Here are just three (of the many) timeshare scams being perpetrated in 2016 and how to avoid falling victim to them.
Cold Calling Sales People
By far one of the scams which is most common is that which begins with receiving a cold call from a so-called timeshare sales person offering the person on the other end a one off chance to invest in a timeshare at a ‘too good to be true’ price. In fact, if a cold call timeshare sales person describes a deal as such, you can almost guaranteed that this is about the only trustworthy and honest thing they are likely to tell you. Cold call timeshare selling scams are indeed too good to be true. Hence, if a deal of any kind received over the phone and from a salesperson or company from whom you were not expecting a phonecall happens, the best advice is to simply hang up.
Remember, no reputable company or person would ever resort to such underhand tactics to get you to buy their product or services. Further, you can better arm yourself by taking the advice of the experts on common timesharing scams and how to avoid them, by continuing your reading via TESS (Timeshare Exit and Support Services).
Resale Scams
Those susceptible to timeshare scams are not only those looking to buy into a timeshare, but those hoping to sell one. In fact, because fewer and fewer people are in 2016 buying timeshares largely due to how saturated the industry is with fraud and cons, scammers operating within it are instead now turning their attention and efforts to scamming those attempting to instead sell their timeshares. The fact that this is happening is testament to just how murky the timeshare industry can prove, and so how important it is to always keep one’s guard up when buying or selling a timeshare.
Having successfully and legitimately purchased and even enjoyed a timeshare for any period of time, when owners come to sell they can never be too careful who it is they trust to sell to. One of the most common timeshare re-sale scams works by exploiting those desperate to sell their timeshare (often to escape paying anymore annual fees for their ‘investment’). Then, a salesperson or company will make an offer to buy an owner’s timeshare, making it tempting by offering more than it is perhaps worth or by simply preying on those desperate to be rid at literally any cost, but in order to sell the owner must first stump up a fee in order to actualise the transaction or pay for any legal documents which need to be drawn up to complete the sale.
To learn more about how to avoid timeshare re-sale scams, head over to the Citizens’’ Advice Bureau website which features a free and completely unbiased guide to timeshare re-selling in 2016.
Presentation Event Scams
Scammers prey on one of two things. They either exploit those who are in a desperate situation (often which the scammer has placed or forced a victim into in order to scam them) or they prey on those who are naive, but curious. And this is how timeshare sales people lure people to attend presentation events.
The idea, or idea told to those who attend, is to collect up a group of people in order to educated and illuminate them as to the reality of timesharing. In reality, and ironically, what happens at these events is that rather than people being given information they are instead fed a carefully constructed sales pitch. Even those who begin to get uncomfortable or suspicious, being in a foreign situation and literally face-to-face with those making them uncomfortable are less likely to leave, confront or question the sales people. Hence, all too easily people find themselves manipulated and even intimidated into signing ‘low risk’ contracts there and then which are in reality neither low risk or the ‘once in a lifetime’ deal they were promised.
Then, to avoid this reality becoming yours the easiest and only sure way to escape it is to never attend a timeshare presentation event. Instead, to learn more about timesharing and in a safe and via an unbiased resource of information, give the information provided via the official Action Fraud UK website a read.