Retrieving money from resale scams

There are a number of ways to retrieve your money from timeshare resale/rental scams. I've spoke to thousands of people who have been mislead by these companies. I've also assisted in helping them to retrieve the money! It's hard to put them out of business because most of their contracts state internet advertising only. And many of them are only for 6mths to a year. It usually takes that long to realise you've been scammed. Anytime you are asked for ridiculous amounts of money upfront regarding this, it's a scam!!!!

You have spoken to thousands of people regarding resale scams and can tell us how to get money back. "There a number of ways...." Please enlighten us as to the number of ways. I'm/we are all ears. And, please ---- no phone numbers, just facts.

mindyl48 wrote:

Anytime you are asked for ridiculous amounts of money upfront regarding this, it's a scam!!!!

You are absolutely right there. But if you have been following these boards for any amount of time, you would see that this point has been hammered home numerous times.

The one thing that worries me about your post is that appears (but maybe I'm misinterpreting and hopefully you'll prove me wrong) that you are trying to promote some sort of business that promises victims of these scams that you will someway, somehow get them their money back. Keep in mind that there are scams in these avenues too and that these forums have warned people about companies that claim they can get money back from scam artists.

Interestingly, a lot of times it is the same scam artist. The person scams an owner out of an upfront fee and then contacts the owner again under a different name claiming he can recover that fee for ... wait for it ... an upfront fee!

I have been actively associated with timeshares for over 35 years now as a timeshare owner and, in more recent years, as an elected member of a timeshare Board of Directors. Unlike the OP in this thread (mindyl48), I certainly do not and will not claim to have "spoke to thousands of people", but I will honestly and very simply state that in 35+ years I have NEVER heard of ANYONE ever getting any money BACK from ANY upfront fee resale outfit. NOT ONCE!

There is a very simple and straightforward reason for this fact and observation. The unwelcome truth is that the upfront fee operations, although utterly useless, are not really "scams" in the literal sense of that word, because what they do is LEGAL --- even if expensive, misleading and unproductive, as well as a complete waste of time and money.

The "upfront fee resale" parasites are essentially just "LISTING services", even though they don't openly disclose or admit that fact and might even imply otherwise. Any "guarantees" (for either results OR refunds) are either non-existent or very carefully couched within a laundry list of onerous conditions and / or impossible time constraints. They have NO intentions of EVER returning ANY money to ANYONE --- that is NOT their model or intent. Once they collect the upfront money (their "listing fee") all they really have to do next is to "list" the timeshare on some obscure web site that few people will ever see. Voila --- by posting the "listing", they have now "fulfilled" their ONE AND ONLY actual obligation. The timeshare is likely grossly overpriced in that listing and the owner will likely never hear from the "listing service" again. After all, their job is DONE once they have their upfront money and post the "listing". You can almost hear the "Ka Ching" as their cash registers ring.

The solution is simply to NEVER pay upfront fee money to any such "listing service" in the first place. If you do so, you can just kiss that money goodbye --- it ain't EVER coming back. My belief is that anyone (very likely including mindyl48 above) claiming to provide "refund / recovery / retrieval" services is probably someone currently or formerly directly associated with a useless "listing service" themselves, now "double dipping" on another tier and likely working from a "sucker list" of previous "upfront fee donors" and contacting them directly.

"A fool and his money are soon parted", as that old saying goes. Don't be a fool! Do not ever pay ANY upfront fee resale parasite big chunks of your hard earned money in the first place!

There is clearly a world of difference between legitimate timeshare sites that charge a reasonable fee for owners to place their own resale or rental ads (such as RedWeek, et al) and those obscure "upfront fee listing services" that demand HUNDREDS of dollars (or more) just to place a useless "listing" on some obscure web site. Don't confuse these two very different models with one another, as they are truly as different as night and day.

Can you help me retrieve my money from timeshare resale

Call your money Clementine ............ it's lost and gone forever .

ruths207 wrote:

Can you help me retrieve my money from timeshare resale

If you're talking about one of these resale scams, then your best bet (and it's probably grasping at straws) is to report this to the Attorney-General of the state where you sent your money.

If you wired the money to Mexico, then your chances of getting that money back are slimmer than winning the Power Ball Lottery.