We own annual Villa Del Palmar points and were recently contacted by a UK firm with Mexican connections with an offer to purchase them (bedbooker.com). Offer was unsolicited so obviously we are skeptical - at this point they want nothing for upfront money but will take a 5% fee from the purchase price after the purchase is completed. Sounds too good to be true - we are interested but obviously will not give them a cent until the funds are safely in our hands. Strongly suspect this is a new angle but curious to see if anyone has successfully disposed of Mexican timeshare/vacation club points using this organization. Thanks - knowledge is power!
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Anyone been contacted by bedbooker for purchase of VDP points?
- Thread starter Fantax
- Start date
Iggyearl
TUG Member
You WILL be asked to wire funds for some fee, tax, service, registration. For further reading from a pro-developer website:
https://www.insidethegate.com/how-to-spot-a-scam/the-mexico-escrow-scam-2/
https://www.insidethegate.com/how-to-spot-a-scam/the-mexico-escrow-scam-2/
Thanks for the quick reply and link - I had that link bookmarked from several years ago and probably should have read it again. I believe that scammers always prey on those who were gullible enough to fall for the well-delivered pitch initially. We continue to kick ourselves for our earlier bad decisions - but also will continue to use those facilities to the maximum while we are still able to travel and enjoy them. The old axiom - "if it sounds too good to be true - it is too good to be true" still applies. I will update the thread as the process plays out - and never will send funds. Hopefully it may prevent others from falling prey - I know the scammers change names frequently to stay ahead of the law.
Update - November 21 - The Bedbooker organization sent a "contract document" through a Houston Texas law firm for our signatures to proceed with the sale. A call to our contact resulted in sincere verbal assurances that we would not need to provide any funds until we had the sale proceeds in our account. At this point I pulled the plug on the process based on numerous warning signs that were present such as sketchy law firm with potential fictitious address, unbelievable offer to purchase, initial contact was unsolicited "cold call", availability of Villa Del Palmar "points" on TUG for sale listings for much less than they were offering and experience with the reality of timeshare points actual cash value. Bottom line as widely communicated through various TUG forums - "If it sounds too good to be true, it is too good to be true".
fgtttj
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All, I appreciate you posting this as it helped me keep my guard up. I too was contacted by them in November and just felt the need to see what their angle was on the scam. So the scam is pretty good. Best one i've seen yet. They have fake law firms and even emulated customer service at my resort. I was impressed at what lengths they will go to in order to attempt to get a few grand out of people.
Here's what they did:
1. Have a nice woman contact me and make an offer to buy my timeshare
2. Have a seasoned "manager" answer the difficult questions, promise you won't pay up front, make you feel comfortable, etc.
3. Get a copy of your contract, so they know all the terms. I contacted my resort up front to make sure Bedbooker couldn't do anything with this, just to make sure.
4. Have a fake attorney's office set up a loan sheet. This attorney's office has a website and everything. Though I was only contacted by "paralegals".
5. They set up fake papers from my resort using people's names who actually work at the resort. They called to go over the steps to sign the resort over, pretending they work at the resort. They even asked me why i was selling and if they could counteroffer (not that they ever did, but props for going all out on the scam). They also placed the logo from my resort on the transaction papers.
6. They state in the email that the financial beneficiary of the transfer amount is not the resort, its some made up company. It states that the company "must be the financial beneficiary or the sale won't go through".
7. The attorneys office calls and apologizes for the amount of money the transfer costs, and says that Bedbooker will reimburse the amount if I act quickly.
Pretty good scam. I hope I save at least one person the agony of falling for it. Remember: if they contact you, offer is really good and you eventually have to pay up front, it's not real!
Here's what they did:
1. Have a nice woman contact me and make an offer to buy my timeshare
2. Have a seasoned "manager" answer the difficult questions, promise you won't pay up front, make you feel comfortable, etc.
3. Get a copy of your contract, so they know all the terms. I contacted my resort up front to make sure Bedbooker couldn't do anything with this, just to make sure.
4. Have a fake attorney's office set up a loan sheet. This attorney's office has a website and everything. Though I was only contacted by "paralegals".
5. They set up fake papers from my resort using people's names who actually work at the resort. They called to go over the steps to sign the resort over, pretending they work at the resort. They even asked me why i was selling and if they could counteroffer (not that they ever did, but props for going all out on the scam). They also placed the logo from my resort on the transaction papers.
6. They state in the email that the financial beneficiary of the transfer amount is not the resort, its some made up company. It states that the company "must be the financial beneficiary or the sale won't go through".
7. The attorneys office calls and apologizes for the amount of money the transfer costs, and says that Bedbooker will reimburse the amount if I act quickly.
Pretty good scam. I hope I save at least one person the agony of falling for it. Remember: if they contact you, offer is really good and you eventually have to pay up front, it's not real!
LannyPC
TUG Member
Yes, they do have to be pretty creative to be able to call a total stranger and get that person to wire funds or give credit card info paying out hundreds or thousands of dollars.
And it's not just "a few grand out of people" they're getting. If you search for some threads and articles here on TUG, you will see how some of these scammers have been caught after swindling hundreds of thousands out of people.
Thanks for the update and confirmation - During the last phone call I had I told them that their offer was simply not credible, their US "attorney" law firm was fake - no such licensed lawyer and law firm not listed as a tenant in the building - and stop calling us. The guy suddenly go very rude and slammed the phone - no further communication since (thankfully). They probably have opened up shop with another name by now. We are in Mexico now and attended a sales pitch at Vidanta (Mayan Palace) - went through 5 levels of "better deals" from increasingly high level closers. Declined all and walked away with the cash that had been offered. All in all it was almost satisfying to beat them at their own game - the last closer was not rude, but obviously lost his happy best friend face and could not understand how we could be so stupid to pass up the great offer he proposed (90 minutes ended up to be about 5 hours) Since we are here for 3 weeks we could afford to burn 1/2 day although it was tiring. We did find that they employed cameras throughout the sales room and observed the couples when the left the table for us to "talk it over". That was enough for us on this trip - although I suppose couples could actually make some pretty good money attending presentations until they were "blacklisted" by the industry. Not really my idea of fun. I am glad that my first posting was useful and encourage all others to sound the alarm when scammers attempt to strike.
^^Good warning post. These people who cold called you are not just scammers they are criminals. Sadly, your name is now on a "sucker list" and the fact that you communicated with them means that you are going to be the target of criminals for years if not the rest of your life.