Florida DA after timeshare fraud ....

It is true that Florida has 23% of the world's timeshares, and Florida is high on the list of timeshare fraud.

Wyndham Vacation Ownership commends Florida’s Attorney General Pam Bondi for aggressively pursuing action against timeshare resale companies that employ deceptive and fraudulent practices that prey on consumers.

"Attorney General Bondi has put timeshare resale companies on notice in the state of Florida," said Franz Hanning, President and CEO of Wyndham Vacation Ownership. "Our industry has long benefited from responsible regulations that protect consumers and ensure the integrity of products and services. Timeshare resale companies should not be exempt from these standards and we applaud Attorney General Bondi for leading this effort on behalf of Florida timeshare owners and our industry at large."

On Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2011, in Tallahassee, Attorney General Bondi, with the support of the American Resort Development Association (ARDA), and the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), proposed legislation called The Timeshare Resale Accountability Act, requiring full and fair disclosure of the terms and conditions of services being offered by timeshare resale companies, a reasonable rescission period and penalties for those individuals and companies that engage in misleading and fraudulent practices.

Wyndham Vacation Ownership, with headquarters in Orlando and delivering the best possible vacation experiences, operates 16 resorts in the State of Florida. According to research by the ARDA International Foundation, nearly 23% of all U.S. timeshare resorts are located in the state. In 2010, Florida sales were $2.2 billion of the U.S. total of $6.4 billion.

One phone call thats all it took... Exclusive Sales Marketing called us and said they had a buyer for our Sheraton Vistana Resort in Orlando Florida. They were very pushy on the phone telling us they needed paper work on the resort immediately as our resort was going to sold for $17,000.00. They also neede a up front fee of $1690.00 that we put on our credit card and faxed all the other info to Exclusive Sales Marketing. So a week passed and we phoned this company and asked to speak to Markus Mascara the man that started this whole thing with our timeshare. I spoke with Markus and asked what was happening with our timeshare being sold and was told that the buyer found something else. I told him I wanted our money back and he said I could not have the money back as they were showing the timeshares to many prospective people and to give them time and our time share will be sold. Again weeks went by and I called Mascara again and raised my voice and said that I wanted mymoney back and I did not want them doing anything with my property and said this sounds like a scam. He passed the phone over to his manager Mr. Schultz while talking with Mr. Schultz I told him I wanted our money back and was going to contact the police and a lawyer. He told us to read the so called contract that we signed as he quoted that it says no refunds. I got very upset and said we did not have time to rtead your stupid contract as we were pressured into signing this paper immediately as you had a buyer waiting. So he said we will continue to show your timeshare and hoefully we will sell it. So again I got the run around and excuses and again weeks went by and finally I called Mr. Schultz, I asked him what the heck is this so called company doing for us. I told him that I was going to call a lawyer for a class action law suit and also the police.Mr. Schultz then asked me to hold and I was then talking to Mike Green. Mike Green said that he was the owner of the company and I started telling him what I was told and nothing has happened. He threatened me that he was going to get his lawyer invouled for slandering his company. I told him please do so I can get my money back from your so called company. He threatened me with this and that and I finally said, LOOK give me my money back you scamming SOB. Oh all of a sudden he changed his tune, he said that he will take care of our timeshare himself what he called the EXtra BOOST, at know extra cost. I said to Mr. Green as if I would pay you more money for nothing you promised to do for us. So he continued to say that he, himself, will give our timeshare the EXTRA BOOST that more or less gets more sellers on this particular timeshare including himself and said we will sell your timeshare and we even dropped the price for our timeshare. Hetold me to call him in 10 days, in which I did and everytime I called he was`nt in or out of the office. Well weeks went by and months and I said we were taken for suckers. They scammed us and we are out $1690.00. So all I can say is thank you to Florida for letting stuff go on like this. I live In CANADA and if we had scammers like this they would be prosecuted and made to work to pay off the money they scammed us out of. The date that this started was November 14, 2011. and is still fresh in our minds. So watch out people everyone wants to go to florida, just make sure you put no money up front. Thanks Florida, Brenda Parisian paris102"sasktel.net

If you had just researched the internet before you handed over $1690.00 you would have realized that this was a scam .... about the only thing you can do is report this scam company to the attorney general of Florida .... you can google for contact info. The FL attorney general has raided and closed many of these scam operations BUT they can't close them if they're not notified.

Here's another $ 1,700.00 dollars given to the scammers. I wish people would read my posts in the general discussion. I advise all timeshare owners to go to www.stopthescam.org. Then go to timeshare and click on some of the links. I also recommend that owners join the ( NTOA ) National Timesahre Owners Association. It's a non profit organization of timeshare owners for timeshare owners. Their website is nationaltimeshareownersassoc.com you can contact the president Ed Hastry at hastry@aol.com. It's amazes me that people will fork over thousands of dollars to scam artists but will not join the only organization I know that represents timeshare owners interests.