We value you as our member and would like to keep you informed about any scams that may target timeshare owners. Please take some time to read about the kinds of scams that could affect you below so that you know what to look out for.
Rental Scams
Rental scams are a very common way for vacation owners to fall for fraudulent deals because renting your time to others can seem like a good option if you are not going to use your vacation time for a given year. Owners are asked to pay a fee up front in order to help find a person to buy their vacation time for the year. Once this fee is paid the owner never hears back from the so-called rental company. There are many rental agencies out there that work on commission or rent privately; just be sure to do your research and never pay any fees up front to avoid falling for a scam.
Resale Scams
Resale scammers contact the owners of timeshares and claim that they have a buyer for your membership. Usually the price offered seems like a great deal, and appears that the owner would make money from the transaction. The scammer will claim to be a resale representative and may contact you by phone, email, or mail. Usually, they will state that Mexican law requires the timeshare owner to pay a tax or fee in advance to sell their timeshare. They will often guarantee the reimbursement of this tax or fee once the timeshare ownership has been transferred. Once the member has sent the resale company this tax or fee, the resale company vanishes, and the owner never receives reimbursement, and their timeshare is never put up for resale.
Often times scammers will ask you to pay a fee to be introduced or receive the contact information for a potential buyer. However, that person doesn’t really exist.
Scams to Get You Out of a Scam
Currently, this is one of the most popular types of scams for timeshare owners. These scammers will contact you and claim that they work for a law firm or the government and want to help protect you from scams or to get out of a scam. They will ask you for money up front and/or personal information, such as your social security number. These scams may also come up online as you are searching for information about timeshare memberships. Do your research, read the content for simple spelling or grammar errors, and make sure the site is secure to avoid being scammed. If you do not initiate contact with a company, there is a good chance that they may be a scammer.
If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Whenever a company asks for an upfront fee of any kind, this is usually a scam.
If You Are Involved in a Scam
If you think that you have been involved in a scam, please report the incident to us by emailing memberservices@resortcom.com. Once you have reported the issue to us, please take the following actions:
- Make a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. Contact the Business Fraud Division by calling 1-877-382-4357.
- Report your experience to the Attorney General’s Office in your home state. Please consult this site [http://www.justice.gov/usao/find-your-united-states-attorney] to find contact information based on your state.
- Report fraud to the American Resort Development Association (ARDA) by calling 855-416-6187 or emailing customerservice@arda.org.
Is there a listing of companies that are involved in these scams? If so, that would be really helpful.
Hi Barbara,
Thank you for your inquiry. We do not have a list, however we do recommend that you please refer to ARDA’s website at http://www.arda.org/advisories/ and http://www.ardaroc.org/roc/resource-library/default.aspx?id=2786&libID=2806 for the most updated news on scams.
How can you sell the timeshare?
Hi Gloria, we do not assist with selling timeshares but we can assist you with surrendering the contract. If interested please email memberservices@resortcom.com or call 800-852-4755 so that an agent can assist you with this.
We are elderly and can’t travel. Some info on how to sell our time share would be appreciated. Please If you could direct us to someone who could help us in this matter
Hi Virginia,
Thank you for your inquiry. Please contact Member Services at memberservices@resortcom.com or 800-852-4755.
Hello Brittany
Please comment on the scam that is happening right in the Flamingos resort on a Friends and Family visit, immediately after the 90 minute ( became couple of hours) member update/upgrade sale’s pitch, my friends were caught a second time by a sales person saying just chat with this peson for a few more minutes who was selling ” Dream Vacation” packages.
They did and they bought something that was too good to be true.They have been trying for over a year to “use” this $3000 plus Dream package and have found what the were told and what they can actually do are completely different. These Dream vacations, 3 sets of 2 one-week bookings to use over three years – are” left over” or unpopular Interval locations and not with the Villa group of resorts at all. They have just returned from their 1st of six vacations. This one in January 2016 was at the VDP Flamingos. They did enjoy it but now trying to book another vacation, apparently, cannot be done with any of the Villa Group resorts. They are very unhappy. They will be sending as many letters as it takes wherever to get some satisfaction. I feel badly for them as I love our VPA membership and our VillaDelPalmar resorts and wanted them to have a good experience. I am ashamed that this scam happened right at the Flamingos.
Hi Laura,
Thank you for your inquiry. I am sorry to hear that this happened to your friends and apologize for this service. Can you please email memberservices@resortcom.com with more information (including your friends’ names, the date of occurrence, and email address). This way we can look into your inquiry and see what happened. Thank you in advance.