International Brokers Inc. Scam? said they have a buyer - burned before in scam?

One more note. I wonder if anyone has ever had a buyer from the US. - I highly doubt this. I was told that the buyer in my deal was from Mexico. The requested fees dealt with taxes or fees that had to be paid by the seller for proof the purchase. This is the explanation that they gave me. I was also told that I was the exception and that other sellers did not have such issues. Based on this message board, this is not the case. I have yet to hear from anyone who has had a deal go through.

It's a SCAM !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We spoke with Mike Wright as well. He had us sign documents with Crown Title Transaction, everything looked very professional and legitimate. Initially, there was no fee and then he came up with a $2300 fee charged by the Mexican Government. This fee was to be wired into an account at Banco Mexicana. Mr. Wright claimed the purchase would be completed in 72 hours and the funds wired into our account. We proceeded with his request and it has now been over a week. Every time we call Mr. Wright, he sticks to his story that they are legitimate and the sale will go through. This appears to be a highly sophisticated scam and we fell for it. Don't do business with this company or Crown Title Transaction. I'm fairly certain both companies are working out of Mexico, scamming people in the U.S. We will be filing a report with the FBI.

I am currently in contact with International Brokers Inc. Have not sent a signed contract and it appears I will not. I'm dealing with Edward P. Loo. I asked him to give a non toll free telephone number and a his corporate email address, told him I will not send and funds to them, for them to deduct from final payment. I confirmed the transfer fee, with the time share I was selling and it was $50, payable to them. Edward Loo called me back on non toll free number, but it was from Knoxville, TN...hum that is where Crown title is located. Called Crown Title, talked to a girl that didn't sound like the receptionist for a 3.3B title company, and she had an accent, just like Edward. I was scammed once by a company in Texas and got no where in trying to recover my funds. I can't imagine trying to get restitution from a Mexican scam.

Cheryl...do not do it. It is a scam. They will not ask for money upfront but eventually there will be a fee. If you want to save your money, tell them not to bother you again.

Dealing with Crown Title Transaction is quite entertaining. The person in charge of our account is Mexican and could not answer any of my questions directly. Very unprofessional and confused. I could tell by my phone conversation that this was definitely a scam.h

I was contacted in October 2013 with an offer to buy my timeshare from Property Management Professionals in San Jose Calif. They also promised that I would only have to pay the 8% fee after I have received my wire transfer. Then I was told that I would have to pay a 10% binder fee to the Mexican govt due to the fact that they have had so many complaints about the timeshare fraud, and the money would be refunded at the time the payment was wired to us. I even have made several called to the Director of Tourism in Mexico. My bank messed up the wire in the amount of $2107. When this was finally corrected, and I was promised that the money was wired the end of November. On December 2, I received an email from the Office of Tourism, that the SAT(Mexican IRS) needed me to pay a 20% Capital Gains tax on the full sale price + the $2107. I had to borrow the money to pay this tax but I advised that I would not pay on the $2107. I was only given 3 days to make the payment or the contract would be cancelled and I would loose my $2107. I was told that the money was then wired to me on Dec 6. On Dec 9, I received a call from the intermediate bank holding the money, and was told that Banamex said that I have to pay $3060 for a foreign bank expense. I got them down to $1896. My banker kept telling me this was a scam, but everything I could find showed them to be good companies. They would not put thru a 3rd wire for me. I was called by the attorney for Property Management who wanted me to do a money gram and he would walk me through the process. When I went to send the moneygram, the teller refused to send saying it is a scam. He even called the main telephone number for Banamex and confirmed that they do not ask for the funds that I was told to send and he also confirmed that the telephone number that I had was not a Banamex telephone number. I have been defrauded over $6000. The buyer is Grupo Carso. International Brokers Inc of California and Blue Collar Financial in Tennessee are the other 2 players. I have all kinds of telephone numbers and email and local addresses for them. Does anyone have a good attorney that can help me?

I don't want to be the bearer of bad news but your money is gone south of the border and it's not coming back. They now have you on the " sucker list " . Please don't shoot the messenger. They will keep contacting you trying to get more money from you. Somewhere down the road you will be contacted by someone claiming they can recover the money you lost to the scammers for yet another " fee ". It's the scammers again.

Please take this as an expensive lesson and NEVER pay anyone money upfront to sell, rent or doante your timeshare. If it sounds " too good to be true " then it's really too good to be true.

I did check on the companies the BBB gives international brokers a clean record for 3 years and another group an A rating. Blue Collar is part of JP Morgan, and Grupo Carso is owned by Carlos Slim. My bank read these messages to me but I could not find them the first time I looked for any complaints. It is a hard and expensive lesson learned. I should have trusted my banker instead of my faith in people being honest. The money that was requested was by the government of Mexico and IB claims it was to due to new laws made by the new government.

The scammers are really good at this. They can produce documents on a computer that can fool many experts. They work very hard to make it look legit and they have all the right answers for your questions. If you follow the number one rules you will never become a victim.

Number one rule : NEVER pay anyone money upfront to rent, sell or donate your timeshare.

You might be contacted by someone down the road claiming that they can recover the money you lost to the scammers. It's the scammers again trying to get more money from you. Don't fall for it.

I hope that this thread might help others from becoming victims.

THANK YOU for all posts i just recently was contacted by same indiviuals and started process as requested by them when they asked for the same mexican fee for processing i called into crown title transaction and spoke with a Alessandro Santino who tried to explain to me the resason for this fee. Didnt sound rite and i decided to google and found this forum. Thank you for posting info saved me couple thousands. they were all seemingly in network with each other none spoke proper english, from crown title to international brokers. BIG SCAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today, my husband spoke with Mike Wright, inquiring about the money he promised to wire to our account. He still tells us that the money is coming. This afternoon, Mr. Wright called my husband and informed him that apparently there is "another fee" from the Mexican government. I'll give it to these guys - they are persistent. Even though we lost a couple thousand dollars, we are finding this scam rather entertaining, very textbook. I hope the money we sent is going to some worthy Mexican charity, although I doubt it. Never buy a timeshare. It has been more trouble than it's worth!

After telling McCarthey of international brokers I was not interested in his SCAM and well aware of what was going I received a phone call today from Mr. Edward Loo of same company who tried to assure me of the legitimacy of his corporation and wanting to go forward with the deal. He asked was there anything I want done to assure me that it’s legit, I said yeh pay the government fee. He could not do that. he instead sent me a letter from his business stating that he guarantee the deal to go thru and my money wired within days or he would reimburse me back the money I gave, signed by him and "Paul Stone" the Corporate Attorney YEH OK REALLY??? How could I take the word of a bogus corp. to reimburse me my money?? LOL they are swearing by the legitimacy of the business to get your money , i told him untill he can pay gvt fee have nothing further to discuss. SUCH BULL

International Brokers promised the same thing. They would give me a promissory note that if I did not get my money wired, they would wire me the money from their account. Nathaniel Rutkoski is the "licensed officer" per the Calif Board of Realtors. When I told then that I could not pay the fees, they told me that the "buyer" would wire me the money to reimburse me for the fees. They even have documented that for the Capital Gains tax that the money was already in my escrow account. Each time they told me of a fee, they also said that the amount was in the escrow account. It had grown to over $7000 more that I was originally to receive.

I got scammed EXACTLY like the above description the same guy Mike Wright. We lost over $3000. I do want to report this to the FBI , but I don'd know who to contact

I have saved all of my emails and the last few messages that they have left. I have a list of all of the companies and am reporting to every agency I can. State of California Board of Realtors, my state's Attorney general, police department. I have been in contact with Banamex and will also report to the Mexican government. I have also been referred to the 3 credit bureaus to let them know. Just keep documenting and searching

I am certain now these are the same people that scammed me. They just changed their name and accidentally called me again. It makes me so angry. It happened exactly the same way for about the same amount only I had 2 timeshares so I was out twice the amount.

I am so glad you are filing with the FBI. I placed it on a scam website and called the BBB, they said there was little I could do. If you have sucesss with the the FBI, please post it so I know these people will finally be stopped.

shirleyy13 wrote:

I am certain now these are the same people that scammed me. They just changed their name and accidentally called me again.

No, they did not "accidentally" call you again. Make no mistake about it, they knew exactly what they were doing and whom they were calling. That is one of these scam artists' dastardly schemes.

They know you are unknowledgeable and desperate. They call people that they have burned before pretending to be a new and better outfit that will accomplish for you what the previous scam artists (actually their alter ego) could not do for you.

Sometimes they will call back under a new name pretending to be some sort of crusader or law firm claiming they can get your money back from the first scam, only to realize that they are the same people and will swindle you again.

cherylg242: If they want to do a wire transfer have your bank set up a new destination account with minimum or no funds in it. Don't give them your existing account info... as they may try to make withdrawals from it.

My husband has spent weeks and weeks talking to various people who say they are legitimate and our money will come within 48 hrs. Besides the time spent he has sent thousands and thousands of dollars to the "Mexican Government" to pay for Mexican fees, court decisions etc. etc. We have not seen one cent. The Fraud squad said not to send anymore money after a couple of thousand but he continued. They are good at scamming you and are relentless. Don't send any money no matter what they say.