Victim Location 94709
Total money lost $14,900.17
Type of a scam Rental
LegacyTitle contacted us after we were initially contacted by "Vida Vacations". (Caution, I believe this is not the true timeshare company, Vidanta, but a look-alike scam name. Don’t necessarily immediately jump on Vida/Vidanta as a scammer.) I’ll call them fakeVida.
We do own a timeshare at real Vida Vacations, and I booked a week in Mexico, and attended it, no fake no scam. The contact was [email protected]
Subsequently I received an email from fakeVida, with contact email [email protected] It had the same logo and official-seeming corporate office information as realVida — but different email. Supposedly, there was going to be a golf tournament, and fakeVida was willing to rent my weeks, at a profit to me. They said that they were working with Legacy Title, a US-based company, that would hold all the funds in escrow. So fakeLegacyTitle is working in collaboration with fakeVida.
fakeLegacyTitle gave me a link and contract number and password for an escrow account I could check to see that the money was being held there. I was called numerous times by Angel Lopez at fakeLegacy, supposedly reassuring me that they money was there and all was legitimate.
After that, there were numerous calls and emails, each time with claims that the Mexican government had imposed fees on the transaction: RFC reactivation fee, Capital gains tax, and finally something about a money-laundering transaction maximum that the escrow amount had triggered. At that point, I finally realized it was a scam.