Wendy’s Timeshare: No Place for Fraud!

Wendy used to stay at timeshares as a guest until decided to purchase her own Florida timeshare that would be her home away from her home in Pembroke, NH. It was a great deal, so she bought a legitimate timeshare for $2,000 through the resort.

Sometime later, she received a letter in the mail from a company inviting her to a nice lecture dinner to discuss timeshare purchasing and laws. As a new timeshare owner, Wendy wanted to make sure she was on top of things. At the dinner, she was informed there were “new laws” regarding timeshares that would make it “very difficult” to get out of a timeshare after you bought one. The folks running the lecture insisted that attendees needed to sell their timeshares before it was too late and that they would be more than happy to help them do it. Following the dinner, Wendy was asked by a crew member if she wanted to exit her timeshare. Wendy was hesitant to do so.

After a hard sell by the crew member, Wendy was eventually convinced she needed to get out of the timeshare and sell it back to the resort through the agency that had hosted the dinner. She ended up paying them $9,000 to liquidate the timeshare and sell it back to the resort.

By the time Wendy got home, she felt uneasy about the $9,000 payment. She went with her gut and looked up the agency online. She found they were doing the same dinner a couple of miles away and called them. On the phone, she asked about getting out of selling and for her money back. The agency again convinced her to continue with the sale with them and she sent them the paperwork they needed, which included the deed to her timeshare.

Several weeks later, Wendy received another letter in the mail. This time, the agency claimed that the letter with the paperwork was undeliverable, and she needed to send it to an ‘alternate address’. She obliged and resent the paperwork and deed.

Eventually, Wendy got a call from the Florida resort informing her that she still owned her timeshare and that she had been the victim of a Timeshare Exit Scam. While on the phone with the resort, they informed her all sales and processes regarding her timeshare needed to go through them exclusively.

After Wendy received this devastating news, she was, as many are, too embarrassed to report it.

In the end, Wendy was not able to recover any of her money but offers some valuable advice.

“If you feel uncomfortable, there may be something wrong,” says Wendy. “Intuition can be a valuable tool.”

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IF YOU CAN SPOT A SCAM, YOU CAN STOP A SCAM: If you are approached by an outside agency regarding buying or selling your timeshares or properties, know that only you and your original resort should manage your portfolio, nobody else. Never give money or your personal information to companies/agencies that you are not familiar with.

For more information from AARP about Timeshare Exit Scams, please visit: https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/info-2023/timeshare-exit.html

You can also find valuable information from The Coalition for Responsible Exit, a program created by The American Resort Development Association.