As you probably already know, timeshare and vacation membership industries scams are happening quite often. We have created this article to help you protect yourself and a very valuable investment. Below are important educational resources that our legal team and industry partners have provided you that is based around timeshare scams and how to protect yourself.

We work very hard to help people avoid the fraudulent tactics and non-wanting phone calls. We also provide ways that will allow you to identify the timeshare scams. We work alongside with the law enforcement and together we can stop the timeshare scammers and protect the timeshare industry.  

The honest truth is there is no definite way that you will know that you have been contacted by a timeshare scam artist. The person on the other end of the phone may be confusing, which is why you don’t know if you were contacted by a scam artist. If your gut is telling you that something isn’t right, then trust that gut feeling, because it is probably a scam artist. It may have crossed your mind on who is sending you emails that offers renting out your timeshare. Scam artists are very experienced in scamming. They may give you a name of the company, which sounds genuine because you can research the company on the internet. The scamming company may also make you believe that they are our organization or timeshare resort, and sometimes they even tell you that they are contacting you for us. Many times the scam artists will only provide you with a telephone number and the name of the company.

If you believe that a scam artist contacted you, you should do the following:

Options Include:

1. Get as much information and details about the organization by keeping the caller on the phone as long as you can. All emails and phone calls should be logged. If you receive any emails that look suspicious, avoid forwarding them to others to prevent viruses being spread. Never give the caller any information about your timeshare membership. Never give the caller your bank account number, wiring money, or credit card information. Always remember if the deal seems too good to be true, then it probably is.
2. Contact the law enforcement and file a report. Always provide detailed information with the law enforcement.
3. Let the caller know that you want your name and number removed from the contact list right now! After you tell the caller know this, then just hang up the phone immediately.
4. Refer with the lists of well-known scam artists. ARDA provides a fraud and scam library with articles that is often updated. You can see the library by clicking here: (http://www.arda.org/advisories/)

Making a Complaint about a Scam Artist:

1. The Federal Trade Commission, Business Fraud Division (1-877-382-4357) to make a complaint about a scam artists or you can make a complaint online by visiting: (https://www.ftc.gov/)
2. The Attorney General’s Office is available to make a complaint. You can search for your local Attorney General’s Office by searching the state, then you will see the complaint link, which you click.
3. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is a new agency that assists victims against scams. You can file a complaint here: (https://consumerfinance.gov/complaint/)

The best ways that you can truly protect yourself from timeshare scams is with education and awareness. With the information that we provided we hope that you will never have to deal with timeshare scams. You now know how to protect yourself.