I was contacted by Premier Properties to sell my timeshare in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. They claimed to have a buyer at a price of $29,680. My husband and I received a sales contract which stated that we would be liable for a 5% commission AFTER the funding of our sale. We were not asked to divulge any private information other than our legal names, address and the information pertinent to our timeshare ownership. We signed and returned the contract. On 9/19, we received an email which contained a request for our bank information (for wiring the funds to us), a letter from Banamex (a bank in Mexico) stating that a guaranteed deposit account had been set up which includes the funds from our buyer, and a tax form from the Mexican Goverment stating that we would have to pay capital gains on the sale in the amount of $3,231.in a phone call yesterday with Jeremy of Premier Properties, I was advised that our escrow could not be released until this amount is paid. He gave me the name of Martha Bernal at Banamex to verify all the information and stated that she would handle the transaction for us. He told me to call her and she would give me wiring instructions on where to send the tax payment. I told him that I would be glad to pay any tax AFTER I received the money from the sale. Fortunately, I had done some research and found that this is a pretty common scam. I have not paid any money, but wanted to report this for investigation to try and stop other people from falling victim to this company. Their communications were very friendly and extremely convincing, the documents look authentic, etc. I think it would be easy for someone to be lured by the potential large payoff.
(FYI - The above complaint was registered today with the Federal Trade Commission and the Internet Crime Complaint Center.)
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