When you buy a timeshare from a legitimate and reliable timeshare company that has many years of experience and a list of positive testimonials, you are pretty safe from being ripped off by a timeshare scam. The problems arise when people buy from internet sites or from resale agents, or when they attend a timeshare presentation that offers extraordinarily generous gifts, or purchase a unit during pre-sale from a young unknown company.
Bogus Internet Agents
One way to avoid a timeshare scam is to purchase direct from the developer. There are many fraudulent websites claiming to buy and sell timeshare units in some of the best destinations in the world, but once you hand over your money or your timeshare rights, you find that you cannot get hold of anyone.
Re-Sale Scams
Happy timeshare owners may be called by an agent or may receive a letter offering to purchase your timeshare at a fantastic price. You are told that your timeshare is in such high demand and so forth, and you are tempted to sell, thinking that you are going to make a great profit on your timeshare sale. In these cases, you will probably have to pay a fee to the agent before gaining details about the buyer etc or even have to pay for one of the agent’s engineers to go and check your property – all at a cost to you. The scam comes when you never actually get to sell your property, you have simply paid money to join an agency that you would otherwise not have even considered joining, to sell a timeshare property that you never even wanted to sell in the first place.
Unbuilt Resorts
Probably the biggest scam and the most costly by far, is when bogus companies sell timeshare properties in resorts that have not been built yet or don’t exist. This usually happens in presentations that take place at home, that is, not in the destination where the timeshare will be situated. You pay your first installment and start paying maintenance fees and then 3 years later you find that the resort is still not built and no one is answering your telephone calls. The danger with these scams is they play upon the genuine advantage of buying a timeshare during the pre-sale period. Genuine companies offer great discounts during pre-sale and so, many people are attracted to buying. The key here to avoid a scam is to only buy during pre-sale from a timeshare developer with an excellent track record.
Extraordinarily Excessive Prizes
Beware of any prize or gift offered at a timeshare presentation that you think “how can they afford to do that?” Usually (although not always), these presentations are scams. For example, you are offered a car or a boat to attend a timeshare presentation, when you go, you realize that you have to pay a transportation fee of $200 to get the product to your house. You will probably be waiting a very long time for your “free” gift to arrive! Most genuine timeshare developers offer discounts on vacations, free excursions, complimentary all inclusive day passes and the like, so beware when the gift looks too good to be true.
