Attorney General Cracks Down on Florida Timeshare Company for Alleged Violations

A cease and desist order has been issued by North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem to a Florida timeshare company based in Palm Beach Gardens. The company has allegedly made false promises to timeshare owners telling the owners that they have timeshare buyers in place for their properties.

Attorney General Stenehjem says that the Florida timeshare company’s practices are a timeshare scam and that their claims to the timeshare owners are “untrue” and “are nothing more than a ruse to obtain money under false pretenses.” (source: LegalNewsline.com)

Here is the link to the Cease and Desist Order on the website for the North Dakota Attorney General.

Safe and Reliable Timeshare Sales and Timeshare Resales

With so many safe and reliable ways to buy timeshare or sell timeshare resales, it would seem that fraudsters wouldn’t be able to survive. But as long as we live in a world where people will trustingly wire money to a Nigerian (or scammer from any other location) who randomly shows up in their email with a story that is “too good to be true” then bogus or disreputable timeshare companies will continue to spring up.

Despite how it sometimes seems that timeshare scams are always popping up in the news, they are far from the biggest trouble area for consumer fraud. Identity theft, building contractor fraud, and investment scams are only a few of the problems that do more damage and occur more often than do timeshare scams.

Timely Reminder: Since since December is the month in which consumers tend to do the most “consuming” it also becomes peak season for identity theft. While we have all heard the warnings, it is amazing how we don’t always heed them, so it never hurts to repeat what has been said so many times before:

• When you shop online, make sure you are dealing with authentic websites. Counterfeit websites do an amazing job of ‘looking like the real thing’.
• Don’t walk around with your life story in your purse or wallet. Carry only essential information.
• Shred, shred, shred; otherwise, you are just handing your personal information over to potential criminals.
• Sleep on it. Before you make a major purchase of any kind or sign a contract, tell the sales person you want time to think it over. Chances are, he or she will do everything possible to try to persuade you that this deal won’t be around if you don’t “act now”. Fine! No one should make buying or selling decisions with the feeling that he or she is being pressured into it.
• Lastly, remember, if a deal, whether it is a timeshare deal, absurdly cheap airfares, or an unbelievable price on electronics, seems too good to be true, assume there is a catch and assume you are likely to get caught up in it.