Unauthorized Soliciations:
Unauthorized Solicitations and Possible Scams are now joined together to reinforce the importance of being alert. We don't want to be paranoid, but we do want to be careful.Cold calling is fine. Sales personnel have to generate leads somehow, and sometimes, the cold call is the appropriate way to reach out.
However, there is a big difference between selling legitimate products and services and trolling for naive, trusting individuals. Taking advantage of a person's naïveté for money is unconscionable.
There is a fine line between wanting, trusting, releasing personal information on blind faith and conducting a meaningful level of due diligence. Sometimes, gut reactions are alright. But other times, paying money without proper due diligence could be lost forever.
Part of the service we provide is a database of sorts. This page provides a listing of alleged companies that, through their representatives, have presented themselves as legitimate parties who want to buy your timeshare. Interesting stories...yes. But very dangerous. Do not fall into temptation.
Please send us your experiences and company names so we can post them here and in the Possible Scam pages.
Thank you for your participation. Without it, this would be a blank page!
| 2024-10-18 |
Another fake claim designed to get your personal information and ask for money to support a Mexican Federal Government investigation into illegal call centers engaged in fraudulent activities is being spread by cold callers. The name of this soliciting entity is Sectur Legal from Legal Tourism Complaints in Mexico. This is a highly suspect solicitation:
Recommendation: delete and forget. | |
| 2024-10-07 |
George sent in a note saying he was skeptical about the person who called him today. Supposedly, the caller was from a Mexican Federal Government Agency called Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público, or SHCP. The claim presented by the caller was George's name showed up on a list of citizens who had their private information mishandled or could have been affected by crimes listed in the email. Of course, the request is for personal information and a description of when an incident occurred and the personal or emotional feedback about the incident. Complete the form and send it in to someone you don't know or could never find anything about. Naturally, accompanying the form is an official looking id from SEP. What is SEP? It stands for Secretaría de Educación Pública - In English the Ministry of Public Education. So the bottom line is an alleged official from the Ministry of Public Education contacted George to ask him to respond by completing a form presented under the auspices of chasing down the bad guys. As it turns out, the SHCP has nothing to do with consumer affairs. That is PROFECO's job. The caller said nothing about PROFECO. In fact the email address came from a domain called legalgob.mx. That does not sound like the Mexican Federal Government to us. You guessed it, the domain was formed in 2023-11-28, less than a year ago. Well, that about does it. Definitely a scam phishing expedtion! Please don't provide any information to a person called Jesus Edwardo Castillo. The caller is probably impersonating Jesus as well. Remember, if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and looks like a duck, it is a duck. Only YOU can help stamp out scammers: Don't send Money....or your information to anyone you don'e know. | |
| 2024-10-01 |
Dr. Tom sent this offer to us for our review and consideration. So glad he did, because it appears attractive (Don't they all?), but when evaluated a bit more closely, it appears to be illegitimate. Following is a copy of the terms sheet: “ “
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The empiretitleescrow.com domain is only 100 days old. Here are the specifics:
The address is located in a single family apartment building or condo complex. Who knows, maybe this group is legitimate. The telephone listed on the offer is registered to D Kellenberger in Denver, CO. Again, he may be very legitimate. But....there are too many red flags. I recommend approaching with high levels of caution. Thanks Dr. Tom for letting us know about this potentially scammy offer. If you do connect with this group, let us know your experience. | |
| 2024-08-31 |
Question from an Aimfair Member: Have you ever heard of Lillian Foster from PlatinumCounsel Enterprises? Answer: Yes we have. A couple of years ago, Lillian and her company, PlatinumCounsel, reached out to us. She claimed we overpaid for our contract and that she and her team, who she said had insider connections, could help recover the overpayments. We chose not to engage with them. Recently, another Aimfair member asked about Lillian. After speaking with her, they shared some concerning information. Consider the following paraphrased discussion:: Hi Bob. I spoke with Lillian Foster, and she mentioned that while she couldn’t reduce my debt since I have none, her company was renting a large block of Grand Luxxe rooms for an incentive trip for Arbonne in October 2025 in Nuevo Vallarta. Arbonne is a legitimate multi-level marketing company. Lillian said she organized this block rental to help Vidanta members rent out their rooms. However, Vidanta customer service told me this was a scam and that they don’t work with third parties for room rentals. The arrangement required paying her company directly and providing my member number. The prices quoted were higher than what a member would typically pay for the rooms, with Arbonne supposedly paying over $6,000 per unit. I won’t be participating—it seems like either a scam or an under-the-table deal. Look for a copy of Lillian’s forwarded email; she sounded very professional and convincing with her British accent, which could persuade some people. She told Lillian she was interested in renting her weeks. Lillian provided further details: We actually just opened up a new opportunity to our existing clients we have already worked with. We only have a few opportunities left. Typically we only work with clients who are already familiar with us but I am open to discussing with you if you are open. Here is the latest event we are accepting units for:
Here are the details of the opportunity:
Required Suites: - 55 Grand Luxxe Suites (39 RESERVED) 9 Remaining - Rate: $6,290 per suite USAGE FEE: $3,950 per unit (YOU PAY) - Return: $3,950 + $2,340 per suite - 25 Grand Mayan Deluxe or GL Deluxe or Grand Bliss Suites (22 RESERVED) 1 Remaining - Rate: $4,900 per suite USAGE FEE: $3,290 per unit (YOU PAY) - Return: $3,290 + $1,610 per suite Key Points: - We can only block the rooms by booking all at once through our company. - Payment for the room usage fees must be made upfront. - Full payment will be made to you by April 2, 2025. - PC will not collect commission from the room rentals.
This is a limited opportunity, and I wanted to offer it to you first before releasing it to my broader contact list. By investing in this venture, you will not only secure an excellent return on your investment but also play a crucial role in hosting a prestigious event for Arbonne International. If you are interested or have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at your earliest convenience. I look forward to potentially working together to make this event a grand success. I contacted Arbonne International to verify the details. While they confirmed a retreat in Costa Rica for October 2024, they had no plans for a 2025 retreat in Puerto Vallarta. We also checked the Florida Secretary of State's records and found no business registration under the name PlatinumCounsel Enterprises or its variations. Key Concerns:
Bottom Line: There are too many red flags. Proceed with extreme caution. | |
| 2024-08-28 |
Was approached by phone. Heard the usual nonsense about being in business xx years, lots of clients, experienced with Vidanta contracts etc. First solid piece of scam evidence was when I asked what he could get me for a week rental of my 4 BR Estates, and told me he would get me 70% of the rack rate listed on the Vidanta website, which he gleefully told me would be $11,907 per night or $77K for a week. I told him to call me back when he finds someone willing to pay that  .Here's the results of my research, which is chocked full of red flags Vacation Marketing Group LLC 219 Hamilton Ave, Trenton NJ 08609 609-710-0450 vacationmarletinggroupllc.net Findings: Business Registration:
Office Sites (via Google Maps)
Website: Really tells you nothing about the company (e.g., # of sales, # of employees etc.), just sales jargon. Their references (3) look like their pictures came from the same photo library, and their statements sound like they were written by the same person. Web Presence: Almost no hits other than their website. Would have expected all kinds of hits if they’ve really been in business for 23 years. Domain: Established in Jun 2023. Big Flag Dunn & Bradstreet (DNB) Findings:
BBB Findings:
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| 2024-08-17 |
For many years, we have all received one or more emails from emails with variations of Vidanta Vacations as the domain:
And the list goes on. Here is the latest: Although this domain has been in existence since 2013, it is listed on GoDaddy for sale. It is not worth it to chase a company with Vidanta in the name and if the person sending the email or making the call is not within your contacts. The offers expressed are not real, and the only thing you lose is your money. Check our recent list of scam examples [https://aimfair.com/review-33370-Scam-Update-|-Recent-Articles-|-Be-Dilig|by tapping here]. Remember: the only way to help stamp out scams is to NOT SEND MONEY! | |
| 2024-07-23 |
A big Thank You is sent to Nino for keeping us updated with all the scam warnings. You all have received calls from phone numbers you don't recognize. We receive easily 4 to 5 calls on both our home and mobil devices every day. It's irritating, and you likely have chosen to reduce your anxiety by not answering the call. Good for you! There is good reason to avoid wasting your time on these cold calls. Several Aimfair Members trusted the callers and ended up losing multiple thousands of dollars. And these are very smart, seasoned timeshare owners. What attracts timeshare owners is the strong desire to sell the contract or rent available weeks for a profit. However, when it sounds too good to be true, it isn't. The end result is frustration, lost money, and knowing there is no way to get back the money you sent the scammer. Recently, the FBI has been interrupting cartel operated companies and call centers. You need to read the articles to improve your resistance to accepting calls from unknown parties:
If you made it this far and looked at some of the articles, you are well prepared to understand when you might be subjected to a scam and what to do about it. All these articles lead to the same conclusion: Scammers are only out to take your money, not give you money! So the only way we can control scammers? DON'T SEND THEM MONEY! Thank you Nino and others.... | |
| 2024-06-20 |
“Hello, may I speak with Mr. Robert Jones?” Is how the phone call I received this morning started out. The caller said she was from Priceline, and she wanted to discuss our interest in participating in an affiliates program with their company. I had submitted information to a company that now owns VRBO to learn more about their program. I thought I sent the inquiry to the right company, but it seems that was not the case. Regardless, the purpose of this post is to show how clever the scammers are becoming. The email I received was a Welcome email, referencing the phone call I accepted this morning Customer Service. The letter goes on to say the letter I received is generally sent with formal letter of intent to purchase and a financial disclosure agreement for me to review. Of course, I am not interested in any of the information the individual sent. But what did interest me was the alignment the fake company with name brands such as Booking.com, Priceline.com, OpenTable, Kayak, Agoda servicing the Asian market and Rentalcars.com. All of these are under the Booking Holdings, Inc. umbrella. The attached image shows the ownership chart for Booking Holdings. It so happens Booking Holdings Inc is a public company with a closing quote of $3,972.08 today but $3,973.91 in after hours trading. Big company with lots of news. That should be very interesting, right? Well, hold on a minute. Let’s look at the email address for the person who sent me the Welcome letter. It is bookingsholdinginc.com. This domain was formed 112 days ago. How about bookingholding.com? No this domain was formed 485 days ago. Neither one of these domains appear to have the strength of a public company. That is because the actual domain for the real company is bookingholdings.com. This domain was formed on December 21, 2017, 2,373 days ago. Here is an image of the companies related to Booking Holdings. You can see the real companies that are associated with the real company. The companies under Booking Holdings, Inc. Umbrella.
I have no idea what the offer from the scammer would be, and I won’t spend one minute more thinking about it. What I am interested in is making sure all our members see how easy it is to verify the legitimacy of a company and to be very careful about trusting someone you don’t know. Remember, the only way to stamp out scams is very easy! DON’T SEND MONEY! | |
| 2024-06-11 |
Here is a scam that has been around the block since 2021 and before. The alleged company is called 360 Global Trades. The domain (360globaltrades.com) is 194 days old, it was created on 2023-11-30, it expires on 2024-12-01 and it was last updated on 2023-11-30. Here is our Aimfair Member's comments: We just so happened to answer our phone (we get 2-3 marketing calls a day about our Vidanta membership) and a company by the name of 360 Global Trades based out of Atlanta Georgia called and said we have shares most likely worth over $40,000 USD. He gave us a phone number 1-855-327-9595 to Marian Vallarta, and we asked for the finance department. We spoke with a woman named Sara, and she asked for the main membership person's client number. She gave us a booking number to give to the broker but said that if we did not deal with the share certificates by June 13th, they become property of Vidanda. Has anyone ever heard of this? Note that Sara offered us 4 weeks at the Grand Luxxe in exchange for these shares....what's up with that!??! This is not a new scam. Lawyer’s Assistant at wrote about the same type of scam. Tap the link to read about the scam. Generally, here’s how it works:
Sound like a scam? Indeed it does! Help Stamp Out Scammers….Don’t Send Money! | |
| 2024-06-05 |
Thank you Nino for bringing to our attention the reason to not send money to anyone you don't know. The story Nino shares with everyone is about a Veteran who purchased a timeshare somewhere near Lake Tahoe in California or Nevada. The location is not important. The terms of the purchase are: $8,900 cash in 1996. After not using the facilities for many years, he got a call in 2022 from one of our friendly, well spoken, very convincing sales persons, offering to buy his contract for the unbelievable amount of $22,470. Music to his and his wife's ears! Well, not so fast. First comes the request for fees that will be paid out of the proceeds when deposited into the escrow account in New York: $2,500 More fees pop up over the next several months. Then, the alleged director of International Accounts for Banco de Mexico calls with a request for $16,155 erase of records, insurance and notary fees. Over the ensuing months, the victim's wife contracts cancer, while at the same time more fees and expenses are piling up. Finally, after nearly a million dollars has been transferred to the scammers, the victim contacts his lawyer. His lawyer learns his client has fallen into the web of the Jalisco Cartel through one of its many call centers. These call centers employ very slick sales people who say they have a buyer for the property the victim owns, and convinces the victim to pay money to complete the sale. The unfortunate side of stories like these is the victim is a trusting person, and the sales person is convincing. The agent, who is supposed to protect the victim, is part of the deal. The victim does no due diligence. And the agent does no due diligence. He is not operating with the victim's best interests in mind. There are so many of these stories posted on the Internet. They are posted here on Aimfair too. It will take a massive drive to bring to everyone's attention the dark side of accepting a cold caller's offer that is too good to be true. Tap the following link to read the article published by News Nation Now: $8,900 timeshare sells for $900,000 - Not! Remember, only YOU can help stamp out scams - DON'T SEND MONEY! | |