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!
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2021-12-08 |
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Der.com and Daniel Caggiano - Possible Scam
On November 23, 2021, our foremost Aimfair scam investigator sent us a wonderful description and account of a series of conversations he had with a group in California and Mexico. The story is as follows:
From: legalteam at lawofficeofdanielcaggiano.com
Sent: Monday, November 22, 2021 11:10 AM
To: aimfairmember
Subject: Sales Contract
Importance: High
Good Afternoon Aimfair member,
We have been retained by DER.COM to facilitate a resale of a membership for both Buyer and Seller. Attached you will find a contract pertaining to the negotiations held between Buyer and Seller. As a United States bar certified Law Firm we can assist with any International resale transfers.
Our paralegals are more than happy to assist with any questions you may have regarding the resale process. Please feel free to contact our Law Firm with any questions or provide us with your best contact number so that we may continue this transaction.
Respectfully,
So, our investigator took up the conversation. Here is what he sent me:
Hi Bob,
Hope that all is well with you and Mary Ann.
I wanted to tell you about this scam that I just uncovered and if I do say so myself, I am quite proud of myself on this one J This is also in your neck of the woods in California.
I received a call and offer from a Trevor Wilkerson out of Mexico City who claimed to work for DER.COM – a German internet travel company. As you can see from the attached reply from DER.COM – Wilkerson is not authorized to act on behalf of DER.COM.
I played along knowing that this was a scam, but what intrigued me is that Wilkerson kept saying he was legitimate because he hires U.S. based lawyers who are active and in good standing with their respective State Bar associations.
Long story short, I received a draft contract from the office of Daniel Caggiano out of San Francisco.
I quickly checked the State Bar of California’s website to check this lawyer out. He is an active lawyer, but his address is a P.O. Box in Buena Park, California near Orange County. However, his current practice address is in San Francisco according to his website. Weblinks below.
https://apps.calbar.ca.gov/attorney/Licensee/Detail/192369
https://lawofficeofdanielcaggiano.com/
I spoke to a paralegal in Caggiano’s office, an Albert Hamilton, who told me that Mr. Caggiano was previously a criminal lawyer and received death threats. So for security reasons, he doesn’t list his address at 100 Montgomery Street in San Francisco on the California Bar website. I told the paralegal that this made no sense to me since Caggiano has a website that can be easily found by anyone trying to track him down. The paralegal didn’t have an answer to my question.
I then called the California State Bar who informed me that Mr Caggiano is an active lawyer with no past compliance issues. I asked why Caggiano’s address on the California Bar website is different than his business website. The Bar representative informed me that such is allowed in California – even though his address on the Bar website is a PO Box and no phone number. This is surprising to me as here in Ontario, an active lawyer must give a physical address and phone number on the Law Society of Ontario website.
Although it took me the better part of yesterday afternoon, I was able to obtain the phone number for the security office at 100 Montgomery Street, San Francisco. A very nice gentleman told me that he has worked in the building for ten years, and is not aware of any tenant or lawyer named Daniel Caggiano.
Below is the exchange with Caggiano – as you can see and as typical, they now do not want to deal with me.
I have also lodged a complaint with the State Bar of California (attached).
Talk to you soon.
Regards,
Aimfair Member
So the conversation continues. Here is what I sent to Daniel, the lawyer and Albert, the paralegal:
From: Aimfair Member
Sent: Monday, November 22, 2021 6:35 PM
To: legalteam at lawofficeofdanielcaggiano.com; daniel at lawofficeofdanielcaggiano.com
Subject: RE: Sales Contract
Hi Daniel, Albert
What is the suite number of your office at 100 Montgomery Street in San Francisco?
I called the Vanbarton security office (building’s owner) who informed me that the law firm of Daniel Caggiano is not a tenant at 100 Montgomery Street.
Can you please explain this.
Regards,
Aimfair Member Then, the Aimfair Member asked for clarification and legitimacy. Not much came from that request:
From: Aimfair Member
Sent: martes, 23 de noviembre de 2021 02:32 p. m.
To: legalteam at lawofficeofdanielcaggiano.com; daniel at lawofficeofdanielcaggiano.com; travel.bureau at dermx.com.mx
Subject: RE: Sales Contract
Theodore, Daniel, Albert
There a few discrepancies that I would like answers to before I spend any more time on this potential transaction:
- I have not heard back from anyone with respect to my email of yesterday (below) as to the Suite Number for Daneil Caggiano’s office at 100 Montgomery Street, San Francisco.
- I called the security office that manages the building at 100 Montgomery Street (415-967-5807). The security office personnel stated that there is not a tenant in the building named “Daniel Caggiano”. The security individual said he has been working at the building for ten years, and is familiar with all of the tenants in the building.
- I contacted the parent company of DER.COM, DER Touristik, to confirm that Theodore Wilkerson’s office in Mexico City is authorized to act on behalf of DER.COM. The reply from the Corporate Responsibility Department is below and self-explanatory (attached is the entire email exchange).
Dear Aimfair Member,
You have contacted DER Touristik Group through the mailbox of the Corporate Responsibility department.
I am unable to confirm that the correspondence you have received is linked to our company.
We will further investigate this internally.
Kind regards,
Christian Byczek
Christian Byczek
Manager Corporate Responsibility
DER Touristik Group GmbH
Emil-von-Behring-Straße 6
60424 Frankfurt Until I receive satisfactory replies to these discrepancies via email, I will not be spending any more time on this potential transaction. If I do not hear back from you people by the end of business day tomorrow, I will presume that this attempt by you guys was an entire scam. I will also report Daniel Caggiano to the State Bar of California.
Please do not attempt to call me as I will not answer. I want replies in writing via email.
If you guys are legitimate businessmen, lawyers, and paralegals - which I quite frankly doubt at this stage – you should not have any reason to not reply via email.
Regards,
Aimfair Member The lawyer sent the following email in response to Aimfair Member's request for legtitmacy:From: daniel at lawofficeofdanielcaggiano.com
Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 2021 3:41 PM
To: Aimfair Member; legalteam at lawofficeofdanielcaggiano.com; travel.bureau at dermx.com.mx
Subject: RE: Sales Contract
Hi Aimfair Member,
Thank you for reaching out , at this point we do not wish to entertain your business, we appreciate your feedback and wish you the best of luck on all your future ventures.
Cordially,
Lawyer So there you have it. A wonderful exchange that an Aimfair Member had with individuals who claimed to have a buyer for the Aimfair Member's contract. Clearly, the Aimfair Member was able to flush out the true agenda by asking for evidence of legitimacy that remained unanswered and the lawyer discontinued the conversation.
The issue is payment. If we all stop making payments to supposedly legitimate representatives of buyers, they will stop asking us to take their calls and get the idea that we will not fall for their scam.
By the way, one final note: LawOfficeOfDanielCaggiano.com is a new domain:
Dates 114 days old
Created on 2021-08-19
Expires on 2022-08-19
Updated on 2021-10-18
Thank you for sharing your due diligence and experience. It is a great story and wonderful reminder that we all need be alert. Remember, ONLY YOU can help stamp out scams - DON'T SEND MONEY TO PEOPLE YOU DON'T KNOW.
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2021-09-28 |
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Possible Scam - The Brokerage Exchange, Homer, LA.
Received a cold call from a person saying they had an investor to buy our Vidanta Estates property for $1.2 million +. All they needed from us was the title page (w/ owners name, address and description of the property 'owned') and the page with the Assignment Clause. They would review to ensure that we could actually transfer the property and then make a final offer. If we agreed, then they would put a deposit into an escrow account with a Mexican Bank.
All we had to do was pay the transfer fees directly to Vidanta, who would then give us a 'paper' that we could send to The Brokerage Exchange. Once they received Vidanta's acknowledgement of the paid transfer fee, they would deposit the rest of the sales price into the escrow account and provide paperwork to complete the sales process.
Not the typical scam, at least in my experience. The BS flag went up when they said that they would pay me $1.2 million upon the sale completion; not over time, not in scheduled payments, but all at once! Who trades $1.2 mil in today's dollars for essentially the future value of the right to rent a few weeks each year? Anybody else heard of this?
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2021-09-17 |
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Fastest Exit recently sent a letter and also cold called us in March or April - 2020. The pitch: Send us your contract info to bring action against Vidanta. How did the caller get our name, address and phone number? Vidanta? Regardless, we passed.....
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2021-09-07 |
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One of Aimfair's original members wrote us in response to the many scam calls he and the rest of us are getting and provided his recommendations for conducting your due diligence on callers you don't know. Very good comments. Follow these steps and you will quickly be able to vet a cold caller:
Timeshare brokers are becoming more sophisticated in their approach and methods. However, with a little work on your end at no cost – YOU CAN CATCH THEM RED HANDED IN THEIR FRAUDULENT ACTIVITY.
- Step One – VERIFICATION OF THE BUSINESS - Check to see if the timeshare broker, as well as the broker’s title company, are licensed in their respective state, and if their business license is still active. For example, New York State’s license registry website can be found at https://myportal.dfs.ny.gov/nylinxext/elsearch.alis
- You will most likely find that their business licenses have expired.
- If the business licenses have not expired, phone or email the individuals who are listed as contact representatives of the companies. You will most likely find that they will inform you that their company is out of business, or that they have changed the legal name of the company.
- Check for reviews of the broker and title company on Google of Better Business Bureau. However, they are finding ways to have positive reviews of themselves on the internet.
- Check the status of the caller's email domain. Tap the following link: https://whois.domaintools.com. Enter the name of the caller's email domain (example: aimfair.com) and review the contents of the registration file. Chances are the domain is due to expire in less than a year. Red Flag!
Also, use Spokeo.com to check the owner of a telephone number as well as the location. Generally speaking, the scammer will be calling from a number that is not close to the address provided in the scammer's website.
Finally, if you are up to it, find the building management company and ask to speak to the manager. Explain you are concerned that a caller may be a scammer, and you are just doing your due dligence and want to know if the management company is receiving rent payments from the caller's company. If not - Red Flag!
- Step Two – VERIFICATION OF THE BUYER AND REPRESENTATIVE – If the broker sends you a draft contract, it will most likely have the name of the Buyer. The Buyer will typically be someone who is easily found on the internet as a very rich person. I have seen casino moguls, large ship builders, developers and billionaires. However, the Buyer’s representative, whose name also appears on the draft contract, is nowhere to be found on the internet. Request the broker to have him send you a letter or email from the Buyer’s representative confirming that the representative is acting for the Buyer. The broker will vigorously resist stating such is confidential. Your reply is that you have no intention of contacting the Buyer’s representative; however, if the representative is a bona fide lawyer, accountant, etc – then he or she should be willing to confirm representation on their letterhead. See attached phony representation letter that was received.
- Step Three – REVIEW OF DRAFT CONTRACT – If you are still interested in reviewing the contract at this point and still want to have some fun – and if the broker hasn’t rejected you yet since he/she knows that you are too smart - the following are major items in the contract to look for and reject:
- Do not agree to pay any money upfront under any circumstances. Tell the broker that any fees, costs, taxes, etc should come from the proceeds of the sale that the title company can disburse.
- Do not agree to pay the broker’s commissions if the deal falls through due to the fault of the Seller (that is you). This is exactly what the scammers are trying to do – the phony deal will not happen, and the broker will blame you stating that you did not pay taxes, maintenance or legal fees, etc.- resulting in the deal falling through due to your fault. Tell the broker that he/she will get paid when the deal closes – if the deal does not close, then there is no commission for anyone.
- Do not agree to have the title company hire a Mexican lawyer on your behalf. Tell them that you will hire your own lawyer.
- Step Four – CONFIRMATION OF TRUST ACCOUNT – The title company will send you a fraudulent trust account statement from a recognized bank – such as BBVA or Citibank Mexico (attached). The phone number on the bank statement with the title “Cross Border Division” is not that of the bank – rather it is a phony agent of the broker or title company who have no knowledge of the bank. They are simply reading from a prepared script. If you call the actual bank at the address shown on the statement, they will tell you that this account does not exist.
- Step Five – TIME TO SAY ADIOS – By now, you have totally discredited the broker and/or the title company. They will most likely tell you that you are being unreasonable and that they no longer want to deal with you. You of course can cut off discussions at any time. But it is fun to catch these scammers, and expose their methods, so hopefully they are deterred from attempting to cheat honest and good people such as all of the Aimfair members.
The author received a handwritted statement that was supposed to lend credibility to the caller's intentions. Here is what he wrote:
The Caller assured the Aimfair Member he was legitimate through a handwritten note to the Aimfair member.
Also, the caller provided an image showing money waiting for the Aimfair member to draw out once the Aimfair member made his payment:
Don't be fooled. This money will never see the light of day in anyone's account but the scammer's.
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Thank you for keeping us updated....