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A couple of weeks ago we reported on a scam company, seemingly working out of Barcelona, ‘La Moneda’, and another supposed ‘lawyer’, working out of Madrid, Frias Toribio.  Both of these companies have been taking advantage of the recent court rulings on illegally sold points and floating weeks in respect of timeshare in Spain.

There are many so-called ‘lawyers’ popping up around Spain as well as ‘resale’ companies which are taking advantage of unhappy owners with points or floating weeks, whom find they are unable to use them.  Some of these companies are genuine, as the TCA reported yesterday, as clients are seeing compensation rolling in for their null and void contracts.  However, there are also bogus companies that will take advantage of these contracts, just to make an extra buck.

De Bessa Gusmao is another such company.  Working almost exactly the same as Toribio in our previous article, this company claim to have been in the timeshare industry for years, and have a lot of experience in this industry, so much so that they have a register of Timeshare owners on a database.  They claim that they will help timeshare owners to claim compensation for fraudulent contracts etc. and compile a case folder on their individual experience.

These cases are then ‘submitted’ to the courts to be reviewed, and only when De Bessa Gusmao are sure that they will be able to recuperate some money for their client do they tell them that they need a payment for the taxes and court administration.  They claim that their fee will be deducted from the clients’ winnings.  Funnily enough, all of the timeshare owners that they contact and set up a case file for, are all legible for some sort of compensation and this is when they ask for the court admin fee from the client.

Low and behold, this money will never be seen again by their client.  It is said to be held in the courts bank account, until the case is heard, and then the clients will receive the winnings minus the ‘lawyers fee’ which will be in excess of the admin fee.  Sounds like a win – win situation.  However, this is not the case.  Once the admin fee has been paid, Bessa Gusmao pocket this, and the client never hears from them again.

De Bessa Gusmao’s website; www.debessagusmao.com, was only registered in August, a mere 4 months ago, strange considering they claim to have years of experience in the industry.  On investigation, there seems to be no registered lawyers in Spain under the name of ‘De Bessa Gusmao’.  The company are also using a mobile telephone number to contact their clients, which is rather unprofessional, at the moment it has been recorded that the number is 00 34 603251372, however this is could change at any moment.

We at the TCA are simply warning unhappy owners not to jump at the chance to make money.  Normally when something seems too good to be true, it generally is.  If you would like to verify a company’s authenticity, please drop us a line or call us on the contact details below.  We will do our best to verify their authenticity.

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