Timeshare Fraud Costs Many Life Savings In UK

Our Comments: Even though this took place in Europe, it illustrates how you can be taken more than once when dealing with timeshare units. Never buy a timeshare from someone that cold calls and thoroughly research any vacation resort that you are considering purchasing a timeshare unit with. Do your research as thoroughly as if you were purchasing a new house, or even more...

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“It is too early to say how many Britons are affected, but it is likely to run into the thousands. Many people affected by this scam will have lost their life savings.” Unofficial police estimates put the total number of victims at about 15,000...

Police said that potential customers would be asked to buy into fictitious timeshare properties or would be sold package holidays that did not exist. The gang is also alleged to have employed sales staff to call time-share owners and offer to sell their annual holiday allowance for them, then asked them for administration fees and taxes for work that would never be completed...

A spokesman for the Spanish National Police, who made the arrests, said: “They would get sales staff to cold-call time-share owners in places like the UK and offer to buy their annual holiday allowance, then dupe them into transferring money to Spain to cover things like solicitors’ costs and administrative fees after securing an initial agreement.

“Several months would often go by before people realised they had been the victims of a fraud and there had been no resale.”

He continued: “The fraudsters even used false documents to offer to undertake legal action against other fraudulent companies they also ran, defrauding many victims twice in the process... Entire Article

RCI and Trading Timeshare Weeks

Our Comments: It seems that a few people have found our post on RCI and the difficulty that exists in trading weeks which has resulted in a class action lawsuit against RCI. Trading timeshare weeks is much more difficult to do than any of the timeshare resorts will lead you to believe. If you want to travel to different destinations each year, a timeshare becomes even a worse (if it ever could be) choice for your vacation plans.

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1. I attempted to make a trade with a search request for 2 years in advance of the vacation. After many discussions with RCI they told me the week I was attempting to trade did not have sufficient trading power. The week being used for the trade was a 2 Bedroom unit at a Gold Crown Resort. I also had banked 4 weeks from other resorts.

2. We owners need the Class Action Suit to progress. We also need for the Federal and State Governments to look at the RCI rip-off.

Timeshare Relief Warning / Scam

Comment from a reader

Our Comments: Obviously, Timeshare relief is an oxymoron with this company -- Never, ever, pay someone upfront to sell your timeshare. And again, never take the word of the people selling you the program. You need to get everything in writing. The number of people who have problems with promises not being kept just goes to show they type of industry timeshares are...

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My dad and mom got roped into this same scam with Timeshare Relief, Inc. They were high pressured into signing some paperwork and forking over ~$3K to "get rid of" their timeshare. At the time they were about to make a trip which included a stop to visit me and indicated that they might want to sell the timeshare themselves or give it to me. The Timeshare Relief people told them that it was not a problem, that they would hold the paperwork until after the trip and that if they changed their mind, they could get all of their money back. Timeshare Relief, Inc is near my house in Torrance CA. My father called Timeshare Relief while on their trip and said he had chosen to cancel the agreement and would stop by at the end of their trip. I went over their with my parents and we requested the money back. That's when the story changed. They said my parents had signed a contract and they were keeping the money. We could however, choose to keep the timeshare. They had indeed signed a contract and it included legalese to the effect that they only had three days to back out of the deal. Talk about being doubly violated. Definitely a new scam.

Can You Trust The Timeshare Salesman II

A comment from a reader:

Our Comments: This comment goes to show that you can't trust anything that is said to you by the person selling a timeshare unit - if they say it, have them place it it writing at that moment. If they balk in any way, you know it's time to leave Unfortunately, unless it was written within the contact you signed, you're probably out of luck...and they will promise more than they can deliver to get you to sign.

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We bought a timeshare last year, in Branson. They lied. They said all time in Branson would go to red this year. Of course, it didn't. They sold us yellow time. That is just one of the lies they told. Is there anything we can do or are we just stuck? It is actually the second timeshare we bought. We are pretty happy with the first one but maintenance fees have really went up. There should be some laws.

Timeshare Hidden Risks

Our Comments: While vacation resorts like to try to convince you all the ways that you can save with timeshares (something that we feel is false), they never mention the added risks that you take on when you purchase a timeshare unit. When something goes wrong, you can be out thousands of dollars. Rarely are the added risks with owning a timeshare worth any possible savings (if there are any in reality). Always do your homework thoroughly so you don't end up in the same situation as the person below:

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I paid $5,500 to Worldwide Dream Vacations of Branson as part of a timeshare contract. I was to get discounts on hotels, vacations, cruises, resorts and a $5,500 rebate. The $5,500 rebate would be returned by Rebates International.

I received notification that I was overdrawn on my credit card because Rebates International had submitted a claim for $11,000. Eventually I was credited for the $5,500 overcharge. I didn’t get a reply after mailing the materials for the rebate and a second mailing was returned undeliverable... Entire Article