Please report upfront fee scammers to Attorney General ..... there's power in numbers

CBS News .... timeshare resale scams on the rise (copy and paste URL):

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-20094089-10391695.html

FTC and FBI now raiding upfront fee resale scam companies ....

copy and paste url below:

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2011-09-03/business/fl-timeshare-mega-media-20110903_1_timeshare-resale-timeshare-mega-media-ftc

Upfront fee resale scam complaints 800 in 2007 - 11,509 in 2010 Fl AG ....

The amount of timeshare resale complaints in Florida jumped from 800 in 2007 to 11,509 in 2010, according to the Florida Attorney General's Office.

Keep those complaints going to AG's in the state the scammers are located .... it's working.

Today, the Florida number does not work. How about that?

I heard about a company that is based in Las Vegas and how they are under investigation for timeshare scamming. I dont know what their name is but I cannot believe the type of people out there who scam those who need help.

I sent off my paperwork to the Attorney General this week. I made copies of all documents that included the times and dates and who I spoke to for the last 3 years. That company calls themselves Global Resort Management. They are just like all the other companies I have been reading about. GLOBAL RESORT MANAGEMENT IS A FRAUD. so keep passing the word out. It will start to make a difference.

EAST ST. LOUIS • Ralph Johnson, 34, of Delray Beach, Fla., was sentenced Friday in federal court here to 46 months in prison for his role in a telemarketing scam that cost more than 22,000 people — including at least 54 from Southern Illinois — about $30 million, prosecutors said. Johnson is one of a handful of participants in the scene, which ran from 2007-2010 and involved cold-calling timeshare owners and pretending to have willing buyers.

They asked for several thousand dollars in closing costs from victims in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Canada. Johnson participated in 2009, when he was a telemarketer for Universal Marketing Solutions and Creative Vacation Solutions. He scammed more than $282,000 from 141 victims, prosecutors said. Johnson pleaded guilty Sept. 8 to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.

Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/man-gets-gets-months-in-scam-that-fleeced-thousands-including/article_0f03e0ee-2840-11e1-99cd-0019bb30f31a.html#ixzz1h67unwUc

13 employees at Lauderdale timeshare resale firm admit fraud

A parade of former employees of a now-defunct Fort Lauderdale timeshare resale company has pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud clients who wanted to sell their unwanted vacation rentals.

Thirteen telemarketers from Timeshare Mega Media and Marketing Group have gone before federal judges in the last two months, each admitting to regularly lying to customers as they squeezed thousands of dollars out of them. Clients would put down as much as $10,000, believing the company had lined up buyers for their timeshares and the money was an administrative fee that would be refunded later, according to court records.

Federal authorities say the buyers never existed, describing Timeshare Mega Media as a "naked fraud." The company — run by two convicted felons — took in about $5 million in less than a year, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

TFBI agents raided the company's East Oakland Park Boulevard office in July 2010, and the FTC filed a lawsuit against Timeshare Mega Media a few months later.

Prosecutors have just gone after low-level employees of Timeshare Mega Media so far. Fifteen have been arrested in the last six months, and 13 have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, The fraud charge can carry up to five years in prison. All are awaiting sentencing.

The 14th employee has indicated he will cut a plea deal; the last employee died two months ago.

As of last month, the FBI investigation into Timeshare Mega Media was ongoing, with the agency at least looking at one of the men who allegedly masterminded the company — Pasquale "Posh" Pappalardo, according to court filings. Pappalardo, 59, served more than six years in federal prison in the mid-1990s on drug, firearms and counterfeit money charges.

FTC officials have alleged Pappalardo founded the company with Joseph "Joey" Crapella. Crapella, 45, spent nearly eight years in a Florida prison after being convicted in 2000 of racketeering and grand theft in a scheme involving the sale and stocking of vending machines, court records show.

Upfront fee timeshare resale owner gets 15+ years in prison:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/busine...alP_story.html

Do you have information on the Oregon Attorney General's office? I was scammed by Universal Timeshares, claiming to be from Oregon, but they charged my credit card $1,800 from the Dominican Republic. No sale, no returned phone calls, a total rip-off...

Google them

Any word on Sell Exclusive, based in Florida. I think we may have just lost money with a scam that required up front money to sell our Club Ocean Villas II timeshare in Maryland.

connieb198 wrote:

Any word on Sell Exclusive, based in Florida. I think we may have just lost money with a scam that required up front money to sell our Club Ocean Villas II timeshare in Maryland.

How long ago did you send them money? If it's within a certain time frame, new Florida law requires that they honor a refund request - assuming that the contract they made you sign was one for advertising your unit.

Yesterday. What is the Florida law?

If you paid them up front money it's probably a scam.

RCI LAWSUIT CLASS ACTION

You May be Entitled to a Payment from a Class Action Settlement About the RCI Points® Exchange Program

A Settlement has been reached in a class action lawsuit that claims that RCI, LLC violated certain consumer protection and other laws by renting timeshare inventory deposited by members of the RCI Points Exchange Program. RCI denies it did anything wrong. Am I included? You are included if you (1) Are a resident of the U.S. or its territories, and (2) Were a member of the RCI Points Exchange Program on or before April 25, 2012. If this postcard is addressed to you, you are included in the Settlement unless you exclude yourself. What can I get? If the Settlement is approved, Settlement Class Members who submit Claim Forms may receive a payment. Current members may get $12 and former members may get $10. Claim Forms are due by August 24, 2012. What are my other rights? If you do not want to be legally bound by the Settlement, you must exclude yourself in writing. The exclusion deadline is October 2, 2012. If you stay in the Settlement you will not be able to sue RCI for any claim relating to the issues in this lawsuit. If you stay in the Settlement, you may object to all or any part of it by October 2, 2012. The Court will hold a hearing on November 1, 2012 at 10:00 a.m. to consider whether to approve the Settlement and a request for attorneys' fees, costs, and expenses in the amount of $835,000.00. The Court has appointed attorneys to represent the Class. You may hire your own attorney at your own expense. This Notice is Only a Summary. For Detailed Information and a Claim Form: Visit: www.pointsprogramsettlement.com, Call: 1-866-647-5645 or Write: Settlement Administrator, P.O. Box 2662, Faribault, MN 55021-9662

I tried to call the Attorney Generals office today to complain about timeshares By Owner and guess what they seemed to of cared less so the way I figure it Florida will just become the new area all the scammer's go to try and rip off people. Why not? No one care's in the Capital. Make's me wonder how much money is going in their own pocket's to keep all these scammer's around.

I hate to tell you but you have probably have been taken just like we were and it seem's Florida doesn't care as they are most likely in their back pocket's taking hand out's

Florida when are you going to pass law's for people so we do not get ripped off. There are thousand's of us and you do not seem to care. I will never enter your state again until you get something done about these con artist's. Why don't you follow Illinois law's and put some of them in prison. Maybe that will make them think before they go into business with the Devil!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

annaw90 wrote:

Florida when are you going to pass law's for people so we do not get ripped off. There are thousand's of us and you do not seem to care. I will never enter your state again until you get something done about these con artist's. Why don't you follow Illinois law's and put some of them in prison. Maybe that will make them think before they go into business with the Devil!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Florida is doing something about this. See myfloridalegal.com.

The problem though is that there are just too many scam artists for the authorities to catch up to.

By the way, Florida authorities are catching some scam artists as well as imprisoning them. But, because scamming timeshare owners is such an easy, lucrative market, when one gets caught and shut down, another one appears in its place.

The best antidote right now is just to inform and educate timeshare owners to never, ever pay anyone a large, upfront fee to sell, rent out, market, or "cancel" your timeshare. If anyone phones with an offer that seems too good to be true, then realize that it probably is too good to be true and stop fantasizing about a huge paycheck for you timeshare.