Total money lost $28,000
Type of a scam Travel/Vacations
Why there are human beings in this world that has no feelings for people they can scam or fraud another person without thinking of what financial and mental stress they are putting on that person’s life. I ask that question to myself every minute matter of fact when I found out that I am getting scammed I had an anxiety attack and ended up at the emergency.
My story begins in September of 2015 when I purchased a time share from my neighbor who was too old to travel just to help him out. When we went to get it transferred it cost me $1400.00 plus whatever I paid him. Last year in May we went to Mexico on that timeshare and on our 3rd day we were invited to a session to understand about out time share and surprisingly that is the first time we were informed that we will have to pay a maintenance fee of $10,000.00 if we do not upgrade our time share so we reluctantly agreed and upgraded to a Grand Mayan and paid the $11,000.00 deposit. After coming back we went through the contract and realized that this was not what we were thinking so we called to the Vida vacation got most of it straighten out. There was a $21,000.00 outstanding balance that we were in the process of getting it paid when we were informed of my dad who was living in Sydney Australia is really sick and in his last days of his life. We took the first flight and went to Australia. My dad was in palliative care where I spent most of my time feeding, taking care of him with the nurses and doctors. After 2 weeks he passed away I had to spend thousands of dollars for his funeral and returned to Canada after a month.
These were tough days of my life, I was in a shock of losing my dad and I had outstanding bills to be paid including the timeshare balance. I was mentally stressed and was thinking of selling the timeshare that will help me financially. Sometimes late January one morning I got a call from the company called Brokerage America 425 Park Ave New York NY 10022 Telephone number (646) 517-8760. I spoke to 2 individuals male and female and they told me that they are the brokers working for this very well knows a company. They told me that they have a buyer and they will sell my time share in 2 weeks. After checking them on the internet and under fraud and scam they looked clean so I agreed, although I was still a bit nervous as it is a lot of money, however, after finding out that all the transaction will be dealt with an Escrow title company I felt better. She gave me the name of the Escrow Company – All Counties Escrow 815 Superior Ave Cleveland OH 44114 phone (216) 800-4540. I am being Canadian had full confidence in Escrow companies because they are regulated by the state governments but I still called the consumer office in Ohio and found that company is also a well-rated tile company.
I proceeded with the paperwork from both of the companies signed the agreements and based on their request I wired the $21,000.00 from my line of Credit to the bank account in Mexico. After a few days later I got a call from Brokerage America to wire another $7,000.00 because the Vida Vacation needs to transfer the timeshare. I called the Vida Vacation and found out that they do need to get paid to transfer the timeshare but will not disclose the amount. I wired another $7,000.00 in good faith hoping to sell the timeshare and pay the bills. When I was talking to Vida vacation they did tell me that I have to be very careful because there are lots of scammers and the only thing they need is your money.
On Monday, January 30th I received another call from Brokerage America that now I have to pay another $16,000.00 for tax in Mexico. He told me that he was not aware that I will have to pay the tax so I call the Vida vacation to find out if I will have to pay and they told me that no and they made me realize that I am getting sucked into a major scam. I called a lawyer in Mexico and he did some research and told me that there is no tax required and I got scammed for lots of money. The details of the process were so real that I could believe that I am getting scammed. The escrow company and the Brokerage America called me desperately requesting to pay that $16,000.00 immediately. They gave me 72hours to pay and if I will not pay then they will cancel the contract and keep the money I sent them. The initial agreement to sell the time share was offered to me for $57,000.00 and I was not given who is buying (no documentation in writing) the completion date was not in the agreement. The whole process got halted when another $16,000.00 was requested for the tax and the buyer’s offer went over $100,000.00 for the timeshare that is worth $32,000.00 us, not even half of what I would have paid.