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

A boiler room is an active place of business where questionable or even shady products or services are sold over the telephone.  The sales people use high pressure sales tactics which are commonly unfair, dishonest or blatant lies to get the sale made.  A sale is made when the person on the other end of the telephone (let's call them a victim) gives up their credit card or banking information to the suspected timeshare boiler room where in MOST (not all) cases they will never hear from that company again.  The main goal for a timeshare boiler room is to make sales and put money on "the board" as quickly and as many times as possible. Office Setup Most timeshare boiler rooms are cramped and very tight, that is why sometimes when you are on the phone with a sales person you can hear others in the background.  Cubicles are placed close to one another to fit as many sales people into the office as possible.  The more sales people, the greater potential the company has of making a bigger profit.  It is a numbers game where the more phone lines and chair space the timeshare company has they are increasing the ... Read More

When you are called by a timeshare resale company, the salesperson always starts out their pitch with the full price of the companies advertising package.  In this example we will use the price of $900 and show you how the deferred payment scam really works and why people fall victim to this tactic that is highly used not only in the timeshare resale industry, but I would say other telemarketing industries (debt relief, mortgage help, etc).  Please note the following is just an example to show you how some timeshare resale companies try to lure you into their trap to get your money. Sales Person Ms. Smith I am glad you understand fully how well our service can work for you in selling/renting your timeshare property.  Would you like for me to put the $900 advertising fee on your credit card today or would you like to use a check by phone? Ms. Smith I cannot afford to pay you $900, that is to much money.  I will have to talk this over with my husband first. Sales Person Not a problem Ms. Smith, let me tell you what I can do for you today to make this easier on your wallet.  We ... Read More

The timeshare resale industry has a lot of "boiler room" companies that are only out for one thing, YOUR MONEY.  They will say just about anything over the telephone for you to earn their trust and hand over your payment information. Some of these timeshare resale companies will stop at nothing just to get your money.  You see, that is how they make their money and they have to keep signing up new customers/victims to keep the cycle going.  We will save that post for another day and break down how people are paid and where the money can possibly go to.  Instead let's focus on what a lot of the timeshare resale scam companies are saying over the telephone. We already have a buyer waiting - This is a very common thing that a timeshare resale telemarketer will use over the phone and highly illegal.  Chances are their is nobody waiting to buy your timeshare, that is just the bait they use on the hook to lure you in with.  You are thinking they are as high profile as they claim to be and will get the job done.  So you hand over your payment information and the scam has been ... Read More