Another cold caller had been reported to us with the grand name of the Legal Support Team. The primary target seems to be Diamond owners. Our caller had already engaged the services of one of the leading timeshare claims companies and from what we can gather the case is proceeding nicely. The contact was from a “Simon” who rubbished the law firm engaged to do the work, his pitch contained all sorts of lies in order to persuade the potential victim to jump ship and engage his company, nothing less than we would expect. Naturally we jumped into action and did some research.
TCA investigation
An internet search did in fact reveal a real company by the name of Legal Support Team; however they are based in Tbilisi, Georgia. They are indeed a legal practice specialising in civil laws, labour, corporative, customs and tax relationships, also in intellectual property law, insurance law and construction law, not a timeshare in sight. Our conclusion is that the real company has nothing whatsoever with timeshare scams.
The contact number showed on the caller’s phone as a Bedford number with dialling code 01234. When checking the number, we find it’s allocated not by BT or any of the mainstream providers but a company called Voxbone SA who is a provider of Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) services. The interesting part is that Voxbone are based in Madrid Spain. This would indicate to us the call didn’t originate from either Bedford or the UK in general but from an office in Spain, more than likely in Tenerife or Mallorca.
Just to make sure we have our facts correct we searched specifically for any sign of a Legal Support Team in Bedford, guess what, there is no sign. Next we checked the UK Companies House records, and again no company of that name exists. Just for belt and braces, we checked the Spanish equivalent of Companies House and we found this:
For those who don’t speak Spanish, Empresa no encontrada translates to Company not found, what a surprise.
TCA comment
We think our investigation leads to the conclusion that this is definitely not a real entity and for this reason alone should be avoided. As we have said on many occasions, if you receive a call out of the blue and have at no time instigated any enquiry that may have invited a call, beware. Also under the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) persons making such calls have no legal right to have data relating to your specific timeshare ownership. We can state categorically that Diamond Resorts would never share your data with third parties, for that matter no developer would.
As a final point, the scammer may say your data was obtained from a register of timeshare owners, no such register exists. Of that we are 100% certain.
Judging by the number of calls we receive it appears that Diamond Europe data has found its way into the public domain, illegally we add. If you are a current or former Diamond owner be warned that you may receive unwanted calls. If you are at all in doubt then call us, we are here to help.
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