May 23, 2012

Have you gotten your call yet? Don has, we have, members of TUG have.

A call came in an hour or so ago. The caller was from Global Partners Network and her name is Selena. The phone number is 416-628-8777 in Toronto, Canada. Interestingly, when we first tried to look the number up through a reverse directory, we found the phone number and location. When we tried again, perhaps 15 minutes later, the phone comes up an invalid phone number.

Selena said Global Partners Network has relations with Telcel and Telemex, two large telephone companies in Mexico. She says these two companies are buying timeshares that are located in Mexico and wanted to provide us with an offer to buy our timeshare.

FYI, the parent of Telcel and Telemex is America Movil, which is a Fortune 500 company controlled by Carlos Sims. We bring this up only to demonstrate the absurdity of the claim that these companies are interested in buying our timeshare. This teaser is similar to the one presented by Luxury Resort Services, which claimed to have a relationship with Cemex, Mexico's largest cement manufacturer. We called Cemex to confirm their interest and found the claim to be false.

Anyway, we bring these calls to your attention because the caller phishes for more information about you. How many units do you own, how large are they, where are they located, what your maintenance fee is, how long you have owned the unit(s), where you purchased your unit, what your address is, what your email address is, what your fax number is, and so on. When asked where she obtained our telephone number, she said from public records. When asked which public records they were, so we could take steps to purge them of our name, she could not tell us where the company found these public records.

BTW, there are several legitimate organizations called Global Partners Network. It is very common for scam companies to take the name or derivatives of the name of legitimate companies.

Don was contacted by a person who claimed to be connected with Approved Property Management. The office address provided in its website is a closed building in Chicago, which is for sale.

You get the point....be very careful. Guaranteed funding, high prices, no up front fees, quick closings, protection through escrows and other claims are very suspect. Remember...if it looks too good to be true, it is not likely to be true.

Enjoy using your resorts...your future vacations will be wonderful!