Timeshare Resale Fraud
There's a fairly fresh scam that involves several "front" companies (presumably all in Mexico) working together to defraud consumers. They prey on American travelers vacationing in such places as Cabo San Lucas, telling them they can sell their timeshare for them at an impressively high amount. To gain credibility, they claim to be part of the Sabre Travel Network (which they are not) and say that this company is willing to purchase timeshares and then use the cost for tax write-off purposes.
The wrinkle is that you need to buy a membership to a nonexistent travel club (Grand Weeks), which allegedly allows you to stay at five - and six-star properties at highly discounted rates. Membership to this club costs $ plus financing fees and bank fees for foreign currency conversion on credit card charges.
They claim that you will receive payment for your timeshare within 60-90 days. But that never happens.instead, one of the front companies insists that you must pay $700 for a title search, while another front company (claiming to handle the escrow) demands that you wire $875 in closing costs to Mexico. Then — they demand another $800, claiming that the bank in Mexico won't allow a wire transfer in excess of X amount of money — and that to get your money, you have to pay attorneys' fees.
Throughout all this, there are lots of demands for documentation to prove you (the consumer) are who you say you are, but everything about them is a lie.
Here are the so-called "companies" involved:
Essential Resorts, which represents itself as a vacation property procurement company, is run by a very slimy guy who calls himself Julian Rosenthal. His partners in crime (literally) are Cindy Watts and Raul Mendez. This company is not licensed in the state of Florida and the Miami address listed on its web site is only a P.O. Box.
Web site: http://www.essentialresortsltd.com
Grand Weeks/Servicios Vacacionales. This part of the operation is ostensibly in San Diego, but it's run by Raul Mendez (possibly his real name), who works his fraud from a restaurant on the marina in Cabo San Lucas. They are not licensed in the state of California and the office address they use is in reality just a P.O. Box. Their slick marketing materials make big promises, but their service is worthless. They have two web sites, one of which is now shut down:
http://www.grandweeks.com
http://www.grandweeksvip.com
Financial Services International (so-called escrow company)
They are not licensed in the state of Texas, and are not tenants in the San Antonio building listed on their web site.instead they seem to be running their scam from a boiler room in Mexico. Key players call themselves James Hoffman, Tony Rogers, and Frank Rivers.
Web site: http://www.financialservices-int.com
All of these web sites were established last fall. It's quite possible that the front companies were conducting their scam under different names before, and very likely that they will create new names and web sites again. Its also a safe bet that there are a number of other front companies in bed with them.
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