Found this on twitter this morning and figured it would be a good read for everyone and not just residents of Lee County, Florida.  The Lee County Sheriff's Office fraud hotline has been getting numerous phone calls from residents who have been receiving unsolicited phone calls from timeshare resale telemarketing companies who claim to have a buyer for their timeshare property. As always the complaints say that these telemarketing companies are promising great profits for their property in exchange for an upfront fee ranging between $200-$8,000.  8 Thousand dollars, are you freaking kidding me??? Many timeshare owners have already lost thousands of dollars from timeshare resale companies who have duped them into believing the hype they give over the phone.  As usual, they take the money and no services are ever rendered and in many cases the timeshare owner will never see their money again. Tips To Avoid Timeshare Resale Telemarketing Scams If a company is cold calling you out of the blue promising top of the line service, along with the rest of the bullshit they spew out of their mouth's then hang up the phone. If the timeshare telemarketer is promising they have a buyer waiting to purchase your timeshare property, hang ... Read More

Darnell Disroe, 38 of Boynton Beach, Florida was sentenced in U.S. District Court in East St. Louis to 121 months in prison, five years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution of $1.1 million for his role in a timeshare resale telemarketing scam that collected money from 615 timeshare owners across the country.  Others involved in the timeshare scam were Michael Starace, 42, of Lantana, Florida who was sentenced in January to 18 months in prison on one count of mail fraud and ordered to pay $23,723 restitution.  Michael Lentine, 32 also from Boynton Beach, Florida was sentenced in January as well to 51 months in prison for one count of conspiracy and two counts of mail fraud and ordered to pay restitution of $249,432.  The sentence for Darnell Disroe cam Monday by Stephen R. Wigginton, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Illinois. Real Timeshare Marketing Scam The three men operated a company called Real Timeshare Marketing which was named in a multi-count federal indictment returned July 21, 2010, by a federal grand jury in East St. Louis, charging them with conspiracy and mail fraud.  The timeshare scam had originated in South Florida, but targeted timeshare owners across the country.  ... Read More

Timeshare Relief is based out of Torrance, California and does business under several different names including Transfer America, Transfer Smart and a marketing company called Aston Marketing Group (which is now dissolved). Timeshare Relief claims they will take your timeshare out of your hands so you are no longer responsible for the maintenance fees or monthly fees if you are still paying on it. However, they charge a LARGE up front fee for their services, upwards of $4,000 from some websites we have read complaints on. More on those later, here are screenshots taken from the California Secretary of State's website showing different business names they use and notice how all of them are owned by the same person. Timeshare Relief Business Listing Transfer Smart Business Listing Aston Marketing Group Business Listing As you can see by just these 3 images taken from here, each business is owned by the same individual, with the same business address.  Why would a reputable timeshare relief company need to go by different aliases?  Now we understand the Aston Marketing Group is not involved with timeshare relief or timeshare recovery, they are a marketing company that handled the web design, SEO, online marketing and PR services ... Read More

Orlando Florida police raided 9 different timeshare resale offices in the Orlando area on Wednesday and taking 17 people in for questioning.  The locations and business names have not been disclosed, however one company that was raided was that of Jams Management.  Orlando police did say that all 9 companies are related and may be related to other timeshare resale companies being investigated.  Investigators with the Economic Crimes division of the Orlando Police Department took away boxes of papers, computers, dry erase boards and other non disclosed boxes of evidence from these timeshare resale companies. Two automobiles were also seized and brought in as evidence from one timeshare office. No arrests have been made, but Orlando Police say that can change in the near future. Just how much money these timeshare companies were making is unknown at this time. Timeshare Resale Industry Hit Hard If this is not an eye opener to the state of Florida showing just how bad the timeshare resale industry is, then we do not know what is.  These timeshare resale companies move from office to office, changing names, websites, phone numbers to try and hide their identity to keep operating.  They collect upfront fee's calling ... Read More