GETTING THE FBI INVOLVED IF YOU THINK YOU HAVE BEEN SCAMMED

I THOUGHT LISAM'S POST NEEDED A THREAD OF IT'S OWN - CONSUMER ACTIVISM

Believe it or not, someone from one of the agencies I contacted did pass this on the FBI. The person from the FBI contacted me for more details and he has also been in contact with Americap. The reason I suggest the rest of the people contact the same agencies is because in total we have lost over $10000 - not in upfront fees but in actual purchases of rental weeks which we've never received. Also, from what I heard from the person from the FBI, Americap advertises themselves as a corporation but is no longer doing what is necessary to be a corporation. The FBI person told me that is against the rules and an arrestable offense - independent of the trouble we've had. Way to go lisam! The FBI SHOULD be involved in such socalled corporate thievery. Keep up the good work and please keep us informed on this situation. Lisam''s FBI contact information is below:

myfloridalegal.com/Contact.nsf/ContactOpenForm&Section=Economic_Crimes - this will get the FBI involved.

Hope others that's been scammed by these people (or the like) contact the FBI. Consumer activism is the key to getting these thieves put behind bars.

According to lisam below are other agencies to file complaints:

Here are items you should do: 1) file a billing dispute 2) the BBB of Florida has already been contacted so Americap's rating has been downgraded to an F due to customer complaints 3) File a report with the Florida AG - here is the website:

myfloridalegal.com/Contact.nsf/ContactOpenForm&Section=Economic_Crimes - this will get the FBI involved. 4) file a report with the Internet Crime Complaint Center - here is the website: http://www.ic3.gov/

IBDMarketing of Pompano Beach , Fl . has scammed me . They withdrew $1949.00 from my credit card on the day that they called me . I had not signed a contract . Six weeks later . after they refused to refund my money ,they told me they had 25 people who had viewed my timeshare . However, that they could not let them buy the timeshare because I had not signed the contract:; but they would let them contact me as soon as I signed . So finally I signed. All of this , of course , was false . I've heard nothing from them since .{ Is it illegal to collect an upfront fee in Florida?} Also, I was grossly overcharged . They charged me $1000.00 to advertise one timeshare , $500.00 for the second one and then $449.00 to list 2 weeks for rent . Help!!

It is only illegal for a licensed Real Estate Broker or Sales staff to ask for an upfront fee in Florida.

An advertising or marketing company is not a licensed real estate company. And that law or regulation does not cover every state, but it does cover Florida.

gladys, the help you are seeking is in the first two posts of this thread ... please follow through.

jayjay wrote:

gladys, the help you are seeking is in the first two posts of this thread ... please follow through.

Thank you so much for replying to my post. I will follow through . Gladys

I've been in this situation too. Prestige Timeshare called me (MARY LEE, was the representative) and charged to my credit card $699.00 upfront fee right away for marketing my property. They sent me a "contract" that I signed. Then after one month a have not heard a word about them. Their website does not longer exists and they have changed their name to American Marketing Timeshare. I've talked to several people there and all of them claim they are not "Prestige" and they don't know anything about that company. But what's curious and suspicious is that the people who called me when they were "Prestige" now they are working for American Marketing. I also called MARY LEE, she answered the phone as AMERICAN MARKETING. I talked to her and let her know my concerns about being scammed. But, she said she cannot help me because she has prohibited to take care of customer service calls. I told her I will contact my lawyer and go down to their office, she said "please do". I talked with one of their managers named "Jesse" and he told me they (American Marketing) took over "Prestige". Now he has never called me back and they try to avoid my calls. Every time I call everybody is in a closing. So there's nobody available to answer my call or they just hang up the phone on me. About two weeks ago I got lucky and talked to another manager named "Christopher" and he told me he will get someone from "Prestige" to call me back and cut off the call. How can he does that if they claim they don't know about this company? Anyway, the next day a guy named "David Harris or Harris Davis" called me saying he was from "Prestige" and he was working on my property and got a couple interested on it. That he'll call me later for details. I haven't heard a word again. I have had several calls from customer serv rep offering me to post my property thru American Marketing for a fee of $799.00 and when I tell them that I pay already, they don't know what to say and they will call me back. Haven't heard a word yet.

I guess I learned the hard way. I don't know what can I do???

STAY AWAY!!! from AMERICAN MARKETING TIMESHARE OR PRESTIGE or any other company. They scam people and then after a few months they change the company name so you cannot keep track of them.

BE AWARE!!!

AMERICAN MARKETING IS A SCAM !!!

to jeannette15:

My personal recommendation and advice, which you can ignore or adopt as you see fit, is to move past trying to deal with the company itself, which is a waste of your time and energy. They also don't care about any threats about "lawyers", since they already know that a lawyer would cost you more money than you have paid already. Instead, I specifically suggest:

1. Never mind the telephone calls. Write up and summarize your situation with all facts, dates (in order), all known names, addresses and phone numbers involved. Makes several complete sets of photocopies when you've finished. Keep all originals yourself.

2. Send one set of all of the above materials directly to your credit card issuer, disputing the charge on your card. There are time limits to dispute credit charges and you may already be too late, but it can't hurt to try.

3. You don't identify the location (i.e., state) of these entities, but it's usually Florida. Send another complete set of the materials you've assembled to the Attorney General's Office in the state involved. If it's Florida (as it usually is, but not always) you can find forum messages right here on RedWeek which provide links. Those links will lead you to the appropriate offices and addresses to which to send another set of materials.

4. The Better Business Bureau is completely useless, so don't waste time or enegy with them. You can file a complaint and the BBB will add your complaint to their statistics, but the BBB is otherwise powerless to do ANYTHING, having no legal authority whatsoever.

5. Although the FBI has been recently mentioned here, I can tell you from personal career experience that federal involvement in such matters is really VERY rare. There must be outright fraud, interstate activity, and/or corporate level legal misconduct --- and a sufficient dollar level threshhold (over $10k, minimum) --- before federal authorities will even consider touching these situations. The feds (appropriately and correctly) regard these matters as being a state jurisdiction matter until and unless large scale fraud and interstate activity and serious money (over $10k) is clearly involved.

You've indicated that you don't know what to do. While it certainly requires some effort to be exerted on your part, the above clearly describes what you NEED to do, in my opinion, in order to elicit any possibility of an investigative response or resolution. You've got some fact assembling and writing and photocopying and mailing to do. The sooner the better. Good luck.

P.S. You can also contact a legal "recovery" outfit like haufman-associates (see links right here in RedWeek forums). They may represent you, but they will also keep half of the funds recovered (if any). In any route chosen, you'll need your facts, names, dates and documents assembled to get your case considered.

to ken1193,

You mention this outfit called "haufman & haufman" I was contacted by them for a long time and did some research of my own. They say they are out of delaware but I had a friend in delaware go check them out and they are not listed anyware in the state but not even at the office building?? It looks to be some kind of virtual operation?? I also checked the state board for attorney's, and there is nothing under the name of the two gals that call me. Karla Lopez and Kimberly Clarke?

I recently hired them but I have my concerns, i am going to see what they do for me.

does anyone see in fact how they do what they do?? I hope it is legal.

If they are not in delaware, who knows the location they work from? why are they hiding it?

Ill keep you posted.

M.D.

bd51: In regard to Haufman, Haufman & Associates, I mentioned them dead last in my post as a "P.S." (and with some reluctance, as I don't personally advocate use of such "recovery" services, which generally keep 50% of any money recovered). Moreover, recovery services don't bring the grip of "the long arm of the law" to bear upon the perpetrators. That said, however, recovery services like Haufman reportedly work strictly on contingency, so you pay them NOTHING until and unless they actually recover funds for you.

I don't know the Haufman outfit, personally, and I didn't mention them in terms of a recommendation, but folks on these forums in months past (hopefully not shills) HAVE reported success after utilizing their services.

As far as the contacts you named, my bet is that they are either paralegals or office assistants (not attorneys) working the phones, in which case it's no surprise that you didn't find their names in state bar records if they are not attorneys in the first place. I do find it odd, however, that they have an address (Silverside #39, 501 Silverside Rd, Wilmington, DE) yet, according to your post, may not actually be physically located there. Could it be that Haufman is just part of a much larger firm / outfit whose name IS on the directory at that address? I certainly don't claim to know. I do know that licensed Private Investigators sometimes have a "mail drop" address at which they are not ever actually physically located, thereby ensuring that any and all "face to face" encounters occur only by planned and scheduled mutual arrangement --- never by unannounced "drop-in" visits. This may or may not be the case with the Haufman operation. They may also operate under several different names. With the corporate laws and anonymity readily available in Delaware, who knows???

In any case, I hope you succeed in getting some of your lost money back. It will be interesting to learn of your particular results with Haufman & Associates.

The web address to Haufman & Haufman Associates is below:

www.haufman-assoc.com

I would be curious for others that have used their services to post their results here.