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Beware of Possible Scam [merged - Andria Carbone - TEI Five Star Resorts]

Seaport104

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I received inquiries from the same person on two of my Marriott high demand weeks I have posted on tug for rent indicating they were interested in "buying" the week requesting for my phone number.

I called and supposedly she is a broker that will rent out my weeks to existing clients but I have to pay $199 for each week to cover advertising expenses. :hysterical:

I explained that I was not interested and have worked with reputable brokers before and they contact me if they have a renter and under no instance have I ever paid a broker a fee to list my rental.

The more I spoke to her, the clearer it became that for someone who claims they have clients lined up to rent my weeks that she had no clue of the market or knew anything about the resort.

Just a heads up to anyone else who may be receiving a similar "inquiry"
 

DeniseM

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Please post more info. about them, so Tuggers know who she is.
 

DeniseM

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Is it ok for me to post the name, email and phone number?

If you are comfortable with it - I post it every time I run across one of these scammers.
 

theo

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If you are comfortable with it - I post it every time I run across one of these scammers.

Yup ---- it's a whole lot more helpful to openly identify a scammer, once confirmed as such, to better provide useful advance warning to others. JMHO. :shrug:
 

traveldaddy

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Warning: Andria Carbone - TEI Five Star Resorts [MERGED AT THIS POINT]

I thought I should post because I was contacted by someone for a TUG marketplace ad and it clearly is a scam.

Situation: I have a sub $500 TS for sale in south carolina. I received a TUG message asking about it. The exchange went something like this after initial contact.

1st email: Hi again, I need the name of the resort as it appears on the deed, the week number and number of bedrooms.
Annual usage?

2nd email: I have a buyer for the Sheraton Broadway Plantation two bedroom at $23,900.

My response: As long as you can back that up with notarized purchase agreement and a certified check, then we can talk.

3rd email: I don't think we are on the same page. Have a nice day.


If anyone has any comments for others on what I should have done differently, please add them. The intent of the post is to warn others, although this one was so obviously a scam, hopefully no one needed this as a warning. Although I didn't make it to the request to pay some sort of fee (which I am sure was coming) it still took up my time. I don't like the idea that someone is trolling TUG to try to dupe people, so I thought I should post.

Craig
 
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DeniseM

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What email address are they using?

Sent from my BNTV400 using Tapatalk
 

Seaport104

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Yup ---- it's a whole lot more helpful to openly identify a scammer, once confirmed as such, to better provide useful advance warning to others. JMHO. :shrug:

It looks like she contacted another tugger as well. Below is contact info that was provided.

"Andria | andrracarbone@gmail.com | 727-831-0281 "
 

chertodd10

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Andria Carbone/Smith - TEI

Hi there. Just saw this now. We have been dealing with Andria and had sent her $500USD for the sale of our condo in Mexico. I had done some searching before I spoke with her and didn't see anything listed bad about her and she used to own Timeshare Executive International so we trusted her. I've been sending her emails and she has been responding to me. I have spoke with her on the phone as well. I guess we can kiss this money good-bye.
 

RX8

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So sorry to hear. You are sure to hear from her again as she will be calling saying she needs more money for Mexican taxes, title insurance or something else. You might consider filing a police report although that might be useless because the perp is likely in Mexico.
 

VacationForever

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I got contacted this morning by the same person (Andria Carbone with her email and phone number) to send my phone number to her for a TUG marketplace sale ad that I had placed. The message was suspicious enough that I was not going to respond. I searched for her name on TUG and found this thread.

This was in her message: Andria | andriacarbone@gmail.com | 727-831-0281
 
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TUGBrian

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another gentle reminder that anyone (including non members) can contact you thru your ad in the marketplace.

it is only if you reply to a message in the marketplace that you actually give your personal email out to anyone.
 

chertodd10

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So sorry to hear. You are sure to hear from her again as she will be calling saying she needs more money for Mexican taxes, title insurance or something else. You might consider filing a police report although that might be useless because the perp is likely in Mexico.

We have this happen to us by a Bradley Lawrence from Mexico. He was the one who sold us the timeshare originally and worked for the company, so we trusted him. He was finally charged a few years ago and put into jail for some drug related incidents. Apparently he was somewhat tortured in jail, so I guess Karma got him. Not sure if he ever did time for the timeshare scams. We didn't notify the police, but wondering if we should have. He scammed us out of $2,500USD. That was about 6 years ago. Not sure if it would be worth it to do something now. We saved all the emails and all the receipts we paid him.
 

chertodd10

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Andria Carbone

She is now calling us from this line - VALLEY VICKI at 011 1-772-336-3655. We haven't heard from her in weeks and she claims our buyer has been out of town as that's why we haven't heard back from her. We told her we had a sale on our condo and she told us we would get some of our money back if we could prove the sale. So, I intend to do so and will let you know what happens.
 

theo

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She is now calling us from this line - VALLEY VICKI at 011 1-772-336-3655. We haven't heard from her in weeks and she claims our buyer has been out of town as that's why we haven't heard back from her. We told her we had a sale on our condo and she told us we would get some of our money back if we could prove the sale. So, I intend to do so and will let you know what happens.

Prove what and to whom exactly? How?
Who would allegedly be paying "some of your money back"?

Just a word of caution here, with no offense or disrespect intended. You've already willingly paid $500 upfront. As a result, you've likely been "marked" as a sucker.
Any "help" you are offered from this point forward will almost certainly involve your suddenly having to cough up even more money to help "resolve" the matter.
Whether it's called a Mexican transfer fee, tortilla tax, escrow charge or any other such nonsense --- don't pay another dime out of your own pocket.

Think of it this way --- you are a seller. Sellers receive money from a sale, they don't pay upfront money to a unknown third party to sell in any legitimate transaction.
 
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Bwolf

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Well, she is still at it. Somehow she got my phone number. Luckily, I referred her to my toss-away email address. Andria Smith or Andria Carbone and TEI. Just to let her know, I replied to her email and told her that TUG has her pegged as a scammer.
 

JeffA

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this scammer just called me today 6/19/17! I had spoke to her last year July 2016 also, she got my phone number from one of my ads either on here on another site, so she tells me that she has someone that will buy my timeshare for $10,000 but first I need to send her $500 to cover her fees smh, last year she even had the nerve to try to get me to send her money through Paypal Friends and Family! which would mean you can't dispute the transaction, she is a piece of work! this is the phone number she has been texting and calling me on this year and last year also 727-831-0281 and this is the email address she sent me paperwork from andriacarbone@gmail.com
 

Talent312

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"tortilla tax" - I like that.
I guess the "taco-transfer fee" is bogus, too.
 
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