How the Scam Works

You get a phone call at home from a timeshare resale company who tell you that they have a buyer for your timeshare. NO THEY DON'T THIS IS THE START OF THE SCAM, THERE ARE NO BUYERS, IF YOU ARE READING THIS, THEN YOU MAY ALREADY KNOW THAT.

They sound so convincing when they tell you that they have the buyer waiting and they ask you for your credit card details so you can pay a fee and sometime in the next 12 weeks or so, you get all your money for your timeshare, paid into your account, and what do you do, why you give them your credit card details, because you believe them, they are so convincing.

Having given them your details, they then debit your card within a few minutes of you putting the phone down for any amount but usually between £600 and £1,000. When you call them several weeks later to ask how the sale is progressing, you are dismayed to be told that the buyer could not get credit and withdrew his offer. IS THIS BEGINNING TO SOUND FAMILIAR?

Some months or even weeks later, they phone you again and offer you a membership to a holiday club as an exchange and you will have to pay another fee, usually around £800 or the difference between what they tell you your timeshare is worth, and the value of the Holiday Club and the difference is what you have to pay. Unfortunately that is not what you wanted so you refuse, but the company tell you that they will continue to market your timeshare.  NO THEY WON'T.

At that point, or some weeks later, you decide something is wrong and you ask for your money back. Problem is they made you an OFFER and the fee is non refundable as per clause XXX, or whatever. They tell you to read it and they have won the fee, phone goes down and you finally realised you have been scammed out of several hundred pounds and you wonder how it happened, more importantly, how do you get your money back?

The final indignity some time later, days or weeks, the phone rings again and another timeshare company is telling you, we have a buyer for your timeshare ETC and sometimes it is even another salesperson from the same company, and the scam starts all over again, and again, and again.  IN MOST CASES, THAT IS HOW IT HAPPENED, ALTHOUGH THERE ARE VARIATIONS.  I know one chap who was scammed that way 13 times.

Some people call in answer to an ad in an in flight magazine or newspaper or even an advert on Sky TV and give their details over the phone, they then get a call sometime later that a buyer has been found, but you have to go to Spain to meet the buyer face to face.  THE FINAL PART OF THE SCAM IS UNFOLDING.  The buyer, or Corporate Buyer turns out to be another company who is part of the group, and who offer you an exchange for membership of their own Holiday Club.

Yet others tell you that they will put you on their website for free and then some weeks later they call you to tell you that they have a buyer and ask for your Credit Card for the non refundable fee.  There are many variations, the result is the same.

Some invite you to their offices, there are some in the UK but most are in Spain.  You go there believing that you are going to get paid for your timeshare but in reality they offer you an alternative product again which you will probably refuse.  Even so, many people have accepted the offer in the belief that it was genuine.  It was not, it was all based on a Fraudulent Misrepresentation to get you to part with your money.

Read some more true experiences on the Testimonials page.  You will be shocked.

Have you ever tried to find your timeshare on a website?  We have, many times, and even when we have the correct user name and password and try to find the actual apartment belonging to the owner, we find it almost impossible to get to the actual advertised apartment. So people looking randomly who want to buy a timeshare, don't stand a chance and your apartment will probably never be seen.

We found this to be the case with the Worldwide Timeshare Hypermarket in the South of England, and others like the HAB (who may now be Harlequin Solutions) and We Sell Your Timeshare.com who is linked to Timelinx and the Designer Way Vacation Club, and the most prolific scamsters of all, ETOO, but see the scam companies page for more details.

We have had many owners over the years come to us and tell us that they have paid the fees to the Hypermarket every year to advertise, but they never once had an enquiry from a potential buyer.

Yet the Hypermarket still took their advertising fee every year and they rubbish the other companies who take fees and who are not part of VOICE, or the OTE, telling timeshare owners that they should not pay a fee to a company in advance, if they do, they tell you,  it is a scam. 

On the basis of that argument, so are they.  The fee value may be less, but the principle is the same.  They can't have it both ways.

By the way many of these so called legitimate timeshare resale websites approved by the OTE or VOICE, are actually AUCTION Websites, and a lot of the timeshare legislation does not protect you, there is no cooling off period.