I worked at a timeshare SCAM....I want to tell you about it.

inezj3 wrote:

Have you heard of Commercial properties and a man name Bill Clark? They are suppose to be out of Florida. THey say my up front fee will be refunded once they search the property to see no leans are on it.

1. Upfront fees almost NEVER get refunded under ANY circumstances. This one is NO EXCEPTION. DON'T PAY.

2. A search for liens or other encumbrances can usually be done for FREE, on line, in 30 seconds or less by anyone with the owner deed info. Recorded liens are public information, quickly and easily availabe to anyone. It's nonsense to charge even a penny for this.

3. For what it's worth, in 27 years of timeshare ownership and industry experience, I have NEVER ONCE heard of a timeshare related entity called "Commercial Properties".

Anyone who pays ANY amount of money "upfront" is just voluntarily choosing to throw that money away. You might as well just put a bunch of $100 bills through a shredder instead. Got it?

Ken,

Where can we find those records FREE online for FL? I'll have to use that one on the next caller wanting fees up front. I can tell 'em "wait a sec, I'll do that for you!"

bruce727 wrote:

Ken,

Where can we find those records FREE online for FL? I'll have to use that one on the next caller wanting fees up front. I can tell 'em "wait a sec, I'll do that for you!"

Florida records are handled by each individual COUNTY. I'd suggest using a search engine (e.g., Google, just as an example) and enter the name of the specific FL County of interest to you. You'll immediately get a variety of selections, which will differ by individual County, but deeds are usually within an area entitled something like "official records" or "County Clerk". Easy enough.

To easily and quickly find a specific, particular transaction, or any recorded liens or other encumbrances associated with a particular owner or property, you generally need to know at least ONE of the following items of information regarding ownership: -- grantor (seller) name -- grantee (buyer) name -- book and page number or "instrument number" of a previously recorded item associated with the grantor or grantee or property.

You can also usually look up ALL recorded County items within an identified date range, but this "shotgun" approach will also yield LOTS of other things of no use or interest to you (recorded bank mortgages, civil court judgements against people, etc.)

P.S. In the Internet era, many (but obviously not all) upfront fee parasites are now smart enough to NOT call their upfront fee a "search" fee, since too many people know already that ANYONE can search online --- for free. Most scammers looking to collect an "upfront fee" will now instead call it their "advertising" or "marketing" or "listing" fee, which is a bit more truthful (...although STILL a complete waste of money, regardless).

I am sure there is someone that knows how to get at least some of your money back when these guys misrepresent their contract in several areas!!! If there is please let me know as I will take these dirtbags on!!!

Anyone hear of Raimo and Middleton LLC out of Melbourne FL?? They called me unsolicited. A fellow named Greg Reid, Inventory Manager, said he had buyers (who had already visited my resort in Spain)for my two weeks. I was asking $9000/wk with another outfit in UK which is where Raimo probably learned of my units for sale. I asked and he said they had a lot of ways to find timeshares for resale. Anyway, he offered $13300 or one week and 14500 for the other. He said they would take care of closing and needed $1749 for one week, $2495 for both on my credit card. The contract would be FEDEXed and the closing papers would follow. If I didn't sign the contract my money would be refunded. I told him I would get back to him. As with all things that sound too good to be true etc. this fits the bill. Any thoughts??

Oh boy ,thats a possible scam if I ever heard one!!! Ive heard that story 10 times minimum. I hope you dont wait too long to get a refund cause my money went out the window!

Once you give them your money you will never hear from them again! I went with Timeshare relief and paid them about 2000.00 to take mine off my hands. The only reason I did that was my yearly fees were 800.00. So I figured it was better to unload and after 3 years Im even.If I invest that 800.00 it becomes less!

what a crock. I doubt very very very much they are legit. Me? I wouldn't give it a second thought. Or, just tell them to take their fee out of your proceeds of sale and send you the remainder...

johnh889 wrote:

Anyone hear of Raimo and Middleton LLC out of Melbourne FL?? They called me unsolicited. A fellow named Greg Reid, Inventory Manager, said he had buyers (who had already visited my resort in Spain)for my two weeks. I was asking $9000/wk with another outfit in UK which is where Raimo probably learned of my units for sale. I asked and he said they had a lot of ways to find timeshares for resale. Anyway, he offered $13300 or one week and 14500 for the other. He said they would take care of closing and needed $1749 for one week, $2495 for both on my credit card. The contract would be FEDEXed and the closing papers would follow. If I didn't sign the contract my money would be refunded. I told him I would get back to him. As with all things that sound too good to be true etc. this fits the bill. Any thoughts??

One more time, if a company asks for an upfront fee in the hundreds/thousands of dollars then they are a SCAM, period .... how many times do we have to repeat that mantra .... ALL they want is the UPFRONT FEE.

Now Im getting calls from people to get my money back!!! Anybody hear of My Legal Refunds ?? These guys say for 499.00 they can get me in on a class action suit and get my 2400.00 back! Its a 80/20 deal. I get 80 percent they get 20 percent.

larryw242 wrote:

Now Im getting calls from people to get my money back!!! Anybody hear of My Legal Refunds ?? These guys say for 499.00 they can get me in on a class action suit and get my 2400.00 back! Its a 80/20 deal. I get 80 percent they get 20 percent.

Did this company follow through or scam you?

johnh889 wrote:

Anyone hear of Raimo and Middleton LLC out of Melbourne FL?? They called me unsolicited. A fellow named Greg Reid, Inventory Manager, said he had buyers (who had already visited my resort in Spain)for my two weeks. I was asking $9000/wk with another outfit in UK which is where Raimo probably learned of my units for sale. I asked and he said they had a lot of ways to find timeshares for resale. Anyway, he offered $13300 or one week and 14500 for the other. He said they would take care of closing and needed $1749 for one week, $2495 for both on my credit card. The contract would be FEDEXed and the closing papers would follow. If I didn't sign the contract my money would be refunded. I told him I would get back to him. As with all things that sound too good to be true etc. this fits the bill. Any thoughts??

Well, since he says he already has a buyer for your timeshare, he can't have advertising costs. So what does HE call his up front fee? MD

I declined to participate in any way and certainly did not give them a credit card number. They called back a couple of times and I threatened them with the BBB, Atty General and Do Not Call registry and they haven't called back. They said the fee was to close the timeshare/real estate transaction

johnh889 wrote:

I declined to participate in any way and certainly did not give them a credit card number. They called back a couple of times and I threatened them with the BBB, Atty General and Do Not Call registry and they haven't called back. They said the fee was to close the timeshare/real estate transaction

The next time he calls tell him you'll pay the fees after closing .... see how fast he hangs up on you.

I am assuming the scam here is that they take your upfront fee and do very little to sell the timeshare. Is that the case?

Yes, too good to be true--so it isn't!

The scam isn't that they will do very little to sell your timeshare they have no intention on even trying to sell your timeshare.

Now ive got people called My Legal Refund trying to scam me by telling me that they will get my money back from American Marketing Group, who scammed me!!! Wow this is getting too deep for me! They wanted 499.00 to get back my other money! Just too funny.

I just figured the whole thing was a scam when he said he had buyers for both weeks right now but he needed the $2495 to close upfront via credit card. When he called back to ask my decision I said no way I''m paying anything upfront and that pretty well ended the conversation. No callbacks since. Would like to ask however if anyone has experience with Visions of the World in the UK. They advertise on the Redweek website. My timeshares are in Spain and "Visions" are an "advertising" company that supposedly advertises via internet, newspapers and other publications all over Europe. They also work with a closing company in Europe that can close my sale (if I ever get one). They want $450 upfront and will refund it when sale is completed. I have not found a single closing company in the US that advertises on Redweek or TUG. etc (I emailed and asked them) that handles sales in Europe. My timeshare management, Heritage Resorts Marbesa Club, has been less than helpful in my endeavor to sell my timeshares (2 weeks). Would like to know if anyone has had any sucess with selling a European timeshare with Visions of the World.