We all know the “scams”, many timeshare owners have fallen victim to them over the years, from the “we will sell your timeshare for you”, “we can get you a legal surrender” to “we can get your money back and your contract cancelled”.
In Europe, as Inside Timeshare has highlighted in many articles over the past months, the proliferation of so-called claims companies and law firms is rife. From companies such as Litigious Abogados to Meredith Pritchard, the rulings made by the Spanish Supreme Court have given them the tools to fool you the owners.
Many other companies who once peddled other products are also getting in on the act, companies such as the Monster Group, owned by Mark Rowe, now have a company called ABC Lawyers. All using the rulings as if they were their own, that only they can get your money back and cancel those contracts.
In the past it was the resale and transfer companies, many would charge to “relinquish” your timeshare, but would actually transfer it to a third party for 1€. Then after about 2 years, you find the demands for arrears in maintenance fees dropping through your door. The timeshare company does not recognise the transfer made by the company you paid. This is the problem Mrs B has had with MacDonald Resorts.
In the US this is also a very big problem, Irene Parker in today’s article continues to look at the US market, and what can and is being done to stop these fraudulent practices and protect you the consumer.
How to Reduce Fraudulent Timeshare Transfers
The Smart Money Turns to Logic and Simplicity
By Irene Parker 21 March 2017
The National Timeshare Owners Association works diligently behind the scenes to stop fraudulent timeshare transfers by working with attorneys, law enforcement, regulators and other stakeholders in the timeshare community. It’s a collaborative effort as we highlighted last week with HOA Collection Agent Kristi Hanley. She explained the pervasive and unending attempts to defraud timeshare owners and developers alike along with the financial consequences.
http://insidetimeshare.com/tim
Gregory Crist, CEO of the NTOA says “This is white collar crime that we call the “Viking Ship” model. It is well funded and highly sophisticated. By design, it is creating further damage to the secondary market at a rapid rate and leaving behind a trail of clouded deeds. This is a serious problem we have on our hands right now. At the NTOA, we are sharing “Best Practices” with HOA’s and helping them utilize proper safeguards to protect themselves.”
However, there is light shining on the horizon. After our interview with Kristi we followed up with Dave Heine at requestmyestoppel.com and learned about Timeshare Pro Plus, a simple and effective way to reduce timeshare transfer scams. Today we will examine this innovative Cloud based technology and then hear what Laura Hey, Assistant Manager at Silver Beach Resort Daytona, has to say about timeshare transfer problems and about Timeshare Pro Plus.
According to the company’s website, Timeshare Pro Plus can improve timeshare transfer efficiency by at least 75% while reducing timeshare transfer fraud.
If you are a timeshare owner wondering why you should be concerned with the nuts and bolts of a timeshare transfer, review this fifteen page Department of Justice timeshare scam report.
https://search.justice.gov/search?query=timeshare&op=Search&affiliate=justice
Everyone needs to do their part to stop fraudulent transfers. When a company contacts you asking if you would like to get rid of your timeshare, be the detective. Write down the name and location of the company, the website address, the caller’s name and a phone number to call them back.
The beginning of the timeshare hamster wheel, as described by a former timeshare sales agent, is the vacation give away. Those calls are usually outbound only and if you ask for a call back number, they will make one up or hang up. Transfer agents do offer more information as they must pose as a legitimate business.
Be an empowered and informed timeshare owner. Leave the desperate, angry and confused shackles behind. Become an advocate. If you are able to gather this information, report it to one of our advocates and we will take it from there by forwarding the information to the National Timeshare Owners Association.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/DiamondResortsOwnersAdvocacy/
Here are Timeshare Pro Plus bragging rights Timeshare Pro Plus puts everything the resort’s back office needs to efficiently transfer a timeshare deed or contract while implementing some safeguards in the transfer process, under one umbrella by using the latest Cloud technology. This saves time, money and paperwork.
This software incorporates SSL encryption
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is the standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. This link ensures that all data passed between the web server and browsers remain private and integral.
The data center is HIPPA Compliant assuring the level of security demanded by the medical community.
https://home.timeshareproplus.com/
When Kristie Hanley said cleaning up the timeshare transfer business might be accomplished by requiring a simple signature from the timeshare resort, it sounded too simple and logical to be true so I contacted Dave Heine at Timeshare Pro Plus.
Sure enough, it is not simple. There are four parties involved in a timeshare transfer: The timeshare seller
⦁ The timeshare seller
⦁ The timeshare buyer
⦁ The transfer agent
⦁ The resort – pictured is Maui Hill – our favorite timeshare resort
Kristie’s suggestion was a good one, but requiring a signature from an HOA is not applicable to timeshare any more than it would be selling your primary residence. You don’t ask your HOA to sign your contract when you sell or buy a house or condo, but the HOA can put a lien on your property if you are past due on fees.
The same thing happens in timeshare. As Dave explained, timeshare scams are caused when the fictitious buyer is an individual or a company that has no intention of paying future HOA or timeshare maintenance fees. These companies charge upwards of $5000 or more to guarantee your transfer out of your timeshare unit, but in a fraudulent transfer the buyer disappears or was non-existent in the first place as soon as the transfer agent receives the owner’s transfer fee. Owners thinking they disposed of their timeshare learn the resort did not accept the transfer when they receive an invoice for maintenance fees at the end of the year.
I asked Dave how many resorts are using Timeshare Pro Plus. “Out of approximately 1000 or more resorts we work with about 50. Timeshare companies have been relying on the post office since before fax machines were invented. Resorts are slow to embrace modern technology from a fear of being cost prohibitive or from familiarity. Many take the approach of, we have always done it the way we have been doing it, it works, so why should we change?” offered Dave.
We would still be reading by kerosene lamps with that mentality.
One resort that is keeping up with modern technology is Silver Beach Resort in Daytona, Florida. Laura Hey, Assistant Manager, describes timeshare transfer as “a no man’s land” encompassing transfers from here to Hawaii and beyond. The problem is worldwide as told by one of our Inside Timeshare readers this week.
http://insidetimeshare.com/merdith-pritchard-readers-experience/
Ironically, Laura said many of the fraudulent companies are not in Florida. Florida is a mecca center for timeshare. Laura feels this may make it easier for the perpetrators to be caught operating in a state always on the watch for fraudulent transfers.
Silver Beach uses Timeshare Pro Plus and acknowledges it has made a difference, but Laura does not feel the problem can be eliminated by software alone. It takes people working together, more information, hard-hitting questions and legislative efforts. “We feel a sense of joy and victory whenever we outwit those preying upon the vulnerable,” said Laura. “Recently we received two recorded deeds, but we are not sure the transfer is legitimate. More needs to be done to make sure that, for example, a timeshare delinquent $10,000 in maintenance fees isn’t transferred to a person that doesn’t exist. When we requested a driver’s license to confirm the identity of two buyers, we learned both Nevada driver’s license were fake.”
Laura went on to warn timeshare owners to stay away from Postcard companies.
http://tstoday.com/members/magazine/issue118/39-postcard%20warning.pdf
It seems there is no end to the creativity and the ingenuity generated by timeshare’s lack of a secondary market. In summary – here is what we at Inside Timeshare propose:
⦁ Work towards an improved and viable secondary market.
⦁ Ask your resort if they use Timeshare Pro Plus and if not, ask what the resort does to ensure legitimate transfers.
⦁ Report companies that call asking if you want to be released from your timeshare.
⦁ Help spread the word to encourage people to ask the right questions when buying a timeshare, including talking to a member of the US Licensed Timeshare Resale Broker Association to compare the benefits or lack of benefits buying on the secondary market.
http://www.licensedtimeshareresalebrokers.org/
I hope more resorts look into Timeshare Pro Plus because reducing timeshare transfer fraud is one point timeshare owners and developers can agree on.
For more information about Timeshare Pro Plus contact Dave Heine.
http://resorttrades.com/business-directory/timeshare-pro-plus/
As we have seen, much of the problems around these “scams” and “frauds” are actually caused by the industry itself. By over valuing the product as “an investment” as if it was actual “real estate”, lack of a resale or secondary market to the selling of contracts that breach the laws.
When there are problems such as this, it leaves owners with nowhere to go, they are then vulnerable to the clever “scammers” who then fleece the desperate of thousands.
If you need any help or advice on any company contact Inside Timeshare, we can point you in the right direction. We will show you how to check out these companies for yourself, remember doing your due diligence will save you money in the end.
The post Timeshare Fraud: Happens on Both Sides of the Pond appeared first on Inside Timeshare.