Vacationing in Cabo San Lucas
The Perfect Scam
The SCAM in Paradise
Part II of SCAM. They will use a Bill Pocket POS system attached to their cell phone to swipe your card. They are virtually untraceable and is out of Punta Arena Mazatlan SA DE CV. Note: Some credit card companies are saying they cannot refund people's money because the Bill Pocket information from the sale is different than the contract!
After all the "celebration" will even want to have dinner with you later to ensure their scam is still working. They will give you mounds of papers to take home which are fraudulent and MAKE BELIEVE.
If you have already signed you are panicking. I know.
The good news? The contract you have signed is invalid. However, to appease the credit card company or bank in what will be a long, tiring battle (up to 6 months or more) with your credit card company or bank you will need to notify the organization who SCAMMED you and give them your decision to RESCIND your authorization and cancel your contract IMMEDIATELY in WRITING.
UPDATE:
You will receive paperwork that says Sotherby's Vacation... Luxury Holiday International is in NO WAY affiliated with Sotherby's Vacation Sales! There is a WARNING on Sotherby's website to indicate Luxury Holiday International is using their name illegally.
If you were lucky enough to only "listen" and get the money or tickets or whatever they promised you on the street... CONGRATULATIONS! You saved WAY more than you know!
For those who were promised Luxury Holiday International, Punta Resorts, Residency Collection, Amazing Memories Club would purchase your existing timeshare:
DO NOT GIVE THEM YOUR DEED OR USE THE COMPANY WHO IS "BUYING" YOUR TIMESHARE OR THE TRANSFER COMPANY!!
Of the 6 people I have spoke with personally- there have been ZERO deed transfers. If they ask for MORE MONEY to transfer your deed- DO NOT DO IT! There is NO DEED company. Another mirage of the SCAM.
NOTE: Mastercard and Visa both have a 14 day right to rescind, so it is NOT too late to file a dispute!
UPDATE: Playa Del Carmen is the next stop for Luxury Holiday International! These criminals are running the EXACT same scam in seperate cities in Mexico presenting the same make-believe story of building a new development.
Scammers are calling and telling people when they get home to wire $999 so Platinum Marketing of America can transfer or sell your timeshare/points for you!
Please: NEVER -NEVER WIRE MONEY!! You will NOT be able to recoup the money!
FROM A contributor "Rexene"
"We were scammed in Playa del Carmen by Aaron Jones and his wife (british speaking lady) back in March 2015. Same scenerio. We have over a million Wyndham timeshare points and they offered us $240,000.00 for them if we purchased. We weren't biting and they finally offered us 300 weeks vacation, and a studio timeshare. We bought the bait! We charged $13,750.00 on our credit card. They said the $240,000.00 would be put into escrow with Platinum Marketing of America, who would be doing the title transfers. We turned in one week of vacation toward the purchase price also and was suppose to pay the balance of $12,450.00 from the escrow amount, the the rest of the money was ours to keep.
After we got home we received an email from L. Cooper from Platinum indicating they could not work on the transfer until we wired them $999.00, which my husband did April 9, 2015. We have received several email from this lady indicating first that they have a buyer (we were told Luxury Holiday International was buying the Wyndham points. Then we are told the buyer is having trouble with his bank and Platinum's Accounting Department is going to meet with his bank.
The last email from her last week indicated the buyer was going to pay cash in 6 weeks. I did email copies of our Wyndham title to her as verification of our ownership. There was much more discussed during our "presentation" and we were taken to their office by someone who was from another resort we were staying at."
If someone on the street approaches you go to a "timeshare" offer at ANY OF THE FOLLOWING:
*Luxury Holiday International
*Residency Collection
*Punta Resorts
*Amazing Memories Club or
*Platinum Marketing of America
*Wyndam
-- RUN!!
This is a total SCAM and they will STEAL your money- literally.
I have been contacted over 30 people who have either just left Cabo SCAM Lucas or Playa del Carmen or were still there to tell me of their woes of being conned into purchasing a "timeshare" replacement or vacation membership. This SCAM goes on all Day EVERY day!
The scam is genuis and is milking millions out of the US economy.
They will take you breakfast/lunch and be super friendly to get your walls down. They will spend the entire meal telling you about their lives and children. They will send a pretty young woman to tell of her "troubles" with money in Mexico. They weaken you with lies, upon lies.
When back at the "presentation" they being by telling how they are "going" to be building a beautiful resort outside their window. They will offer to BUY your existing timeshare or membership from another company for a great price! They will show you lovely pictures of Mazitlan and how you can own deeded access. They will make your travel vacations from here to eternity wonderful! They will tell you lots and lots of UNTRUE fraudulent things to get you to swipe your credit card.
The not-so-funny thing? There is a jammer in the room so you will have NO internet access to look up these this scam. There will be people hiding behind mirrored glass who are waiting to pounce at the first moment of a consideration "nibble".
You will NOT be able to access your phone or iPad. Funny how you can only use their computers to do your banking or to see only their "website"
If you stick around, given enough time in their high pressure sales "presentation" they convince you this is a deal of a lifetime-- you swipe your card...it's too late. You have just been SCAMMED.
This organization is a total fraud. From the moment you walk in to the last minute of trying to recoup your money.. its a SCAM.
Once they have your credit card swiped-- They start serving you alcohol and "celebrating" with you like you just hit the lottery- when actually it was them! Everyone is happy and milling around trying to convince the other unsuspecting "guppies" in the room of this "great" deal.
Once the alcohol flows, they will start shoving papers at you in Spanish and when asked to translate suddenly no one can speak English! Too late-- you already signed their phone card reader.
FROM A CONTRIBUTOR "Don"
Buying of old Timeshares
The scammers really have no interest in any old Timeshares.
They tell potential (buyers?) that they will be able to find buyers for their old timeshares (Prices are really inflated a lot,) just so that the buyer will feel that what they will pay for the password for the Web Site will be covered by the old time shares.
It is unrealistic the Timeshares are worth next to nothing, so the scammers don't have any interest in them at all. It is just offered to make the person being scammed feel comfortable about the say ten or fourteen thousand dollars they are going to swipe their credit card for. Of course the price they say they can get for the old timeshares is around the price the person being scammed is going to pay.
The scammers are only interest in getting the money, after that they make you feel good by celebrating with you for your purchase, but they are really celebrating that they have your money. The scammers will never return your money, you must file a dispute with your credit card company. If you can get the scammers to sign a copy of a cancellation for you within the 5 day Mexican cancellation period having that signed cancellation paper will be helpful with your credit card dispute. They will tell you that you will get your refund in 15 days or so, don't believe it you must dispute with your credit card company right away.
************************************************
-
Name Daniel J.
-
Subject: Mexican SCAM
-
Caution to all of the tourists. My husband and I went to a presentation for Residence La Jolla who then changed their name to Punta Pacifica and are currently named Punta Resort operating in Cabo San Lucas in an office next to Holliday Inn Express . We fell for their scam when they made us buy a memberships and promised to buy our timeshare which never happend. We have been fighting this matter with our credit card company with very little results so we have been doing our own investigation on them and after paying people off to try to get to the bottom of this we have found the real names of the owners and sales representatives. The 3 owners are FERNANDO LOVATO AND ELIOS PADILLA GOMEZ as well as ALBARO GONZALES SANDOVAL. Their sales reprentatives are MARICELA PADILLA who goes by MARIA and works out of Mazatlan an American sales rep is ARRON who's last name nobody seems to know they are all curently in Cabo San Lucas with the new scam of PUNTA RESORT and we want to prevent anyone else from falling victims as we did. If anyone has fallen victim to the companies mentioned I welcome you to ask for justice and our money back now that we have their names we are initiating legal steps in hopes of the apprehention of these felons.
