With the current state of the economy, many timeshare owners are desperate to unload their acquisitions, making themselves prime target for scammers who require an upfront fee for their “service”. State Attorney General Rob McKenna says timeshare scam is major problem that’s affecting consumers across the country, “The attorney general of Florida has had 8,500 complaints just this year. The attorney general of Illinois tells us people are losing as much as $5,000. We get lots of complaints about timeshares and timeshare selling. It’s a big issue.”
The rising rate of timeshare scam has led to a stronger crackdown by state and federal authorities. For example, a new Florida law, which took effect in July, makes it illegal for timeshare resellers to misrepresent that they have a buyer and requires them to honor cancellation requests and provide refunds. Another case of timeshare scam prosecution took place in the Southern District of Illinois where 22 people were indicted for timeshare resale fraud.
These scammers often approach owners out of the blue. Thus, it’s necessary that timeshare owners do a background check on a person or company before paying them any fee. “What you want to do is go with a licensed company and check them out with the Better Business Bureau…” McKenna said. For example, we at timesharetravel was accredited with an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau. Other tips to differentiate between creditable timeshare companies and questionable ones include noting how long the company has been in business, whether the business has been operating under the same name, the number of licensed agents the company has, and references from industry leaders.