Has anyone ever sold their timeshare to Despegar.com travel agency?

I doubt it. Do not deal with these people. Scam personified. These folks are very slick and professional, but PURE EVIL!!! Our story: Despedar offered to purchase our 4 weeks @ Montecristo estates in Cabo, paying for everything. I sent an email to PROFECO (LATE FEB 2017) the Mexican Consumer Fraud agency, which I just rec'd today MAR 13. I had previously been in touch with Cesar Mia Rodriguez who said he worked for PROFECO, and praised despedar, and would facilitate the transaction btwn despedar and Montecristo. I even received paperwork with PROFECO letterhead from him. He said he had our paperwork on file!!

In the email from PROFECO, they said the name above (Cesar) is not an employee of PROFECO, and they do not have our names in their files. SO THIS IS A MAJOR SCAM, AND ANY MONEY YOU SEND THEM WILL BE SERIOUSLY GONE. Luckily we did not send any money If you have any questions about the consumer fraud agency go to http://www.gob.mx/PROFECO and there email is extranjeros@profeco.gob.mx

bobs1258 wrote:

Luckily we did not send any money.

Good for you for being cautious and sniffing out this scam. Most people fall for this scam because they are blinded by the dollar signs in their eyes and fail to analyze the offer realistically.

I have to thank every one of you for your postings. We also received a call from Jesse Lopez from Desperger saying he could sell our time share with no upfront costs. Then he referred us to their escrow office, National One Realty LLC out of Minneapolis, which actually seemed more legit. We actually went to the bank today to wire a chunk of money to Profeco in Mexico. Luckily our bank said we should research these companies involved at more depth. This just confirmed what we also thought was "too good to be true"! Just came across these postings so thank you for saving us a boat load of money!

First ask yourself why you would to put up any money when you are selling the timeshare . It's the buyer that needs to put the money in escrow. The no upfront money is a lie . They work hard on their scam but if you simply use common sense you can avoid all of them.

First: If it sounds too good to be true then it is.

Second: If they claim that there is no upfront fee then why are they asking you to send money.

Third: If they contacted you ask yourself how they got your information .

Like Lance stated you were smart to ask questions but unfortunately there must be enough people out there that don't and that's how they make their money.

It's a scam...don't do it!

Also despedar is owned by Expedia, but i think these scammers are just using their name illegally to dupe folks.

Don't believe in those people, they only want your money... I was ripped off for $12,000 and they disappear... They are fake and won't give u any money, they are gonna start asking u for wire transfers... Profeco is fake, Pueblo Bonito is fake and they use different names of banks... Stop talking to them... If u need more info just ask me...

Don't do it, they stole $12,000 from me and disappeared.... report them to the police asap....

They stole $12,000 and disappeared, report them to the police...

nancyk490 wrote:

I also was contacted by Despegar, and went down the path as far as the contract, which I received today. No typos, etc, but just curious as to how they would handle the extra costs that you all talk about. SO lines 7 and 8 address the Mexican tax and that the escrow company is not liable for that, so one could assume that the buyer is...

There IS no applicable "Mexican tax" in the first place, so that one reference alone reveals and verifies that this is just another scam.

Mexican timeshares involve no ownership of ANYTHING (and there is no "Mexican tax" on timeshares). Mexican timeshares are merely time-limited "right to use" contracts (for a 15-30 year time period). Accordingly, the only "fee" in a RTU contract transfer is whatever "fee" the resort itself charges (sometimes it's nothing at all, sometimes it's a punitively high amount, but in NO case does it EVER involve paying a non-existent "Mexican tax" to some obscure, anonymous third party Internet entity). You are wise to run fast and far away from these Internet-based scammers of unknown identity. If you send them money, you will never hear from them again and any and all money that you send will simply disappear forever.

I'm now wondering if these parasites are actually the same scammers operating with a slightly different name from Dacolar.com, currently identified and under discussion as scammers on Timeshare Users Group. Anyone here know what "Despegar" or "Dacolar" might mean (if anything) when translated from Spanish to English?

P.S. It has been stated in a post above that PROFECO is (quote) "fake". That odd claim is completely inaccurate and untrue. PROFECO is a quasi-governmental agency in Mexico that can (and does) intervene in developer-direct Mexican timeshare transactions if / when said transactions have been improperly or illegally conducted (such as a developer attempting to get a customer to sign a waiver of rescission rights, for example). That being said, PROFECO has absolutely no authority or influence over any unknown, obscure Internet-based "Anonymous Scammer.com" entity running its' game online. PROFECO's authority and "reach" is limited, but PROFECO certainly is NOT "fake", as falsely described above.

I doubt it. Do not deal with these people. Scam personified. These folks are very slick and professional, but PURE EVIL!!! Our story: Despedar offered to purchase our 4 weeks @ Montecristo estates in Cabo, paying for everything. I sent an email to PROFECO (LATE FEB 2017) the Mexican Consumer Fraud agency, which I just rec'd today MAR 13. I had previously been in touch with Cesar Mia Rodriguez who said he worked for PROFECO, and praised despedar, and would facilitate the transaction btwn despedar and Montecristo. I even received paperwork with PROFECO letterhead from him. He said he had our paperwork on file!!

In the email from PROFECO, they said the name above (Cesar) is not an employee of PROFECO, and they do not have our names in their files. SO THIS IS A MAJOR SCAM, AND ANY MONEY YOU SEND THEM WILL BE SERIOUSLY GONE. Luckily we did not send any money If you have any questions about the consumer fraud agency go to http://www.gob.mx/PROFECO and there email is extranjeros@profeco.gob.mx

here are a scam, be very careful extremely professional.

I checked on them, 100% scam

No one has more experience with this scam than I. Decolar, an affiliate of Despegar, contacted me for a sale of two timeshares at Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach. Ricardo Gonzales, sales, and Enrique Gavilan Munoz, Buyer were the Decolar contacts. We contacted Pueblo Bonito, Antonio Higuera, member services in San Ysidro, CA who gave us the contact for PROFECO. I believe that this was what started the scam. We were also advised to contact National One Realty LLC., Alireza Delavari in Minneapolis the Escrow Company. After many contacts with NATIONAL ONE REALTY LLC, PROFECO, SAT, PGR, SCOTIABANK, BANK OF MONTREAL NY, and Aduana (customs) in Tijuana we drove there and met with PROFECO that said that none of the names were employees of PROFECO and all emails were not good because they were all .COM.MX instead of .GOB. I have many more names of people if interested.

If they ask for upfront money then typically its a scam.

William - Thank you for the very current status on Decolar. I was approached and am now working through a lawyer in San Antonio, Irma D.Hernandez. I've checked her out on line and she's a real lawyer. Has anyone else come across an actual lawyer representing Decolar?

We bought our timeshare from my father in-law we had no issues . we are at Costa Sur. We go every year fixed weeks 4 and 5. Small resort but fun good snorkeling

Fraud!! Scam! They have screwed me out of so much money. No one you talk to is legit. No one. No one from Despegar.com. No one from lawofficesofjordandiamond.com Not Anthony Milano. Not fake attorney Jordan Diamond in Redondo Beach CA (Call the California State Bar Fraud Department. They will tell you how many people have been screwed over by this guy pretending to be a lawyer.)

Here are all the fake names: Anthony Milano, Jordan Diamond, Isidro Manarez, Sonny Mares, Javier Pardo, Martha Cronnell Barraza, Victoria Lopez-Lopez with PROFECO, Olga Gutierrez with PGR, ; Luis Rodrigues with Scotia Bank, Rosa Beltran with BANAMEX ALL PART OF the "fix" AND Isabel and Julie Moore with MB REALTY Minnesota; Cesar Mia Rodriguez. Marco Rodrigues, Ricardo Ortega

Fake Bank -- COLLECTIVE TRUST of the Bank of New York 654 Madison Ave, NY (does NOT exist)

Fake Law Office: Law offices of Jordan Diamond, 2641 Manhattan Beach Blvd, Redondo Beach CA 424-277-0620 ; lawofficesofjordandiamond.com ; legalasst@lawofficesofjordandiamond.com (this address is a child care place.)

Fake travel agency: Despegard.com ; Anthony Milano ; assistant Ashley ; 800-336-0261 ext. 7705 ;

It is a SCAM which I unfortunately became a victim of. In my case the Despegar rep said they were working with. Home Realty of Rochester an actual Minnesota based real estate escrow company and the Jordan Diamond law firm. The scammers gave a similar story that Despegar was buying the memberships so that They could repackage the weeks on their website and make a huge profit. They also sent me emails purportedly from my resort (Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach), the MX government, Scotia Bank, Bank of Montreal asking me to wire money to pay the balance of my membership, capital gains taxes, custom duties, administrative fees. Do not get sucked into this scam. ANYTIME YOU ARE ASKED TO WIRE MONEY TO SOME UNKNOWN ACCOUNT AS PART OF A TIMESHARE SALE TRANSACTION YOU CAN BE CERTAIN THAT IT IS A SCAM.

Unfortunately, I was taken, believing too much of their story... I talked to a US Secret Service agent once, and even though they can't directly help get any money back, they can work on a collection of complaints and try to take down the organization, especially if there is any US affiliations or activities in the process. I just got another "special offer" from a different company, CTrip, and I am staying clear.

As a former timeshare sales and marketing executive who has worked in Mexico for many years, you could have simply walked away. No need to pay anyone to get rid of your timeshare anywhere in the world, especially Mexico.

As mentioned, you don't own anything but a right to use. Worthless.

Timeshares in Mexico are the easiest to get rid of. Easier than taking candy from a baby. You just have to know what to do.

Best of luck!