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It has come to our attention that a new company is cold calling timeshare consumers. The company in question is called JSD Group Ltd. The company website is rather confusing, the strap line states “Composers of intelligent applications by the people for the people” Sounds more like a software company than a timeshare litigation specialist.

History

JSD Group Ltd is registered at the UK companies’ house but was only registered on 10thMarch 2020. The website domain was registered a little later on the 15thmarch 2020. The registered address is shown as 69, Raffles Avenue, Carlisle, CA2 7ED, which appears to be a terraced house on a housing estate, doesn’t inspire confidence. The sole director is entered as Scott James Deakin.

Points of interest

The website has many interesting statements that don’t really seem to ring true, such as; with publications covering many well known European timeshare ‘hotspots’, we have produced hundreds of guides for timeshare holders like you”. For a company that is barely three months old they must have seriously burned the midnight oil to have produced “hundreds” of guides and if they have, why is there no download link or even an example? 

Further on, the site confirms; “JSD Group are UK domiciled publishers of acute information for industry relevant cases in the retaliation of mis-selling, misguidance and misuse of timeshare, we conduct 1st party research and collate 2nd and 3rd party research from industry leading companies, revolving around mistreatment at the hands of timeshare resorts, enabling our readers to fight back when they feel they should”.

Where does one find this “acute” information? Furthermore the “third Party” articles/research on the site are some very dated reports from the Daily Mail, The Olive Press (a Costa del Sol newspaper), the Office of Fair Trading on Incentive Leisure Group, who incidentally went intovoluntary liquidation in Gibraltar on 21 January 2011 and was dissolved on 16 January 2012 and really nothing more, so much for “acute” information!

The testimonials on the site seem to infer that John, Karen and Jillian have between them received £49,777, not bad for a company less than three months old! The one thing that is missing from the said testimonials is for what on earth the money was awarded? Rather strange when compared with genuine companies such as M1 Legal and Canarian Legal Alliance who both take great pleasure in publishing full details of their claim victories, against whom and upon which grounds they were awarded. 

As a point of note; The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 prohibits unfair commercial ‎practices. Writing fake online testimonials satisfies the definition of unfair commercial practice because ‎it contravenes with good professional practice and it is likely to distort the economic behaviour of the ‎average consumer. ‎Enough about the website, let’s move on.

The Cold Call

From information gathered it appears that the data being used; i.e. your details, is from old claims with other companies, one such case resurrected was supposedly for a court case against Great British Marketing SL (GBM). GBM was a distributor of Club Class holiday club products. The Club Class group of companies went into liquidation in 2012. Given that GBM were seemingly nothing more than sales agents for Club Class, why would there be a court case against them? If you purchased a Samsung TV from Curry’s PC World and it went wrong, who is liable for the “guarantee”, Curry’s or Samsung? Of course it’s Samsung. So if GBM sold a holiday club membership that went wrong who is liable? Answer, the holiday club of course. 

Incidentally, to our knowledge Club Class contracts were governed by Gibraltar law where UK law also applies. The UK Limitations Act 1980 stipulates a statute of limitation for a period of 6 years; this means that claims against the company cannot be filed after 6 years has elapsed, so if Club Class went into liquidation in 2012 the limitation period ran out in 2018.

Final Analysis

If you are cold called with such a proposition or something similar, a simple question would be“where is the compensation fund coming from?” No government in Spain, the UK or anywhere else in the world for that matter has such a fund put aside. Governments only get involved if the failure of a company is of significant importance, such as the UK government bailout of Northern Rock Building Society. The truth is that holiday clubs and timeshare resorts don’t even figure on their radar. 

UPDATE

It has been brought to our attention that JSD are also targeting former EZE Group owners as well. The same story but again there is no court case or claim. The fee ranges between £600 and £2,400 and of course the request is for payment by bank transfer. Below is an extract from an invoice issued by JSD:

The sort code quoted belongs to Card One Money which is a trading name of Spectrum Payment Service ltd, this account offers; in their own words, “Card One Money Prepaid Debit MasterCard® Card”.It is basically a no credit check account that cannot accept credit card payments, another point as gleaned from their website states “*This product is not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Please see FAQ section for more information,”. Interestingly, the bank is quoted as Barclays CardOne (SFS), after investigation we have failed to find any reference on any Barclay’s website referencing “CardOne (SFS)”.

These facts added to those earlier in this article mean that an “EXTREME WARNING OF CAUTION” is in place regarding any dealings with JSD. Remember, bank transfers offer little or no protection in event of fraud.

So no matter how convincing the story, there is no court case or vast sum of money waiting to be handed out to claimants, this is simply because the story is totally false. Please do your homework and investigate in depth any proposition you may be presented and indeed how the caller has obtained your personal details. We appreciate you may not be an expert on spotting these discrepancies but we are; so if in doubt contact us we shall find it out.

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