Fraud Alerts
UK Timeshare Owners Beware of Spanish Companies
A Newsflash from the Timeshare Consumers Association
The Independent, a Malta periodical, ran a brief story earlier this month on a UK consumer who just barely managed to evade timeshare fraud.
The man, a Cowcliffe native who owns a vacation property in Malta, received communication from a company in Spain that offered to take the timeshare off his hands. Like most pitches of this nature, it all sounded fine until the company got into the fine print.
“They asked me if I was interested in selling and said they had a customer willing to pay a very good price for it," says the consumer. "Then they said they needed a bond from me, and asked for my credit card details. That’s when I thought there was something wrong.”
The man did what any intelligent consumer would do when faced with a similar situation. He contacted his local timeshare association, who immediately smelled a fraud.
A representative from Europe's Timeshare Consumers Association said of the proposed transaction, “This is a complete fraud. There are a lot of people who have a timeshare who want to get out but don’t realise it will be worth a fraction of what they paid for it.
“These companies, almost always from Spain, ring them up, having got their names and numbers from a stolen list, and claim they have someone wanting to buy. They then ask for credit card details for so-called security reasons.
“You should never send any money to any company on the promise of selling your timeshare – whatever reason they might give you.”
If you live in Europe and think you might be the victim of timeshare fraud please contact the Timeshare Consumers Association.
All quotes originally published in the Independent article "Timeshare offer 'a complete fraud’ "
