U.S. officials filed almost 200 civil and criminal cases for timeshare resale frauds over a 2 year period.
In 2013 and continuing into 2014 Florida sued more than nine timeshare resale companies based in the USA state for fraudulent activity, and requested temporary restraining orders against six of them, according to Miami U.S. Attorney Wifredo Ferrer and Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who proclaimed the actions at a press conference in Miami.
“We cannot allow our elderly and vulnerable real property owners to continue to be the target of fraud schemes,” Ferrer said in a statement. These victims “looked to sell their units to help make ends meet or pay other bills. Instead, they were defrauded out of more than $14 million in total.”
Some 83 civil cases have been filed in 28 states and more than 184 people are facing criminal charges in federal and state court in the USA as the thieving and dishonesty continues and breeds. In the timeshare resale cases, “boiler room” operations (which are common place Europe) were set up to call timeshare owners to sell the properties for a “deposit” of hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars which mirrors the positions in the European resorts. And we call ourselves progressive and collaborate.
Timeshare fraud “involves telemarketing companies that market their advertising services to timeshare owners interested in selling or renting their timeshare interests,” Florida officials said. “Many of these companies charge exorbitant fees and perform few services.” The issue is where they get the contact numbers and details from as they are only known to the resorts themselves. It the same model as Europe.
The year following the law’s enactment, the number of timeshare resale fraud complaints received by Bondi’s office fell by more than 57% which of course leaves a significant number, of fraudsters actively perpetrating civil crimes.
“Timeshare resorts and resale scammers have cheated tens of thousands of timeshare owners out of tens of millions by convincing them to pay for a false promise, an enriched fake obis and a woeful and very real nightmare”
These actions clearly come from those with no ethics and no conscious. The scams evolve year on year in Euriope however, in America the fraud complaints fell 57%!. The UK needs to take the same approach. Too many Solicitors pass consumers off with “Sorry that isn’t my field”. That isn’t ok.
For more information regarding this article or assistance in any other timeshare related issues please contact the TCA on 01908 881058 or email: info@TimeshareConsumerAssociation.org.uk