Travel Assistance International LLC

Type of a scam Rental

Timeshare Resorts – Investment Weeks Rental Contract Opportunity

We were contacted by phone by an intermediary, Joseph Rodriguez (Travel Assistance International LLC) in regards to what was referred to as an investment weeks rental contract to transfer available corporate weeks that we held with a timeshare resort to corporate clients interested in renting out our weeks. In order to do so, we would pay up front the associated all-inclusive fees to a financial institution representative (William Russo, Cedar Hill National Bank) working with our intermediary. The contract, insurance policy and associated financial information needed to close the deal was forwarded to my attention to be read in the presence of a representative, signed and returned with a closing date. It was claimed that they represented our resort providing us with a corporate contact (Martin Gonzalez) that engaged us to verify the financial representative’s "authenticity". (Strangely, this corporate call was originating out of Mexico City while our resort is based out of Cancun).

Earlier on when I wanted to verify their legitimacy, both the financial institution representative and the intermediary provided me with web links to the FDIC and State of Florida Sunbiz corporation listing to verify that their respective business affiliation was registered. In the end, more individuals and parties seem to be involved in the transaction as it progressed with information to wire the requested funds to a third-party in Mexico. We forwarded this information to our resort and attempted to reach the financial institution to verify the authenticity of the insurance policy being created on its behalf. Our resort claims that no such rental agreements have been authorized on their behalf at at any level – member or corporate.