Be Wary of Time Share Scams and Negligent Advice
Wednesday, October 14, 2020
Numerous honest folks have been bilked out of small fortunes by fake parties or scammers in time share sales or purchases and other transactions. A simple Google search of Mexican Time Share Scams will light up your screen with pages of links to government warning and sad stories of honest folks losing substantial funds to scammers in connection with bogus transactions. Their websites and emails are very sophisticated and convincing even to professionals and savvy persons.
I even had a case where an attorney from Long Island was representing a seller followed fraudulent wire transfer instructions and advised his client as the seller to wire funds several times to the buyer’s agent (the reverse of the most usual transaction where only the buyer, not the seller, deposits money with an escrow agent) into a Mexican bank. Each time the client questioned the attorney and he poorly advised her to send the money by wire transfer until the deal failed, and the client had to sue her own attorney for negligence / legal malpractice. After much time and expense, the case was settled before trial for the full amount of all the wire transfers.
When in doubt, check it out and do not hesitate to ask for a second opinion from another attorney and / or financial advisor.
The Scammers are everywhere and even educated people and professionals get scammed out of their hard earned money. Be extra wary when being contacted directly by someone looking to buy your time shares that are not even on the market for sale.
