Basically, his family and about 5 or 6 other families formed an LLC, bought a property under the LLC and then basically meet once or twice a year to divvy up who's going to use the unit and when. They split the property taxes evenly and then split the upkeep/maintenance costs proportionately relative to how much time each member spends at the property. There's no corporate overlord involved, just a split between longtime friends. Originally, there was one more family involved, and when they wanted out, the group just bought back the family's "shares" in the LLC at the current valuation of the property. My friend said there was no bad blood, everything was by the books, nothing shady.
If things were done this way, all good. But when you get "Always Be Closing" scam artists on the case, well, things just tend to go south.
At some point it was done and I got my discounted theme park tickets or whatever.
But I can easily see how the high pressure sales process works on people. They have a bag full of manipulative tricks.
[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20230216090211/https://ecurrency...
OTOH I'm surprised they pulled this scam. A friend of a friend lost his vacation home in Mexico to the cartel and there wasn't this much fanfare around it.
In general, I've seen lots of 'victim blaming' with these sorts of scams. I mean, I do understand that it's easy to sit there and think 'I understand sending money the first time, but how do you still fall for it the 6th time they ask you to send more money?'. But I think it's important to remember that victims are often older or new to the country*. These scams are designed and refined to make you feel trapped.
* I'm aware the OP involves a Canadian couple and the NYT story involves an American couple. I don't think the direct country matters. Most of these scams are all about scaring and isolating someone.
NYT link - https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/12/podcasts/the-daily/scam-c...
In some ways I envy them for living in a time period where immediate distrust wasn't the status quo.
If you’re savvy enough to run a scam like this, shouldn’t you be savvy enough to find an honest way to make money?
Targeting victims of previous scams is common in crypto and MLM circles. The trick is almost always promising them an out of their previous losses with a new venture and this venture is sold to them on the basis of them being ‘experienced’ or ‘knowledgeable’ about the previous venture.
I wonder whether they use a domain name monitoring firm now.
The Krebs case study claims that the couple was unable to "legally sell" the timeshare due to their remaining payments.
So these scammers were asking them to do what--illegally sell to them? What are the consequences or repercussions of a premature sale?
"Hey, yeah, we know we've got a bad investment; looks like some Mexican sucker is calling us to let us off the hook!"
If this is true, and the couple was cooperating knowingly with a gray-market transaction, then their hands weren't clean at all, and I can't muster any sympathy here.
The usual litany of red flags: they cold-called you. You did no due diligence, probably because you knew they had to be shady. They promised you money, but then asked for advance fees. What legit consumer just falls for all that, unless they're desperate and shady themselves?
Lie down with dogs, wake up with fleas.
These time share companies need to get bent. These platforms perpetuate the worst types of scams on our most vulnerable populations (elderly).
I went to one of these timeshare pitches because they were giving away free stays at an associated hotel — got a “free” 4 day/night accommodation. The catch here was I had to attend a 1-2 hour sales pitch for their “club” (timeshare).
Read the fine print before accepting the 4 day/night accommodation to make sure I did not have to accept a timeshare contract. Only obligation was the sales pitch and stay for the entire pitch.
Scheduled the pitch for later in the week of the vacation. Set a timer on my watch/phone as soon as I checked in for 1.5 hrs. Listened passively to their pitch. I feigned interest but ultimately declined each contract and each attempt to pull my credit report (do not give these people your SSN).
Each decline was met with:
- “I can go back to my manager and get a better deal. I’m making no profit”. Person comes back with a contract that throws in a bunch of “perks” (more “points” or something like that).
- high pressure sales tactics like: “this deal expires today”. “I’m basically giving this away for free”.
- Lies such as: “vacation anywhere you want in the world and any time”. But clearly contract and terms state otherwise and need to purchase additional “points” at certain locations. Doesn’t include holidays.
- more lies such as “after it’s paid off, you ‘own’ the time share”. Again, it’s bullshit. the “monthly maintenance fees” are in perpetuity (forever) and go up at any time at the discretion of club. You don’t “own” jack shit. The contract is worthless.
There were several other people as well in doing the sales pitch and made sure to call out the absurdities and lies so everyone could hear.
As soon as my watch/phone timer alerted. Got up, shake hands with sales person and manager, and I just left. I fulfilled my obligation.
[1]: https://moneywise.com/investing/real-estate/why-buying-a-tim...