A very interesting court case is in preparation in the District of Columbia USA, however this is no ordinary consumer versus timeshare giant, well it sort of is but not for the usual misselling or myriad of other reasons cases take place in the States, this time the case hinges on Fraud.
The background
Our story starts with the Griffith family attending a sales presentation at Hilton Grand Vacations (HGV) Embassy Suites by Hilton Washington DC Georgetown. On November 21st 2018 the Griffith family were introduced to the HGV sales representative being Caprice Foster they then decided to buy into the timeshare at a cost of $35,289. As is usual during the sales closing procedure, Foster requested Personal Identifiable Information or PII for short. These included items such as digital copies of driving licences, also provided were their social security numbers, dates of birth, and full names all given to Foster electronically. So far, all the requested documentation was perfectly normal for contract preparation and closing documentation, what happened later was far from normal.
The fraud
After closing, Foster stole the Plaintiffs’ PII and used it for nefarious purposes, including but not limited to, opening unauthorised financial accounts and credit cards, conducting fraudulent transactions using those accounts, and obtaining loans under the Plaintiffs’ identities. Specifically, in January 2019, Foster used the Griffiths daughter Leah’s name, date of birth, and social Security number to open multiple bank accounts and credit card accounts at Navy Federal Credit Union in Leah’s name without Leah’s knowledge or permission, which Foster used for her own benefit and the benefit of her daughter.
Similarly, on 7th January 2019, Foster opened a Capital One credit card account using Son Benjamin’s name, date of birth, and Social Security number without Benjamin’s knowledge or permission. During the time Foster opened these financial accounts and made financial transactions on the accounts, she was employed by Defendant HGV.
In late February 2019, daughter Leah discovered through an online credit check that her credit
score had suddenly and substantially dropped, due to identity theft and fraudulent account activity.
Leah had to spend extensive amounts of time and effort to resolve this issue with the credit bureau.
In April 2020, son Benjamin, who did not have a credit card of his own, received numerous telephone calls and a letter from a collections agency on a delinquent credit account.
Benjamin had to spend extensive amounts of time and effort to resolve this issue with the credit
bureau.
On May 8, 2020, the Plaintiffs being the Griffith family learned from the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) that Foster had opened fraudulent accounts in Benjamin and Leah’s names, using their PII provided to her at the time they purchased the Timeshare interest.
What next
Although the court document in our possession would indicate that HGV are the defendants, one has to wonder what will become of Caprice Foster.
Caprice Foster is a known criminal with an extensive history of prior arrests since 1992 and numerous convictions since 1996, including financial crimes and fraud. These facts would have been revealed if Hilton had performed a simple background check prior to hiring Foster to collect and handle sensitive PII of Hilton customers. Thus, the Hilton Defendants knew or should have known that Caprice Foster was unfit for the job she was hired to do.
The Griffiths have demanded a trial by jury so the final outcome of this bizarre case may take some time before conclusion.
TCA comment
As we said earlier, this case is quite out of the normal timeshare court cases we have come across in the past, although it’s not the first time we have come across timeshare developers employing sales staff without the appropriate background checks. Whilst this is the first time we have come across a case such as this, it goes to prove that if all the ingredients are in place then temptation may always be present.
As regards a jury trial, if this case runs the way that most seem to in the States, at the 11th hour HGV will make an out of court offer coupled with a very tight legal non disclosure agreement, we will have to wait and see. For those interested in the full court document, it may be downloaded here.
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