The Better Business Bureau listed the “sell my timeshare now” scam as one of the most common business frauds for the past year, which means an extraordinary amount of people fall victim to these scams on a regular basis. People often feel that they are not at risk of getting involved in these scams and take the “it will never happen to me” attitude. Unfortunately, they are far more deceiving than many realize and have the potential to cause a lot of damage.
Some of the ways that these scams can devastate you include:
Financial Distress
These scams can potentially drain you of quite a bit of money. By posing as legitimate real estate professionals, these con artists convince countless timeshare owners that in order to get rid of their timeshare they must shell over hundreds, even thousands of dollars of their hard earned money. Oftentimes it is because they believe they will receive most of the money back once the timeshare is sold, but these scams either take your money and disappear or are able to keep your money through contractual loopholes. Since the reason many people want to sell their timeshares in the first place is to save money, it can be extremely damaging when these scams take off with even more of their cash.
Emotional Trauma
This is especially true in the cases where the company disbands after receiving your money. These are also the “sell my timeshare now” scams that require the steepest fees, draining customers of up to $3,000 per transaction! Since most people don’t have that kind of money to lose, it can cause a lot of stress and emotional hurt when that kind of money is taken from them with little discourse to get it back without investing more money into legal counsel.
No Results
Since these scams often leave the owner still in possession of their timeshare, they are still responsible for the financial side of that even after they have been conned out of a good chunk of cash. Maintenance fees are expensive, and many can’t afford to take a hit by being scammed AND keep up with their financial responsibilities to their timeshares.
Broken Trust
Since you are scammed trying to get rid of your timeshare, it often causes people to reevaluate whether or not they should continue trying to sell their property. They often feel that all timeshare resale companies are scams and that they are better off struggling to keep a timeshare they don’t want than to risk falling victim to another scam.
It is important to realize that not all timeshare resale companies are scams, and that with the right information you can identify and avoid “sell my timeshare now” scams and successfully be rid of your timeshare once and for all! Using reliable resources and working with reputable professionals to avoid these scams is the easiest way to sell your timeshare, and you can do so without the worry of falling victim to one of these scams and dealing with the aftermath they often leave behind.
