Total money lost $8,500
Type of a scam Travel/Vacations
initially phoned april said tht he had a person who was buying our el cid timeshare with 10 others, it sounded legitimate, i checked the real estate company, I knew my timeshare was worth something, i particularly checked the escrow company, it had a website and i checked the head office which seemed legitimate. I then signed a contract to close in 2 months. they after a few weeks they sent me a request for mexican taxation. which seemed legit also, I also checked reviews and a few said there were taxes to pay. this was $2500 out of a $37,500 sale, then a month later they sent another bill for closing costs in mexico $5500, I debated for a long time, had someone even suggest it could be worth it. both the buyer deposited the equivalent money in the escrow account. I checked the escrow company and it seemed they were legit. then just before the closing date they sent another request for $3500 for a foreign seller, as well as a delay in closing. I then went searching for the escrow info, and found a washington state DFI report stating the escrow company is not associated at all with the parent company that they have a washington office, but somewhere else and since the parent company does not have a website presence, i thought it was legit. (parent is balancedescrow.com, fake is balancedescrowllc.com .