Scam Alerts!
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Recent reports claim a Florida Keys resident was fraudulently renting properties. He was arrested by the Monroe County (Florida Keys) Sheriff's Office and charged with multiple fraud-related counts. Monroe County Sheriffs Office detectives said Tavernier resident John Williams, 52, set up several vacation home rental websites and used multiple business names and identities while fraudulently renting properties to people desiring to visit the Keys for periods of a week or longer. However, detectives said he also legitimately managed several homes with a company called Vacation Rental Properties. He also used the aliases David Osborne, Gary Sharon Delich, and Doug Collins.
Williams was arrested on Tuesday and charged with grand theft, computer fraud, swindling through communications and obtaining property by impersonating, all felonies. Three are third-degree felonies punishable by up to five years in prison. The computer crime is a second-degree felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison. The sheriff's office is continuing its investigation and is endeavoring to recover funds that can be returned to victims. In a typical scam, a deposit or full payment is taken via a mailed check, wire money transfer or PayPal. Fraudulent online listings often to appear to be legitimate, but are not. Some scammers will reproduce actual real estate listings with photos and property descriptions. If you believe that you have been the victim of consumer fraud committed by John Williams or Vacation Rental Properties, please take the time to report the crime to the Monroe County Sheriffs Office. The phone number to report a crime to the Monroe County Sheriff's Office is 305-289-2351. The non-emergency phone number at the City of Key West Police Department is 305-809-1111. KPLR Channel 11 in St. Louis just published an article warning consumers about common rental scams that can be found on online classifieds such as Craigslist. Chris Thetford with the BBB says, “People try to rent places, they send money for the rental, but the house or the condo doesn’t even exist. So if you wan to go to Dallas, and you want to go this route, you want to get somebody in Dallas to make sure the place actually exists.”
Have a real estate agent or a local friend drive by the property address, and check public records to determine who actually owns the property. There have been reported cases where a con artist promises accommodations that they do not own, and the renter arrives to discover the property is already occupied or otherwise not available. Also, the BBB recommends that renters pay with a credit card when booking accommodations. That way, if there's a problem, the renter can dispute the transaction. “You need to be careful that you’re not wiring cash to somebody in TX without knowing what’s going in. Because when you do that it’s literally the equivalent of walking up to someone on the street and just handing them cash out of your pocket,” said Thetford. Another option is for the transaction to be handled through a third party escrow agent. Various title companies and real estate rental brokers offer either a full service rental assistance program, or a limited service escrow arrangement to at least protect the funds for both landlord and tenant until the rental completes. Vacation-Times.org published a scam alert about Legacy Closing Services and Accent Event Management in August, and it now appears that the Better Business Bureau has also issued a consumer scam alert.
..."The Better Business Bureau (BBB) wants to alert consumers to a time-share resale scam operated by Legacy Closing Services, claiming to be located at 3200 West End Ave, Nashville, TN., and Accent Event Management claiming to be located at 5909 Expressway, Oklahoma City, OK. BBB files contain a serious pattern of complaint alleging consumers were duped out of thousands of dollars in a timeshare resale scam.Specifically, complaints allege consumers were contacted by Accent Event Management claiming interest in buying the consumer’s timeshare property in Mexico..." The scam follows the same scenario where a timeshare owner receives a cold call promising a buyer for their unwanted timeshare. The timeshare owner is then contacted by a representative from the "closing company" who demands "closing fees" before the promised sale proceeds can be released. After paying the advance fee, the promised sale does not occur and the timeshare owner is unable to obtain a refund for the monies paid. If you believe that you have been the victim of consumer fraud perpetrated by either of these companies, please take the time to report the crime to the attorneys general in your home state, in the state where the timeshare property is located, and also in the states where the "selling and closing" agents claim to be located. A reader has submitted a new timeshare scam alert about a possible closing company and escrow scam operating out of Hermosa Beach, California. She stated that she won an eBay auction for a timeshare, and received instruction to forward over $2,000. to a closing agent identified as Pacific Transfers LLC. When she searched public records to determine if a business was registered in California under that name, she was unable to locate any registration for the company with the state of California. She stated that she then searched for information on the address being used by the business, and believes it is actually just a mail box. When she requested for the company to provide her with the contact information for the bank where an escrow account is maintained, she states that they could not provide her with any information to verify any escrow account. She stated that she called to file a complaint with the California Attorney General, but that since no money had changed hands they simply referred her to the local Better Business Bureau.
If you believe that you have been the victim of any type of timeshare or escrow related fraud perpetrated by this company, please take the time to report the crime to the Consumer Complaint Division of the California Attorney General's office by clicking HERE. In a traditional real estate transaction, the party paying the closing fees normally has the right to choose the closing agent. Many eBay sellers require the use of a predetermined closing agent, and often these "companies" are not licensed or independent, but rather are simply in-house employees of the timeshare reseller. It is always a good strategy to ensure that an independent third party title and escrow agent be used for any timeshare resale purchase to provide protection throughout the closing process. As always, please remember that the allegation of a scam does not mean that any type of fraud actually occurred. All readers are encouraged to fully investigate any timeshare reseller or closing company before sending in any money for a timeshare transaction- and if you have any doubts as to the legitimacy of the organization simply refuse to do business with them. KENS Channel 5 out of San Antonio is reporting about a possible timeshare scam operating under the name of Vacation Max, a business registered out of Delaware. A consumer reported to them that he paid the company $800 in upfront fees to sell his timeshare after being promised that they had a buyer waiting for his property.
Follows is an excerpt from the article: "...It never did sell, so Archuleta asked for the $800 he paid them. He said Vacation Max told him they were suing the person who was supposed to buy his timeshare and he would have to wait. Several months later Archuleta said the company told him they had lost the suit and they were not going to refund his money. So he called us. We called Vacation Max and the person Archuleta had dealt with, Dan Hanson, wasn't available. The person on the other end said they would have him call back. He never did. However, someone did call back and said they weren't familiar with Archuleta's request, that they would check into it and call us back. They never did, even after several more calls from us..." There is also another alleged scam report about this company posted on the Timeshare Users Group website. This discussion alleges other fraudulent activities, and states that the Georgia Attorney Generals office has received several complaints stating they are operating out of Stone Mountain, Georgia- but has not yet been able to locate them. I did find the company registered as a foreign corporation in Delaware as of October 2009, but also was unable to discover a physical address for them. Many corporations and shell companies register in Delaware as foreign entities, due to favorable laws and regulations in that state. The NE Georgia Better Business Bureau has a listing for Vacation Max operating out of 925 Main Street, Suite 300-3, Stone Mountain, GA 30083. Again, however- that is simply a mail box at a virtual office. It is unclear whether this scam is related to another timeshare scam alert posted about a con artist operating under the name Vacation Timeshare Sales from the same virtual office center, but the chances of this being a coincidence appear to be very unlikely. In addition to the numerous addresses which appear to be used by this scam, there also appear to be constantly changing websites for the company. If you believe that you have been the victim of fraud perpetrated by this company, please take the time to contact the Georgia Attorney General and also contact the Delaware Attorney General. Another Possible Timeshare Con Artist Arrested: Josh Butcher and First Purchase Investments10/8/2011
The Orlando Sentinel is reporting another arrest in the state of Florida's fight against timeshare resale fraud. Josh Butcher, 25, of Delray Beach, Florida, was arrested by authorities and faces charges of money laundering, grand theft, and fraud. He is accused of swindling timeshare owners out of thousands of dollars in upfront fees after calling and promising that he had a ready buyer for their unwanted vacation ownership.
This scam has become a common occurrence. A con artist calls a timeshare property owner and claims to have a buyer lined up for their property. The timeshare owner is then convinced to pay some type of advance or upfront fee and the con artist then disappears with the money and no timeshare sale ever occurs. Josh Butcher was the registered agent for First Purchase Investments, a limited liability company briefly registered as a business in Florida. He opened a business account in Delray Beach, which was closed shortly after opening. During that short span of time, authorities state that he deposited $61,000 in checks from fraud victims. If you believe that you have been the victim of timeshare related fraud perpetrated by Josh Butcher or by First Purchase Investments LLC, please take the time to report the crime to Delray Beach Police Department by calling (561)243-7800. The NBC News affiliate out of Miami is reporting that thirteen individuals have been charged in a telemarketing scheme operating under the business name of Timeshare Mega Media and Marketing Group, Inc. If convicted, 13 Timeshare Mega Media and Marketing Group, Inc. employees involved in the alleged timeshare scam could face time in federal prison and monetary damages up to $250,000.
The group operated under a variety of names, and the first court filings named Timeshare Mega Media and Marketing Group, Inc., d/b/a Timeshare Market Pro, Inc.; Timeshare Market Pro, Inc.; Joseph Crapella a/k/a Joseph John Philbin; Pasquale Pappalardo; Lisa Tumminia Pappalardo; Pasqualino Agovino; Louis Tobias Duany; and Patricia A. Walker as defendants. These individuals are expected to make their first appearance in court on October 11, 2011. Follows is an excerpt from the article. "...Since about October 2009, the defendants, who were employed by Timeshare Mega Media and Marketing Group, Inc. in Fort Lauderdale called owners of time-share units and told them they had buyers for their properties, prosecutors said. They would tell the owners to send $1,996 to the company for fees associated with the sale of the unit, prosecutors said in email statement. Once the time-share owners agreed to pay the fees, they were contacted by another employee, who would get them to admit on tape that they knew the fee they were paying was for the advertising of their units, and that the company could charge their credit card, prosecutors said. The defendants were told by co-conspirators not to give the time-share unit owners closing dates for the sale of their time-shares to make it difficult for the unit owners to be refunded, prosecutors said. To keep the victims from contacting their credit card companies, when unit owners called the company questioning the sale of their units, co-conspirators falsely informed them that the original buyer had a card was not approved, and another buyer was interested, according to prosecutors...." There is also a detailed description of the charges posted on the FBI website. The named defendants are Scott Faraguna, 41, Charles Blomquist, 52, Peter Borkowicz, 31, Raymond Harcar, 39, James Taylor, 23, Ryan Greene, 23, Jason Hampton, 28, Chris Faccone, 43, Steven Sokoloff, 47, Marco Sguera, 30, Joseph Giancola, 38, Ryan Soltow, 27, and Donna Ackermann Brown, 50, all of whom are charged in a one-count criminal information with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud. The defendants were all employees of Timeshare Mega Media and are scheduled to make their initial appearances in court Tuesday morning October 11, 2011, in West Palm Beach before U.S. Magistrate Judge Linnea Johnson. Hopefully this aggressive action by authorities against the individual employees of a timeshare scam will help to discourage others from working in telemarketing centers where this type of fraud is perpetrated. A new consumer alert has been issued about a likely timeshare scam operating under the name of First American Services that is targeting individuals who own timeshares located in Mexico. The scam appears to be very similar to the various Mexican timeshare scams that have already been reported and may also be related to the con artist who was reported earlier claiming to be a representative for First American Title Insurance Company.
Follows is an except from the published alert: "... In October 2011, the Better Business Bureau received its first complaint from a client of First American Services. The complaint states that the owner of the timeshare property was approached with the opportunity to sell a Mexican resort plot for $22,500. Soon after responding to the mailer, the owner was asked to pay a "transfer fee" of about $1,150; after wiring that to a Mexican bank account, the owner then paid "closing and administration fees" of $3,450. Within a few days of transferring that payment, the owner was then told to wire another $3,400 for "closing costs." The owner refused to pay more money, complained to First American Service's management, and demanded a refund of the fees already paid. According to the complaint, First American Service's management promised a refund, but the timeshare owner has not yet seen a return of his cash. Maybe the company will respond to the complaint? “Not likely,” Manista predicts. A BBB staff member visited the company’s stated address, which happens to be in a prominent OKC office building. “There’s no company in the directory beginning with the letter F, and the building staff didn’t recognize the company name as being associated with any tenant.." The Fox 11 News Team is reporting that the local BBB is again warning timeshare owners about a possible timeshare scam operating in the Tucson area. This appears to be the same scam that was reported in September by Vacation-Times.org
The scam involves a postcard showing the logo of Southwest Airlines which promises airline vouchers if the recipient owns a timeshare. Consumers who call the number on the back of the card are told that in order to claim the airline vouchers they must own a timeshare, and they must attend a seminar this Saturday, Sunday or Monday at the Hilton Tucson East, located at 7600 E Broadway Blvd, in Tucson. I again contacted a representative of the Hilton Tucson East who stated that they have no meeting rooms reserved this weekend for any type of timeshare or travel company. The BBB article states that the offer of airlines tickets in the mailer is not in any way affiliated with Southwest Airlines, despite the company’s logo appearing on the front of the card. This scam appears to be just an attempt to gather personal information from timeshare owners. It is likely that the operators behind this scam are then selling the lists to other fraudulent telemarketers. f you have received one of these postcards in the mail or believe that you have received a mailing targeting you for a timeshare or other consumer scam, please take the time to report the crime to the United States Postal Inspection Service by visiting https://www.uspis.gov/. The Palm Beach Post is reporting that Jeff George, the owner of the timeshare scam operating as American Marketing Group, has pleaded guilty to federal charges in a Palm Beach courtroom. Federal prosecutors stated that his various enterprises "grossed millions of dollars in criminal proceeds.". Unwitting customers thought telemarketers George hired were taking their cash to advertise and sell their time-shares. Instead, they were being lied to and cheated out of thousands of dollars in illegal upfront fees.The revelation of George's lucrative side business came as he appeared in federal court to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit racketeering in connection with a pain clinic scheme. That admission came roughly a month after he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in state court.
This investigation may help to shed light on some of the unsavory characters who have been drawn to timeshare fraud because of the large amounts of cash being generated by these scams. This activity should be a warning beacon to consumers to ensure that they only work with reputable timeshare resellers that can show a long history in the business ad that never require any type of upfront fee to sell or rent an unwanted timeshare. |
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