Vallarta Gardens Timeshare Scam

Our experience was bad. The place was nice, but the proposed deal of buying the place and then making our money back via rentals never made much sense to me, and sounded "too good to be true." The high-pressure sales guy talked us into signing a contract which we had a right to cancel within 3 days. I then started investigating and found lots of warnings on the internet that it was a scam. I told the salesman that we wanted to exercise our right to cancel within 3 days, we just did not feel comfortable about the whole setup. That's when everything got surreal.

The salesman tried to double talk us out of canceling, then told us we could not cancel, then introduced us to an obvious gangster type who got real mean and threatening in his manner. I told them I was contacting a Mexican lawyer and finally they let us cancel, but insisted we not bad mouth them to the other purchasers who were there at the same time.

I really feel we dodged a bullet. There was a holding company in Peru, and it seemed like they had it all set up so they can just steal people's money (people from U.S., Canada, Europe, etc.) and then the difficulty in dealing with Mexican and Peruvian legal systems would end up being too confusing and expensive to be worth suing them.

However, here is another weird part: Every six months or so someone calls and tells us they want to "buy back" the unit or distribute the "income" to me. When I tell them I cancelled and never bought a membership, they persist, telling me I can still get money, that I might have bought a membership without knowing, etc. (Obviously, it is a con job. They want me to get attached to the idea of getting some extra money, and then they will start asking for fees and taxes and so on.)

One guy called today, 5 years later, and told me he is a lawyer in a class action suit trying to get me paid for my "investment". When I asked, he said the suit was pending in Jalisco, Mexico (the state where we had stayed). Even though I told him we canceled our contract and did not pay anything this Mexican attorney (if that is what he really is) kept trying to persuade me that he could probably get me paid because of some other things in the contract that we might not have cancelled. He even told me a lot of people think they have no contract but it turns out they do.

He promised to send me some court paperwork. I'll see if he does. But the whole thing has a strong smell of SCAM to me. How could I get money if I did not pay anything? The game is to just con me out of fees or personal information, like a Nigerian Prince con, I am 99%sure.

It is a scam! Has anyone hired a Mexican attorney?

howardb230 wrote:

It is a scam! Has anyone hired a Mexican attorney?

What's a Mexican attorney going to do for you?

i just bought in for $35,000.I am promised $25,800 back to put down on real estate in mexico which i,m interested in. has anyone used this yet. Thanks dan

We were scammed a couple of years ago by this company. I believe they changed their name to Kovay. Any suggestions or comments. Janet

danielt316 wrote:

i just bought in for $35,000.I am promised $25,800 back to put down on real estate in mexico which i,m interested in. has anyone used this yet. Thanks dan

I have never heard of anyone actually getting money back from a Mexican timeshare transaction, except for refunds of deposit if / when a contract rescission (cancellation) is properly submitted within the 5 day period provided by applicable Mexican "law". Good luck in ever seeing that "promise" of $28.5k being returned to you ever actually being fulfilled. Dream on.

Thank you to those who have posted here. Sadly, I think we have been taken by this scam. After several emails, and now looking at these posts , we realize we will probably never get the returns promised. Does anyone here have any advice going forward? we paid a lot of $ for a house stay and promised returns for 9 weeks. VG promised 5,000 return for each week . This was to be funded to our account in June. Just today they sent email stating it would be Sept. Now, Im just wondering if there is any recourse? Would our credit card companies recognize this as a scam? I feel really stupid for believing any of this. I really want others to be aware. Also, has anyone had any success with attorneys?

larab60 wrote:

Sadly, I think we have been taken by this scam. After several emails, and now looking at these posts , we realize we will probably never get the returns promised. Does anyone here have any advice going forward? we paid a lot of $ for a house stay and promised returns for 9 weeks. VG promised 5,000 return for each week . This was to be funded to our account in June. Just today they sent email stating it would be Sept. Now, Im just wondering if there is any recourse? Would our credit card companies recognize this as a scam? I feel really stupid for believing any of this. I really want others to be aware. Also, has anyone had any success with attorneys?

Can you elaborate on how you were scammed? Was it one of those phone calls claiming that if you paid an upfront fee, they would rent out what you own and fetch you thousands of dollars? Or was it the sales pitch at a presentation claiming that, if you purchased, you could make scads and scads of money renting out what you purchased through a specialty rental agency?

Please go to FB to find group. "Debt club"

We actually went through with this and lost tens of thousands Did you ever get anywhere with getting your money back?

Have you gotten anywhere with this scam?

Yes, still trying to get our money over a year later. It is an absolute joke. This is a scam.

I just requested to join. I hope there’s a way to get our money back.

we are in your same boat. They have been sending us those emails with delays and time frames in the Mexican government taxes for a year now. I just joined the Facebook group “debt club” for people that have been taken by this con.

Has anyone ever gotten paid by Capital Marketing DS for the weeks they turned in and/or timeshares they supposibly bought from you?

sylviet11 wrote:

Has anyone ever gotten paid by Capital Marketing DS for the weeks they turned in and/or timeshares they supposibly bought from you?

How did you come to find out about this deal? What are they offering you and for how much? This sounds like a typical scam to me.

I am curious to know if this actually panned out for you?

raphaelb8 wrote:

I am curious to know if this actually panned out for you?

All of these Mexican scenarios ALWAYS result in the exact same conclusion; any and all money paid is GONE --- forever. The End.

Same boat. Been there a few times but no payment on weeks. Has anyone got ANY IDEAS?

I have a similar tale but I predate you by 18 months or so. Dealing with Allianz Marketing? I have been promised Resolution several times but feel I’m being strung along waiting for „just a few more months“