I’m reprinting this with TUG’s approval, which is where it first appeared. This should be required reading for all timeshare owners. These scammers are good. They know what buttons to push and when to push them. Remember that many of these resale scam artists got their start selling timeshare, so they learned enough about the industry to sound extremely convincing.
We could really use your help on this one. I've read through a lot of other red flags/scam messages on the forums but I haven't seen any advice for if you've signed a sales agreement and then realize it's a scam.
A little background on our situation. We were cold called (which should have been red flag #1) and then offered far more for our timeshare that what we paid (should have been red flag #2) from a buyer (should have been red flag #3) interested in obtaining controlling ownership of Vidanta resort in Nuevo Vallarta. We were told that no money would be needed up front and that their commission fees would come out of the sale from the escrow account. So far this seemed reasonable. They even sent us the Citibanamex bank account statement - which we called and confirmed that the account is valid and that the money was in it. We did not provide the amount to CItibanamex when we called, and they told us what it was which matched the statement. They also provided us their realtor sales information which was confirmed with the Pennsylvania board and everything, again everything seemed legitimate. Then the kicker comes in, we would need to pay a tax and establish a Mexican ID to conduct the sale, which would be a reimbursement after the sale but we would need to pay that now or go down to Mexico and deal with this (that should have been red flag #4). At this point I said that we were told no money would be needed up front and now we have to pay these RFC Tax Payer ID "taxes" ($5430 - funny how others have been about the same amout). Now is when we felt this was a scam, and a good scam at that. We also noticed the website addressed changed through this process as well as e-mail addresses - as we've dragged out the whole process for almost 3 months now. We were provided with 2 satisfied clients, but can't tell if they're in on it, we're going to assume that they are at this point.
The problem is, as I've stated at the beginning, that we signed the sales agreement, and in it there is a clause which states that if we decide to cancel the sale (breach of agreement), we would be responsible to paying their commission - 4% ($2812.40). We've already spoken with an attorney and are prepared to go to court if necessary, but has anyone else been in this situation? If so, what did you do? Did you have to end up going to court? Did you just ignore them and they went away? Did you just stop taking their calls/block their calls? Did you tell them to go away and that you weren't going to be sending them any money? Did you end up having to go through with a court ordeal? We told them that our bank would not wire money to Mexico. We have a follow up call with the same attorney this coming Wednesday, but would love to hear if anyone else has been in our stupid situation that we put ourselves in.
While we did sign the sales agreement, we never signed the escrow documents, so this is the only point that we got to.
They have sent a cancellation letter saying that we need to pay the 4% but they can't do this before the closing date, so we're not too worried about that as they have already sent quite a few with wrong information.
Before we ever got started (around June 2019), we tried doing research, but nothing came up - only now am I finding others saying this is a scam starting around September 2019.
If this does go to court, we will prove that they knowingly committed fraud and then we will be counter-suing them for wasting my time. We will also be reporting them to the BBB, the state attorney general (Pennsylvania), as well as the Federal Trade Commission (which is where we did find some info starting around September 2019).
We don't want to get rid of our timeshare at this point, as we do use it, we just want these people to go away and are willing to fight it.
Players involved in this (if it is even their real names/companies):
James Adams
Real Estate Broker
Ace Properties LLC
1701 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103
(267) 678-0104 x375
William Canzino
Escrow Officer
1913 Capital Group LLC
403 Wythe Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11249
(917) 745-3729
We appreciate your advice and expertise in advance. We will follow up as information comes along for anyone else that's in our situation and shut these scam artists down once and for all.
Thank you for listening to us.
Incredible, isn’t it? What’s troubling is that after this owner received a bunch of responses all saying it was a scam, there was still enough doubt in their mind to continue to ask questions and be concerned about the “4% fee.”
Keep in mind that if you receive a cold all or other form of contact regarding your timeshare, the chances are 99.9% that it’s a scam. With rare exception, there’s no buyer for your timeshare as evidenced by the tens of thousands of listings for $100 on the internet.
