Help! Someone seems interested in my time share but it doesn't sound legit

Hi. I Posted my 2bd/2ba floating value season Westage Town center here on Redweek. I received the typicall emails from people asking me to donate (wish I could). I also received an email from someone who claims interest but I am extremely skeptical and here is why. First, the person I will call John Doe is using terrible spelling and grammar. That would be OK but he hasn't even tried to negotiate the price. He just wants to know what the final price is and where to send the check. Am I missing something here? Is there a new scam out there that I missed? Can someone please give me some advice. Is this some kid playing a prank or someone from Africal trying to send me one of those (you have just one the lottery deals....simply cash this check for 100,000. and send the difference heh heh) Appreciate any input Kathleen

kathleenp72 wrote:

Hi. I Posted my 2bd/2ba floating value season Westage Town center here on Redweek. I received the typicall emails from people asking me to donate (wish I could). I also received an email from someone who claims interest but I am extremely skeptical and here is why. First, the person I will call John Doe is using terrible spelling and grammar. That would be OK but he hasn't even tried to negotiate the price. He just wants to know what the final price is and where to send the check. Am I missing something here? Is there a new scam out there that I missed? Can someone please give me some advice. Is this some kid playing a prank or someone from Africal trying to send me one of those (you have just one the lottery deals....simply cash this check for 100,000. and send the difference heh heh) Appreciate any input Kathleen

Kathleen: I suspect that your instincts may be correct and that this may well be a would-be scammer. In the past, I've received several such very odd replies whenever advertising a timeshare for sale. No pertinent and important questions get asked about the facility itself, or about maintenance fees, special assessments, unpaid fees ---- all the things that a legitimate buyer would (or should) certainly need and want to know all about with some specificity. Very brief messages usually too, often with poor grammar and spelling (but not always). Also, more often than not, the inquiry originates from a non-descript "yahoo" address (no disrespect or negative connotation is intended in any way toward Yahoo in making this observation --- simply my own experience. Maybe it's just easy to get a (free) yahoo address with no actual identity verification).

My advice is to be CERTAIN to provide absolutely NO personal information of any kind by email to this "inquirer", as it may well be a "phishing" scheme in which the intrepid scammer is just trying to slowly extract bits of personal information from you in pursuit of enough info for a later identity theft attempt. Or, it could be the (now well-worn) Nigerian 419 scam, in which you get a convincing (but counterfeit) bank check overpayment, asking you to then "refund the difference" with a (valid) personal check. Weeks later, of course, your bank informs you that the "bank check" you received is no good, while your own good check has long been cashed and the scammer has long since disappeared back into the vapor cloud of the Internet. .And you STILL own your timeshare --- NOT good!

One approach which I have used is to ask the inquirer for a name and a phone number at which I volunteer to reach the inquirer (at my own expense) in order to answer any and all specific questions he/she might have about the facility (but not about me personally). Or ask for a street address where you can mail the inquirer an info sheet about the resort (not about you). iNine times out of ten, you never hear another word from them ever again. Scammers don't want to leave behind them any address or phone record trail which can later be traced. And if they are outside the U.S., of course, you now have them in a corner --- with no U.S. phone number or valid U.S. street address available to ever be able to give you in the first place.

Whatever you do, do NOT provide any personal information to the inquirer. They don't need to know a THING about you personally in order to ask about your timeshare facility. Also, if it proceeds toward sale, insist upon using a third party, well established closing company for the sale transaction. Closing company will escrow all funds, require certified check from U.S. bank (which they will hold until it clears), thereby helping to ensure that all funds presented are "real money".

Good luck, and be careful. Like those road signs say.... PROCEED WITH CAUTION!

On the other hand, people have to actually JOIN RedWeek in order to see the ads here in the first place, so this just MIGHT be a legitimate inquiry (although it sure doesn't sound like one, so far). If you get suspicious, contact RedWeek customer service directly and identify the inquirer by RedWeek user name to express your concern --- this person had to register with RedWeek one way or another to see your ad (but, of course, may have done so under a phony name). Unfortunately, it surely would not be the first time that a dishonest, thieving parasite has paid to join RedWeek in order to then ply their deceptive trade here....

kathleenp72 wrote:

Hi. I Posted my 2bd/2ba floating value season Westage Town center here on Redweek. I received the typicall emails from people asking me to donate (wish I could). I also received an email from someone who claims interest but I am extremely skeptical and here is why. First, the person I will call John Doe is using terrible spelling and grammar. That would be OK but he hasn't even tried to negotiate the price. He just wants to know what the final price is and where to send the check. Am I missing something here? Is there a new scam out there that I missed? Can someone please give me some advice. Is this some kid playing a prank or someone from Africal trying to send me one of those (you have just one the lottery deals....simply cash this check for 100,000. and send the difference heh heh) Appreciate any input Kathleen

Hi Kathleen,

We show that you recently posted your timeshare on RedWeek.com but as of yet we don't show that any emails have gone through our website in response to your ad. Could it be that you also have your timeshare posted on other websites that are creating these sketchy emails? The emails coming from RedWeek.com will say in them "This message was sent through RedWeek.com." If these emails don't say that in them, they are coming from somewhere else.

My advice is to not respond to any of these emails you are receiving. They definitely sound like scams.

Thanks, Marty

Re marty8084 has advised: >> We show that you recently posted your timeshare on RedWeek.com but as of yet we don't show that any emails have gone through our website in response to your ad.<< ======================================

As I have personally reported to RedWeek customer service myself already, I have (on numerous occasions, including TWICE on just yesterday alone) received responses to RedWeek ads which somehow do NOT ever actually appear in my RedWeek message inbox AT ALL, but somehow ONLY at my email address. I believe this may be a computer glitch of some kind at the RedWeek end, and might explain why you (Marty) don't "see" the response referenced by the poster. I suggested already to RedWeek customer service that this oddity should be further examined and corrected internally at RedWeek if it's a compuer glitch at RedWeek, because even though the messages never even show up AT ALL in the members' RedWeek message "inbox", when it somehow gets forwarded directly to the members' email address, it then actually includes the intact email address of the sender (which I regard, personally as a potential privacy and security issue). That said, such messages "bypassing" the RedWeek message "inbox" are, in fact, "tagged" in the subject line as being associated with a specific RedWeek ad, even though the message never shows up in the RedWeek message "inbox" at all, but is instead only "seen" or "visible" at the actual email address of the recipient. This would obviously pose a BIG problem for anyone who changed ISP's and/or got a new email address after initiating their RedWeek membership, since in such a case they might never actually see the RedWeek ad response ANYWHERE.

The poster may have an ad elsewhere, but there is still a RedWeek problem, specifically detailed above and already reported previously and directly to Customer Service, whether or not poster Kathleen has ad has been placed elsewhere besides RedWeek.

P.S. I saved BOTH of the two separate RedWeek messages which I got (only) at my email addressl just yesterday alone, NEITHER of which EVER appeared in my RedWeek message "inbox" at any time. RedWeek can contact me directly if they want me to forward those two particular emails to possibly assist in diagnosing this apparent RedWeek system glitch. It has also happened to me numerous other times before, by the way --- NOT just yesterday....

Some people actually put their email address in the "Details" area of their posting and if that's the case they may get emails directly to their email account rather then through our website. The only people with access to the Details area are paid members.

If you contact someone about their timeshare posting or RedWish that person will have your email address and will most likely contact you directly to your email box rather than through RedWeek.com. But the person that has their posting or RedWish on our website (without their email address as part of their ad) will always have the initial email received through our website and that email will have a copy in their Message Box and we will have a record that the email was sent.

If this is not the what you have experienced then yes we need to look into this further.

Thanks, Marty

marty8084 wrote:

kathleenp72 wrote:

Hi. I Posted my 2bd/2ba floating value season Westage Town center here on Redweek. I received the typicall emails from people asking me to donate (wish I could). I also received an email from someone who claims interest but I am extremely skeptical and here is why. First, the person I will call John Doe is using terrible spelling and grammar. That would be OK but he hasn't even tried to negotiate the price. He just wants to know what the final price is and where to send the check. Am I missing something here? Is there a new scam out there that I missed? Can someone please give me some advice. Is this some kid playing a prank or someone from Africal trying to send me one of those (you have just one the lottery deals....simply cash this check for 100,000. and send the difference heh heh) Appreciate any input Kathleen

Hi Kathleen,

We show that you recently posted your timeshare on RedWeek.com but as of yet we don't show that any emails have gone through our website in response to your ad. Could it be that you also have your timeshare posted on other websites that are creating these sketchy emails? The emails coming from RedWeek.com will say in them "This message was sent through RedWeek.com." If these emails don't say that in them, they are coming from somewhere else.

My advice is to not respond to any of these emails you are receiving. They definitely sound like scams.

Thanks, Marty

Marty, Hi. Thanks for the message. I did not post my timeshare on another website. My thought is this person became a member to obtain email addresses but emailed me directly and not through this website. his emails became more and more suspicious and he now claims he is on a business trip in "Africa" and the best way to deal with this is if he can do a wire transfer into my account. I'll be happy to provide redweek.com with any info they may need on this person. Kathleen

kathleenp72 wrote:

marty8084 wrote:

kathleenp72 wrote:

Hi. I Posted my 2bd/2ba floating value season Westage Town center here on Redweek. I received the typicall emails from people asking me to donate (wish I could). I also received an email from someone who claims interest but I am extremely skeptical and here is why. First, the person I will call John Doe is using terrible spelling and grammar. That would be OK but he hasn't even tried to negotiate the price. He just wants to know what the final price is and where to send the check. Am I missing something here? Is there a new scam out there that I missed? Can someone please give me some advice. Is this some kid playing a prank or someone from Africal trying to send me one of those (you have just one the lottery deals....simply cash this check for 100,000. and send the difference heh heh) Appreciate any input Kathleen

Hi Kathleen,

We show that you recently posted your timeshare on RedWeek.com but as of yet we don't show that any emails have gone through our website in response to your ad. Could it be that you also have your timeshare posted on other websites that are creating these sketchy emails? The emails coming from RedWeek.com will say in them "This message was sent through RedWeek.com." If these emails don't say that in them, they are coming from somewhere else.

My advice is to not respond to any of these emails you are receiving. They definitely sound like scams.

Thanks, Marty

Marty, Hi. Thanks for the message. I did not post my timeshare on another website. My thought is this person became a member to obtain email addresses but emailed me directly and not through this website. his emails became more and more suspicious and he now claims he is on a business trip in "Africa" and the best way to deal with this is if he can do a wire transfer into my account. I'll be happy to provide redweek.com with any info they may need on this person. Kathleen

kathleenp72 wrote:

marty8084 wrote:

kathleenp72 wrote:

Hi. I Posted my 2bd/2ba floating value season Westage Town center here on Redweek. I received the typicall emails from people asking me to donate (wish I could). I also received an email from someone who claims interest but I am extremely skeptical and here is why. First, the person I will call John Doe is using terrible spelling and grammar. That would be OK but he hasn't even tried to negotiate the price. He just wants to know what the final price is and where to send the check. Am I missing something here? Is there a new scam out there that I missed? Can someone please give me some advice. Is this some kid playing a prank or someone from Africal trying to send me one of those (you have just one the lottery deals....simply cash this check for 100,000. and send the difference heh heh) Appreciate any input Kathleen

Hi Kathleen,

We show that you recently posted your timeshare on RedWeek.com but as of yet we don't show that any emails have gone through our website in response to your ad. Could it be that you also have your timeshare posted on other websites that are creating these sketchy emails? The emails coming from RedWeek.com will say in them "This message was sent through RedWeek.com." If these emails don't say that in them, they are coming from somewhere else.

My advice is to not respond to any of these emails you are receiving. They definitely sound like scams.

Thanks, Marty

Marty, Hi. Thanks for the message. I did not post my timeshare on another website. My thought is this person became a member to obtain email addresses but emailed me directly and not through this website. his emails became more and more suspicious and he now claims he is on a business trip in "Africa" and the best way to deal with this is if he can do a wire transfer into my account. I'll be happy to provide redweek.com with any info they may need on this person. Kathleen

Sounds very strange, Kathleen. Please send any information that you have from this person including the original email to support@redweek.com attn. Marty and I'll be sure to check it out thoroughly.

Thanks, Marty

kathleenp72 wrote:

.....his emails became more and more suspicious and he now claims he is on a business trip in "Africa" and the best way to deal with this is if he can do a wire transfer into my account. I'll be happy to provide redweek.com with any info they may need on this person. Kathleen

This is the infamous Nigerian SCAM SCAM SCAM bigtime ... BEWARE.

Kathleen has her week also posted on TUG which is most likely where this strange email came from since her email address is listed there. This scam email didn't come through RedWeek.com.

Marty

While TUG is a great site frequented by many knowledgeable timeshare owners / users, it's a long and well established fact that TUG ads (where actual email addresses are posted within the ad) are the source of many, many scam emails, presumably because viewing the ads is easy, free and readily available to "bots" which harvest email addresses. Some folks complain about having to pay a fee to join RedWeek in order to be able to see the ads here, but scammer emails via RedWeek are, in my personal experience, VERY rare indeed. I guess scammers generally don't want to pay, register (and /or be traceable). Unwelcome solicitations from commercial rental brokers routinely responding to posted RedWeek ads is another matter entirely , however...

ken1193 wrote:

While TUG is a great site frequented by many knowledgeable timeshare owners / users, it's a long and well established fact that TUG ads (where actual email addresses are posted within the ad) are the source of many, many scam emails, presumably because viewing the ads is easy, free and readily available to "bots" which harvest email addresses. Some folks complain about having to pay a fee to join RedWeek in order to be able to see the ads here, but scammer emails via RedWeek are, in my personal experience, VERY rare indeed. I guess scammers generally don't want to pay, register (and /or be traceable). Unwelcome solicitations from commercial rental brokers routinely responding to posted RedWeek ads is another matter entirely , however...

Ditto what Ken said above. I'll gladly pay the Redweek membership fee so that my email address is not readily available to any and all scammers/spammers as it is on Tug. I can't believe they haven't programmed their site to hide all email addresses from public view. They certainly have the membership funds to do so.

jayjay wrote:

ken1193 wrote:

While TUG is a great site frequented by many knowledgeable timeshare owners / users, it's a long and well established fact that TUG ads (where actual email addresses are posted within the ad) are the source of many, many scam emails, presumably because viewing the ads is easy, free and readily available to "bots" which harvest email addresses. Some folks complain about having to pay a fee to join RedWeek in order to be able to see the ads here, but scammer emails via RedWeek are, in my personal experience, VERY rare indeed. I guess scammers generally don't want to pay, register (and /or be traceable). Unwelcome solicitations from commercial rental brokers routinely responding to posted RedWeek ads is another matter entirely , however...

Ditto what Ken said above. I'll gladly pay the Redweek membership fee so that my email address is not readily available to any and all scammers/spammers as it is on Tug. I can't believe they haven't programmed their site to hide all email addresses from public view. They certainly have the membership funds to do so.

HI All, I emailed Marty a thank you for updating me on this TUG website. Apparantly my husband had posted our timeshare on this website that he heard about from a friend and that's when the emails started. I didn't know about (great communicating between husband and wife...happens sometimes) the other listing and automatically thought something was going wrong with the redweek listing. Although I have had no response on my current listing with redweek at least to my knowledge there has been no negative emails come out of it. We are pulling out of TUG as I don't like having my email being available to scammers. I have had at leat 3 people contact me in a scam situation from that TUG website asking me for personal information including my name, address, ss#, DOB etc. Please be aware of this and thanks for all your help! Happy Holidays! K

kathleenp72 stated: >> HI All, I emailed Marty a thank you for updating me on this TUG website. Apparantly my husband had posted our timeshare on this website that he heard about from a friend and that's when the emails started. I didn't know about (great communicating between husband and wife...happens sometimes) the other listing and automatically thought something was going wrong with the redweek listing. Although I have had no response on my current listing with redweek at least to my knowledge there has been no negative emails come out of it. We are pulling out of TUG as I don't like having my email being available to scammers. I have had at leat 3 people contact me in a scam situation from that TUG website asking me for personal information including my name, address, ss#, DOB etc. Please be aware of this and thanks for all your help! Happy Holidays! K << ===============================================

In all fairness to TUG, in my own experience (after some years of TUG membership and participation) NONE of the scammers who abuse the emails which they "harvest" from TUG ads are actually TUG members. They are just scammers and "phishers" who use the easy access to TUG ad email addresses to "ply their trade". TUG is a great site, but administrators there really should develop a much better way to "mask" the email addresses of members placing ads. RedWeek found a way to accomplish that, MyResortNetwork too, VacationTimeshareRentals also. TUG just doesn't seem to be sufficiently motivated to bother to correct that particular serious shortcoming of their site. Then again, sales and rental ads are not exactly a particularly high priority there either --- discussion and BBS are clearly their forte.