International Events Management

We have been contacted by a company called International Events Management wanting to purchase our timeshare for an absurd amount of money (which is my first clue they are more than likely some sort of scam). They say they have an investor who wants to purchase a certain percentage of the resort we are with so they can have a vote on the board and use it for travel destination for clients. I have tried to Google the company but come up empty. The email I received has a street address in San Francisco. Has anyone else been contacted by this company wanting to purchase a timeshare.

It's a SCAM !!!! Don't fall for one of the oldest scams in here. They make you a ridiculous offer to lure you in and then they claim you need to pay an " upfront fee " for some reason. If you are dumb enough to give them money they will string you along and claim there is another " fee " that needs to be paid. They will keep coming up with " fees " until you stop sending them money. Don't be their next victim.

The person who has been in contact with me keeps telling me there are no upfront fees and we only pay commission within 14 days after we get our money. I asked for a copy of the contract and there are a couple of suspicious items such as if the buyer backs out then we only get what is left over from the money that was held in their escrow minus all the fees and court costs that International Events Management would incur which could potentially leave us with nothing. I guess we would be rid of our timeshare but we do use it so what would be the point of losing it. We always adhere by the saying "If it sounds too good to be true, then it is too good to be true". I would never pay an upfront fee to sell anything. I was just wondering if anyone else had been contacted by them since I can't seem to find any information about them on the internet. I did a Google Map search on the address and looks like a bus stop area and couldn't zoom in far enough to see what the names on the businesses were.

Trust me they will come up with some kind of " fee " that has to be paid. That's how the scam works. Once they gain your " confidence " then they come up with the upfront fee. They draw you in with the offer that's " too good to be true " and then they claim that the " fee " has to be paid upfront or they mail you a bogus check and ask you to send someone else money from that check. I spent over twenty five years in law enforcement and I can guarantee you that this is a SCAM !!

debp9 wrote:

I was just wondering if anyone else had been contacted by them since I can't seem to find any information about them on the internet. I did a Google Map search on the address and looks like a bus stop area and couldn't zoom in far enough to see what the names on the businesses were.

The likely reason that you can't find anything on them is because they have probably resurfaced under a new name. They probably operated before under a different name. That's what these timeshare resale scam people do.

Remember, it does not matter what the company's name is or if you have heard of them before. If they call you unexpectedly with an offer that's too good to be true, then it's a scam.

That makes sense. We were not planning on taking them up on their offer. We have messages every now and then on our answering machine from these types of companies. I accidentally picked up the phone without checking the caller id so this is the first time I actually talked to anyone.

We were contacted by a John Scardino of International Events Management (IEM), offering us a premium on a 2 bedroom timeshare. The price seemed too good to be true. We found a generic (non interactive) internet site. We actually sent them a message as a someone interested in planning a premium event; they never contacted us back. We did a reverse phone search on John Scardino; it came back with another person's name. They are not listed in the Better Business Bureau. We could not find information on the presumed CEO of the company , Matthew Bastian. We did a reverse phone search on the corporate number 415-366-9675; it was cell phone belonging to an older woman. A google map showed a small structure at the address 1187 Mission Street in San Francisco that looked more like a garage than a legitimate office. Yet we were tempted. We asked them to change the contract to make explicit that there were no upfront fees, and that no commission would be paid unless the transfer of funds cleared. They complied and changed the contract. We still feel that it is not legitimate, but I am at a loss; given the contractual changes- how does this scam work, and how are we at risk?

debp9 wrote:

We have been contacted by a company called International Events Management wanting to purchase our timeshare for an absurd amount of money (which is my first clue they are more than likely some sort of scam). They say they have an investor who wants to purchase a certain percentage of the resort we are with so they can have a vote on the board and use it for travel destination for clients. I have tried to Google the company but come up empty. The email I received has a street address in San Francisco. Has anyone else been contacted by this company wanting to purchase a timeshare.

I have not had time to look over the contract closely that was sent to me and email the person with changes or questions I had about the contract. I was considering requesting a minimum of 90 days after funds have cleared before I would pay any fees or commission and remove the part if the buyer defaults then IEM gets their fees before the seller is paid any funds. Also request no upfront fees. I have been putting it on the back burner because I still think it is a scam. Did you send them a copy of your original purchase agreement or a copy of your maintenance fee statement? This is one of the things they asked me for.

They did ask for a copy of the purchase agreement (which we sent them) but they did not ask for a copy of the maintenance fees. I should mention that IEM is also not listed in the state of California to perform real estate transactions, which you apparently have to be as their office is in San Francisco (even though the timeshare is in Mexico). I asked for this, and they said that they had an "international license". On request, they did send me a document that was in Spanish; I have no way to assess whether it is legitimate or not. It would be an unbelievable deal to unload the timeshare (and actually get more than we paid for it!), but it just seems too good to be true- who ever heard of a significant transaction performed at a distance that didn't even need to be notarized? We are still sorely tempted against our better judgement, though, because I am not sure how we might be defrauded, as we certainly have no intention of paying any upfront fees (and they explicitly changed the contract to reflect this). Moreover they stated that the money would be wired, so I guess we would know sooner rather than later if the transaction was legitimate.

It's a SCAM !!! Never pay anyone money upfront. All they want is that upfront money and then they disappear with your money.

daniell278 wrote:

We are still sorely tempted against our better judgement, though, because I am not sure how we might be defrauded, as we certainly have no intention of paying any upfront fees (and they explicitly changed the contract to reflect this). Moreover they stated that the money would be wired, so I guess we would know sooner rather than later if the transaction was legitimate.

The fact that they are asking you to wire money is a huge red flag. Once you wire the money, it will be practically impossible to trace where the money went.

The way that they defraud you is that they claim that the deal is all set, your cashier's check is all ready, but the government (or some other agency) is requiring a certain tax or fee to complete the supposed deal.