Scam call from "VRBO"- rent your Interval bonus week certificates!!

[boraxo]

Honestly I think this scam should be mentioned in the newsletter as the callers address you by name and knows just enough about interval bonus weeks to sound convincing to those of us who have II memberships but never use II.

Here's how the scam works:

• Caller ID shows "VRBO" from area code 352 (Ocala Florida) - first red flag
• Autodialer beep when you answer (2nd red flag)
  
  
• When I told him I didn't know VRBO (the real one owned by Expedia) rented timeshare he clarified "that's a different company, we are vacation realty by owner" and suggested they were affiliated with Interval (3rd red flag)
• Told me I could bank rental income from the 4 quarterly bonus weeks that Interval gives me every year - "These weeks are going to waste"
• "Your interval weeks are expiring every year. The rental program will pay for your timeshare"
• He asked me how I wanted to price the weeks - I asked for a range - he replied "we are not allowed to suggest a price but others rent them for $400-900 per day" (!!!)
• They offer a "lifetime program" - you only have to "join once"
• The one-time fee is normally $6360 but he can offer it for 50% off = $3180
• Sorry no website and no call back number and can't email program details (this is the biggest red flag)

Enrollment process was described as follows:

• issue account #
• 2-step verification (to make it look legit - just like a legit timeshare vendor!)
• After collecting payment info will send 3-page "marketing agreement"
• can pay by credit card (kind of surprised I assumed he would ask for bitcoin or gift cards)

At this point I had enough BS and was out of questions and he clearly wasn't going to provide any real info that would help ID the scammers so I told him I could not afford the upfront fee and hung up.

While this has been posted elsewhere it is not unique to Marriott (I don't even own MVC) or to exchanging:

https://tugbbs.com/forums/threads/interval-certificates-scam.361461/

https://tugbbs.com/forums/threads/v...o-deposit-our-interval-week-with-them.342393/

 

[WorldT]

Lol. Before you hung up, you should have called him out on the scam.

 

[boraxo]

Lol. Before you hung up, you should have called him out on the scam.

Was sorely tempted to chew him out but he had my name and I never know if they can see my number. The last thing I want is to be on scammer speedial!

I wish I had the ability to track down and disable these perps as I see done on youtube. But more difficult to do this via phone as opposed to internet.

 

[TheTimeTraveler]

Last time they tried this with me I told them to go ahead and rent my weeks, take their cut, and send me the all the leftover proceeds. They quickly hung up on me!

I wonder if they decided to put me on their "Do Not Call List" ?









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[Luanne]

Why would you even answer the phone?

 

[boraxo]

Why would you even answer the phone?

Usually I don't but I recently used VRBO (the real one)

 

[dioxide45]

The real Vrbo also says their name as Ver boh. As a word. They no longer just use the letters.