Offer to rent for 10 weeks . Scam or Real ?

[ctamez]

I was made an offer to rent my weeks for ten weeks.
The renter would pay all weeks in a lump sum and they would get the commission from the renter. They did not ask for any fees up front ,but a contract needs to be signed to close the deal.

The offer was made by Travel World Incorporated and the title company is Classic Title Agency. The rental amount is twice the yearly maintenance fees.

This sounds too good to be true.

Has anyone been made this kind of offer ?

 

[tschwa2]

I would tend to think scam.

Do you have 10 actual reservations or are these for "getaway weeks" or bonus weeks?

Were you advertising multiple weeks or did the agency cold call you?

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

 

[ctamez]

We have a week per year and it is in Puerto Vallarta.

No, we have not advertised it .

It is tempting because the contract seems legit.

 

[Ty1on]

We have a week per year and it is in Puerto Vallarta.

No, we have not advertised it .

It is tempting because the contract seems legit.

Why would they pay you double your maintenance fees for the weeks? How much is your resort renting out for on the open market?

 

[tschwa2]

If you have one week per year, how could they rent 10 weeks? It's a scam if they cold contacted you. They would find some kind of tax or fee you would have to pay. As a Renter there shouldn't be any fees that you would pay. Everything should come out of the commission that the end user pays the agency. It makes no sense for an agency to contract with you for 10 years and pay you upfront twice your MF. They could probably buy a week for $1 and then make much more money.

 

[Ty1on]

contract seems legit.

Con is short for confidence. The nature of a con is that they earn your trust that they and what they offer are legit.

Any criminal can construct a legit contract. By the fact that they are criminals, however, they have no intention to perform their end of it.

Either they will "overpay" you and request a wire back of the difference (The ole nigerian Cashier's Check scam) or they will string you along until the moment you are convinced your check is in an envelop and will be sent just as soon as you wire them these minor fees.

 

[Ty1on]

Why would they pay 10 years in advance in a lump sum. Does that make sense to you?

 

[ctamez]

It does seem to good to be true.

It did not make any sense to me either,but it doesn't hurt to ask.


Thank you all for the voice of reason and back to reality.

 

[LannyPC]

It did not make any sense to me either,but it doesn't hurt to ask.

No problem. There's the saying Don't be afraid to ask a stupid question (eg., this company called me about renting out weeks; is this a scam?). It's easier to handle than a stupid mistake (eg. I just wired this company $1500 to rent out my weeks; what should I do?).

 

[thetaxqueen]

I just received a call from Convention Planners & Management from Dallas Tx offering me $3900/week to rent my Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach studio week for 10 years.

They are going to send me a contract

They told me they are working with the management of the resort for large conventions and need all the rooms they can get.

They are sending me a contract

I called the resort and they never heard of them so I am sure it is going to wind up being a scam.

Just curious, did they ask you for any upfront fees?

 

[DeniseM]

When you interact with these people, you get put on their list as someone who is a potential mark, and you will continue to get more and more scam offers, as they share your info with their scammer colleagues.

The best thing you can do is to use your caller ID and don't pick up the phone if you don't recognize the number.

Anyone who offers you more than your timeshare is worth on the open market is a scammer - period.

Do you really want to give them more info. on a contract?

A contract is only as good as the person who signs it - in other words, in this case, it's worthless.

 

[thetaxqueen]

Hi Denise,

Originally I was excited and gave them my email address to send the contract and then when I woke up I realized it smelled like a scam.

I have not received the contract yet. I went online here to see if others were called and what they had to say. I also called the resort and no one there heard of them.

I am sure it is a scam, however, after I receive the contract I wanted to know what the hitch was going to be and/or if I could help other TUGGERS with more information.

I was also considering calling law enforcement if this is in fact a scam so they could potentially be caught

Any advice on this?

 

[TUGBrian]

these sound very much like the common send me the difference/fake check scams!

 

[DeniseM]

Hi Denise,

Originally I was excited and gave them my email address to send the contract and then when I woke up I realized it smelled like a scam.

I have not received the contract yet. I went online here to see if others were called and what they had to say. I also called the resort and no one there heard of them.

I am sure it is a scam, however, after I receive the contract I wanted to know what the hitch was going to be and/or if I could help other TUGGERS with more information.

I was also considering calling law enforcement if this is in fact a scam so they could potentially be caught

Any advice on this?

I understand what you are saying, but interacting with them is a mistake - you can now expect to get lots more calls, because you are now on their "easy mark" list.

Your local law enforcement can do nothing.

 

[decadude]

This sounds too good to be true.

You already answered your question as a rule of thumb if it sounds too good to be true then odds are it is and if it is then it is going to fall under the category of a scam as others already have mentioned.

 

[LannyPC]

I am sure it is a scam, however, after I receive the contract I wanted to know what the hitch was going to be?

The "hitch" is going to be that they will need you to wire them money for some supposed tax or fee in order to facilitate the deal. Then, when they have your money, they will do nothing except laugh all the way to the bank.

We have people coming on here at least once a month with the same story and we have the same answer: it's a scam. And corporations do not rent large blocks of TSs for conventions or tax write-offs. If there is some large event in town, they occur at hotels, not TS resorts.

 

[thetaxqueen]

They did send the poorly written contract today.

Very poor English and because I have been exposed to other legal materials I can tell it is not even a binding contract for several reasons. Lots of contradictions in the contract, etc.

It stated that I would pay a 2% commission for the transaction at closing ($780). This is a rental contract, not a sales contract so it really doesn't even need a "Closing"

I did do a bit of research and the name of the company they gave me is:

CONVENTION PLANNERS & MANAGEMENT LLC

with a Texas address.
No such company exists with the Texas Secretary of State (no surprise).

I am posting this so others can see the name they are using in case you receive the same phone call.

I am not responding to the email with the contract and blocked the number from my phone

 

[Ma Ma]

We did respond to the contract. It is 1 year and $80,000 later - we still do not have our money we have invested in order to rent our timeshare out to Johnson and Johnson for 1 week for the next 10 years. We were to receive $23000 for this agreement. Jim Bristol with Convention Planners and Management had convinced me the only way to get my money back was to keep sending Mexico more money. Needless to say I have wiped my savings out and I only get a voicemail saying leave a message and not even giving me the company name. I have emailed with no response from Mr Bristol or his Assistant Kate Williams. I have been talked to by Mr Bristol as if I am an idiot if I do not send more money. I have had 2 letters of guarantee saying I would owe no more money but then they would say I delayed the transaction so I did owe money and if I wanted my money back I must pay the money. I am an honest person. I have been lied to by Mr Bristol and Ms Williams. I reported all of this to the Arkansas Attorney General the Texas Attorney General. The Better Business Bureau the FBI. I received absolutely no help from any of these agencies. They would say they did not get a response or sorry you are a victim of a scam. So sorry you lost your savings. These people need to be stopped today. Who will stop them from robbing people?

 

[ronparise]

We did respond to the contract. It is 1 year and $80,000 later - we still do not have our money we have invested in order to rent our timeshare out to Johnson and Johnson for 1 week for the next 10 years. We were to receive $23000 for this agreement. Jim Bristol with Convention Planners and Management had convinced me the only way to get my money back was to keep sending Mexico more money. Needless to say I have wiped my savings out and I only get a voicemail saying leave a message and not even giving me the company name. I have emailed with no response from Mr Bristol or his Assistant Kate Williams. I have been talked to by Mr Bristol as if I am an idiot if I do not send more money. I have had 2 letters of guarantee saying I would owe no more money but then they would say I delayed the transaction so I did owe money and if I wanted my money back I must pay the money. I am an honest person. I have been lied to by Mr Bristol and Ms Williams. I reported all of this to the Arkansas Attorney General the Texas Attorney General. The Better Business Bureau the FBI. I received absolutely no help from any of these agencies. They would say they did not get a response or sorry you are a victim of a scam. So sorry you lost your savings. These people need to be stopped today. Who will stop them from robbing people?

??????????????

 

[DeniseM]

Who will stop them from robbing people?

They are in Mexico - no one will stop them. The US has no jurisdiction in Mexico.

 

[SmithOp]

??????????????

Another scam victim that found this thread with google (too late), just joined tug to post.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Saintsfanfl]

As long as people are willing to send money internationally to mystery recipients the scams will continue. Even if every potential scammer found tug before sending money, there is still a percentage of them that would be blinded by the dollars and ignore tug advice and send the money anyway.

Even if governments cared enough to stop them all, others would simply pop up and take their place. Almost like the drug trade.

 

[sue1947]

We did respond to the contract. It is 1 year and $80,000 later - we still do not have our money we have invested in order to rent our timeshare out to Johnson and Johnson for 1 week for the next 10 years. We were to receive $23000 for this agreement.

You paid $80,000 for a deal that was to net you $23000??? The scam artists will undoubtedly contact you again only this time using different names and likely a different location. They will say they can retrieve your money if you send them x number of dollars. Once you send the money, they will contact you again with additional fees that are needed, etc. In other words, you are on their sucker list and they will keep coming back using different variations to get more money from you.
You've been conned. STOP sending money to anybody on this deal.

Sorry to be so blunt. However, your post and actions imply that while you know you have been robbed, you haven't quite realized how this works. The US authorities can't help when you send money to a foreign country for something that made no sense in the beginning. It's difficult to admit when we've been foolish, but others will read this and avoid being scammed as a result. Take that as your silver lining.

Sue

 

[TUGBrian]

Very saddened to hear you were scammed out of 80,000 dollars....

but this is proof as to why these scams continue even today....they still work.