I received an unsolicited phone call on Saturday morning from "Mark." Mark's phone number was 407-581-3753 (from my caller ID). He asked me if I was interested in selling my timeshare. He knew my name and the city and state that I lived in. He told me that he had a buyer from Europe who was ready to buy a timeshare in the area where mine was located. He asked me a few questions about my timeshare: name of resort, how many bedrooms baths, did I own it, etc.
Then, he told me that he would list it at good price, $13,000. He explained that since the dollar was weak against the Euro that there were a number of Europeans looking to buy timeshares and were willing to pay high prices for them. $13,000 u. S was just $6,500 Euro. He told me that they would contact the buyer with the offer of $13,000 and see if they would accept it.
Then, either his manager or his manager's assistant would call me back. I asked for his manager's and his manager's assistants names. He hesitate and then mumbled something like "Paul Whilchild" and "Kelly." He explained that Paul was really busy and that Kelly would most likely call me back. He informed me that the seller was expected to pay their commission and the title fees.
About an hour later, I received a call from "Kelly Moore" at Global timeshares. She informed me that the buyer had accepted my offer for $13,000. She asked me if I had access to a fax machine so that she could fax me some documents to sign. I told her that I would not have access to a fax machine until Monday. She said that she would fax the documents to me on Monday, but in the meantime, I would need to pay their seller's fees of $1950.
Did I want to put that on a Visa or Mastercard? I explained to Kelly that I was not comfortable paying that much money to a company that I knew nothing about. I did not even know how they got my phone number. I explained to her that I have bought and sold a number of houses and that typically the commissions are taken out at the closing. She asked me if I had ever sold a timeshare? I said "No."
She proceeded to explain that timeshares are different and the way that it works is that I will pay her the $1950 up front and then they will send me a check for $13,000.in timeshare sales, they are not allowed to take any money out of the proceeds of the sale. The buyer had already put 20% down and I needed to show that I was equally committed to the sale by paying the closing fees of $1950. And, I was lucky.
When clients list their timeshares with them, they charge them $898 to list them. However, they were waiving those fees for me, since they already had a buyer lined up and they had contacted me. I was very suspicious. She told me that she could fax the documents to me today if there was an office supply store nearby with a fax machine. I let her know about a company with a fax machine nearby and gave her their telephone number.
She told me she would call me when she had faxed the documents and asked me if I could call her back from the store when I received them. I told her that I would like to have time to review the documents first, and asked for a number that I could contact her at. She gave me the following phone number: 1-800-859-9394 x 1111.
About an hour later, "Kelly" called me and informed me that she had faxed the documents and some information about their company. Since I had already researched Global Timeshares on-line and found a lot of negative information about them, I was certain that this was a scam. However, I was interested in picking up the documents to see what they really were and if there was really an "offer" from a buyer.
I paid $5.45 to pick up the fax. There were 5 pages in total. Page One was a fax cover sheet. Page Two was Global Timeshare's web-site home page, which listed 2 separate web-sites: http: GlobalTimeshareSales.com and http: VacationPropertyNetwork.com. Page 3 was an ad for Global timeshares. Page 4 was a FACT SHEET, explaining how challenging it to sell your timeshare: your resort will not help you, there is a lot of competition / other timeshares on the market, some sell quickly others do not, etc. Page 5 was a sheet that I was suppose to sign.
Kelly informed me that she would remove the exact dollar amount from the sheet that I was supposed to sign, in order to "protect my privacy, " since the document was being faxed to a store. The fine print on page 5 was the best part. It states that "Global Timeshares and Vacation Property Network are advertising companies. The Property owner pays a one-time, non-recurring and non-refundable advertising fee.
Our advertising programs pool the advertising resources of our customers to get the exposure needed to sell and/or rent your property." The next part, I will put in all caps for emphasis, even though it was not in capital letters in their fax: "OUR COMPANY FORWARDS ALL INQUIRIES AND OFFERS ON YOUR PROPERTY DIRECTLY TO YOU, AND ALLOWS YOU TO NEGOTIATE THE SALE OR RENTAL OF YOUR PROPERTY WITHOUT THE INVOLVEMENT OF ANY REAL ESTATE BROKER, AND WITHOUT THE EXPENSE OF ANY COMMISSION. OUR COMPANY IS NOT INVOLVED IN ANY NEGOTIATION FOR THE SALE OR RENTAL OF YOUR PROPERTY, BUT WE WILL ASSIST AND GUIDE YOU IN THIS PROCESS TO THE BEST OF OUR ABILITY."
Global Timeshares verbally communicated to me, a timeshare owner, that they had a buyer lined up and that this buyer had accepted an offer for $13,000. However, per the faxed document, their services do not even include negotiaing sales of a property. This goes far beyond the previous scam that was described on Rip-Off website, where customers were paying for advertising and then not getting what they expected for their money. This new scam is misrepresentation and fraud. ISN'T THAT ILLEGAL?!!
Candy
Anytown
U.S.A.
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