Scam Alerts!
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The Leaf Chronicle is reporting that Stephanie Marie Jenkins Hairston, a 25 year old Fort Campbell woman, was indicted for twenty-two counts of felony theft for conducting a rental con targeting military families at Fort Campbell. The con artist pleaded guilty to charges and was sentenced to a decade of probation. The terms of her plea also called for her to pay restitution to all 22 victims of more than $30,000.
According to court records between April 22, 2011 and May 12, 2011 Hairston under false pretense entered into a residential lease agreement at 1021 McClardly Road with several different people but had no intent to lease the property to the victims. Damages ranged from $425 to $2,650 for each victim of her fraud. Many of the soldiers and their families are now struggling to find replacement housing, and while yet another rental fraud conviction was handed down- you have to wonder if these American soldiers will ever be repaid. A detective with the Orlando Police Dept has asked for help locating timeshare owners who believe they have been scammed by any group operating out of Central Florida.
The companies may have been operating under a number of "business" names including: Extreme Point Settlements US Financial Trust Financial Associates of America If you believe that you have been the victim of a timeshare scam operating out of Central Florida, please take the time to assist with the investigation to help stop this type of fraud. You can reach one of the investigating officers at: Detective Michael J. Stevens Financial Crimes Investigator Economic Crimes Unit Criminal Investigations Division Orlando Police Department PO Box 913 Orlando Fl 32801-0913 Desk phone: 407-246-2971 E-mail: michael.stevens@cityoforlando.net In September, Vacation-Times.org published a timeshare scam warning about Property Consultant Services and PCS Timeshares which claimed to be operating out of a well known financial landmark in Boston. The Boston Globe has now also published an article giving details of this timeshare marketing scam.
In the Boston Globe article, we learn that the con artists are now claiming that an independent escrow company (also allegedly a fake company) called Foreign Exchange and Trust would be responsible for holding all the money. The article does give some solid advice on how consumers can identify many scams. These techniques include noting if the company website contains no true identifying information about the principals behind it, if the company uses an address in a big building but does not provide a suite number, and most importantly- if the timeshare reseller demands any type of upfront fee! The Palm Beach Post is reporting that the hand of justice is again coming down hard on one of the boiler room managers convicted in the multimillion dollar timeshare scam operating under the names Universal Marketing Solutons and Creative Vacation Solutions.
Joel Intravaia, who managed a Palm Beach call center, has been sentenced to five years in prison for his role in the scheme to defraud. He was sentenced in federal court in Illinois after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud. He joins several other owners and call center employees who have been convicted of the crime. If you have been the victim of a timeshare scam, please take the time to report the crime to the authorities. The wheels of justice may appear to move slowly, but state authorities do stop these schemes and the con artists can be severely punished. Reporting fraud is essential to stopping these scams! It is being reported that the Department of Agriculture Trade and Consumer Protection is investigating consumer complaints made against Vacation Station, a firm operating in Wisconsin Dells selling vacation packages. The report states that the state agency has received six complaints alleging that consumer paid for getaway vacations but never received the promised reservations or gift cards.
Vacation Station has reportedly sold vacation packages for Festiva Resorts and the Wilderness Hotel and Golf Resort in 2009, and sold getaway packages for Hilton Garden Inn, Wilderness and Kalahari in 2011. In the report, Joe Eck, general manager of Wilderness Hotel & Golf Resort, is quoted as saying, "Vacation Station is a fraudulent company that our resort has no relationship, contracts or agreements with. Vacation Station was using the Wilderness name without our knowledge or permission." Owners at the Marlin Cove timeshare resort in Ocean City, Maryland have been sent a special assessment to repay their 2009, 2010, and 2011 property taxes after the condominium association discovered that the bookkeeper, Carolyn H. Miller, allegedly failed to pay the taxes even though the funds were collected from the individual owners by the resort management company.
After discovering "irregularities" in the financial records over a three year span, the association fired Miller and filed charges for theft over the missing money. She has now been indicted for fifteen counts, and the loss to the resort has been estimated as high as $75,000. The alleged theft was only discovered when one of the units at the resort was placed as a tax sale for unpaid assessments. The new management company that has taken over the resort has had difficulty determining the actual financial status of the property, stating that there were very few financial records available to them. With new reports of online scams being reported daily, many consumers may hesitate to conduct any business at all in online venues. Consumers however, need to understand that many of these con artists target consumer ignorance- and just a little online research can protect you from the vast majority of online fraud.
Step Number One: Understand the realistic sale or rental price of what you want to buy or sell online! Always remember the cliche "If it sounds too good to be true it probably is!".. This old standard is the number one protection you have against becoming a victim of online fraud. If you are being offered too high a price for something you are selling, or too low a price for something you are buying- there is a good chance it may be a fraudulent offer! Before doing any business, try to obtain a realistic pricing expectation. If you are dealing with real estate or timeshares, start by talking to a respected real estate broker and simply ask what is a reasonable expectation of price! Most of the timeshare resale scams involve unrealistic promises of high selling prices, and most of the online rental scams advertise extremely low rental prices. If you know upfront what is a reasonable price expectation, you won't be taken in by either of these cons! Step Number Two: Research the person or business before sending in any money! This is another relatively simple task. Internet search engines such as Google make it incredibly easy to find information about any established business. One technique I often use is to search the name of the business along with the word "scam". If there is one or two complaints, perhaps I can chalk that up a few unhappy customers. If there are numerous complaints- then I take my business elsewhere! Another red flag to consumers should be a lack of available information about a person or business. If you try to find information online, and there is nothing to be found- this can be a strong indicator that it is either a brand new business or simply a brand new disguise for a con artist! In either case, you might be much better served by walking away from that transaction and looking for another opportunity with a more established business with a positive track record. Step Number Three: Use an independent escrow agent or pay with a credit card for a safer online transaction! When dealing with any type of real estate purchase or rental, an independent third-party escrow agent is always a wise choice! Since it's your money, you should have the right to choose the escrow company and all funds should be able to be paid directly to the escrow agent. Be sure to read and understand the escrow agreement to understand what verification process will be performed and if there are deadlines to file a dispute or claim against the other party. Also, paying with your credit card may give you some additional protection with your online purchase. If you are not comfortable giving your personal credit card information, a third party organization such as PayPal may be an option. With PayPal, you can submit payment by credit card- but never release your personal account information to the other party. There are fees for this type of service, so again be sure to read and understand the process and cost of such a tran The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel has published an article detailing some of the consumer fraud cases that have plagued Colorado residents over the past year. They cover several common Craigslist scams, including a case where a fake job posting lured victims to a murder scene. The report also talks about credit card skimmers which are placed in public swipe machines such as those as gas stations and then copy consumers credit card information from the magnetic strip. And as always these days in a discussion about fraud- there was a story involving a timeshare.
A Grand Junction resident was allegedly taken in by a timeshare scam operating out of a Mazatlan development, the Boutique Resort La Jolla. A timeshare owner, Maria Molnar, reported that she purchased a timeshare interest at this resort with the understanding that her current timeshare would be taken over by La Jolla as a trade in on her new purchase. After signing contracts obligating her to the new timeshare purchase- her original ownership was allegedly never taken out of her name, forcing her to now pay two maintenance fees. Previous reports of sales issues at this resort have been reported on the website TimeshareForums.com. This type of sales tactic appears to be becoming more common with Mexican resorts, however, and is not just being reported at La Jolla- as the failure and closure of the timeshare reseller Holiday Group has left many developers without an outlet for these unwanted timeshares. There is a government agency in Mexico which is tasked with assisting international consumers who are unhappy to products purchased from within Mexico. Procuraduría Federal del Consumidor, or PROFECO, is part of the administrative branch of the government of Mexico. The Department of Conciliation Services to Foreign Residents (Departamento de Conciliacion a Residentes en el Extranjero C.A.R.E.) provides assistance towards solving disagreements between foreign or Mexican citizens living outside of Mexico that purchase any product or service from a legally established Mexican supplier and are not satisfied with their purchase. C.A.R.E. assists the parties by providing mediation between the parties. PROFECO has created an information center for timeshare consumers at this LINK. You can also contact by mail to: Procuraduría Federal del Consumidor, Dirección General de Quejas y Conciliación, Av. Jose Vasconcélos no. 208, 6º. Piso, Col. Condesa. Del. Cuauhtémoc, C.P. 06140, México, D.F. A reader submitted a possible timeshare scam alert about a company claiming to operate out of Las Vegas calling itself Closing Services Inc which is the required closing agent for a promised timeshare sale through MyTimeshareForSell- which uses an address of 9350 Metcalf Avenue, Overland Park, Kansas. (This is the same address which has formerly been used for TimeshareResaleExperts and MyTimesharesForSale - This appears to be a similar scheme using the same addresses. Coincidence? Possibly, but probably not very likely!
I visited the website for the closing agent. A few issues with the website immediately set off my personal "something smells" alarms. First and most obvious- there is a grammatical error on the title of the webpage.. "Where transferring your timeshare easy". This is never a good sign. Two other statements that don't ring true to me are that they company has more than two decades experience and performs more than 1,000 closings each month. I have been involved in resales for more than fifteen years now and I have worked with most of the respected closing agents in the industry many times. If this closing company truly handled more resale closings than any other closing agent in the industry, it seems strange that I've never heard of them. When you look at the bottom of the webpage, you'll also see where they list the copyright date as 2008. While this may be possible (for example, some of the articles posted on my website were documents I wrote as far back as 1990 with pen and paper- and then posted them to the website almost thirty years later)- it is still a reason for concern since the website domain shows as just recently purchased. Registered Through GoDaddy.com, Inc. Domain Name: closingservicesonline.com Created on: 1/5/2011 1:18:13 PM The address used is 101 Convention Center Drive, Suite 700 in Las Vegas, Nevada which appears to be a drop box for virtual businesses and not a physical address. This is another issue that can be a big cause for concern. While there are many legitimate businesses that use these "timeshare" offices and post office boxes- there have also been many cases of fraud involving these same facilities. Finally, I contacted a major title company located in Vegas and asked a representative to confirm if they had heard of this other local closing agent. They had not! Again- if this company was handling more than one thousand closings each month (especially in the current market), it just seems strange that they are relatively unknown. If you are currently involved in a transaction involving either of these companies, I would urge extreme caution. If you believe you have already been the victim of fraud, please take the time to report the crime to the FBI internet crime division at https://www.ic3.gov BocaNewsNow.com is reporting that a consumer paid money to Gold Standard Title Services LLC for a promised timeshare sale, only to have the company disappear and no closing ever occur. Gold Standard Title Services LLC, located at 102 NE 2nd Street in Boca allegedly charged the woman more than $2,400. for a promised timeshare sale that never occurred. The state of Florida shows a registered address for the company at 1800 Northeast 51st Court in Pompano Beach, and shows a D’Arcy Bruce as the company representative. I could not locate any information showing this business or individual as a registered title agent.
If you have information about this company, or believe that you have been the victim of consumer or escrow fraud perpetrated by this company or individual, please take the time to report the crime to the Florida Attorney General by clicking HERE. |
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