another way to tell it is a scam is that the Facebook photos were added 1/2/25, the same date the user “checked-in” to Ocala, FL. Only scammers will add new photos to replace older photos. These new photos, stolen elsewhere, were added to James Locke’s Facebook post from 2018 and the other to a Facebook post from 2019.

 

[Jace]

I was initially excited to find the week I really wanted in the room type I wanted , but sadly I knew it was too good to be true.

Especially after all you fun people told me my mission was impossible in other threads

 

[dioxide45]

Another way to tell it is a scam is that the Facebook photos were added 1/2/25, the same date the user “checked-in” to Ocala, FL. Only scammers will add new photos to replace older photos. These new photos, stolen elsewhere, were added to James Locke’s Facebook post from 2018 and the other to a Facebook post from 2019.

This is where Google Lens is very helpful. In Chrome, just right click on an image and search with Google Lens. The image from the Facebook post came up on a video thumbnail and also a Christian musical group. It certainly didn't belong to James Locke.

 

[RX8]

This is where Google Lens is very helpful. In Chrome, just right click on an image and search with Google Lens. The image from the Facebook post came up on a video thumbnail and also a Christian musical group. It certainly didn't belong to James Locke.

I agree, I love using Google Lens to find scammers. With Facebook, another way to spot a scammer is by looking at their friends list. Scammers will have friends from the Philippines, or Bangladesh, or something like that. Scammers are smart though. They will lock the access to view the friends. They aren’t all smart though, in the case of James Locke, some of his “friends” have liked the posts with photos. Everyone of of them are foreigners with the exception of one, a senior citizen supposedly from Minnesota who joined Facebook in 2015. She has 832 friends but her only post is from October 2024. And yes, her friend’s list is private too.

My guess is that James Locke (457 friends) and Beatrice Simons (the one mentioned above) are both profiles created by a scammer, or hijacked a deceased person’s account, with the intent to steal money through scams like the OP has come across.

@Jace, great job sniffing this one out! Curious, did you call HGVC and ask if that reservation number was legit?

 

[Jace]

@Jace, great job sniffing this one out! Curious, did you call HGVC and ask if that reservation number was legit?

I did not , I did go to Hilton's website and check the reservation number and name it did not come up. By the time I had got that far I was pretty certain this was a scam.

 

[SmithOp]

Where do you do a reservation number lookup on the web site, I've never seen that feature?

Calling the resort is best, they can look it up. I always call 3 weeks before arrival if I have a special request, like room location, etc.

 

[dioxide45]

Where do you do a reservation number lookup on the web site, I've never seen that feature?

On Hilton.com. Click "Find Stay" in the upper right.

 

[SmithOp]

On Hilton.com. Click "Find Stay" in the upper right.

Doesn't work for reservations booked on the HGVC club site, probably only good for Hilton dot com cash or honors points reservations.

I tried both my club points reservations for this year, the image showed club points used in the op.