Need your help - Survey about timeshare scam

[StudentULg Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close StudentULg]

Hello everybody,

I am currently student in the last year of Master of Criminology at Liege university (Belgium). Within the framework of my Master Thesis which deals with the scam in the timeshare field, I am making a survey among the timeshare victims in order to better determine and understand the life experience of timeshare victims.

This survey is aimed to each people who considers to be a victim of scam linked with the timeshare field. So, if this is your case, please fulfill the present questionnaire (which takes approximately 10 minutes).

It is also important to specify that the questionnaire is strictly anonymous !

Please find below the link to the questionnaire :
https://spreadsheets.google.com/spre...UlJvNTlaMVE6MQ

I thank you in advance for your collaboration.

[GrayFal Silver Contributor and supermoderator Find all posts View Profile Close GrayFal]

So you are only looking for people who feel they were scammed?
Not owners who are pleased/happy with their ownerships?

[1950bing Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close 1950bing]

Give me that form, I'll fill it out !!!!!!!!!!

[dougp26364 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dougp26364]

A scam would involve an illegal activity. Timeshare sales, if that's what you're refering too, is not an illegal activity. It may be considered an unwise real estate type purchase but, you get what you pay for. That being the right to use a specified amount of time at the resort you purchased at or, a resort grouping to which you belong.

Unwise purchase is not necessarily a scam. It's just an unwise purchase. Believe it or not, some people purchase a timeshare and actually enjoy what they own.

If you want a scam, you need to look towards the resell market and those who scam unhappy owners out of hundreds or thousands more. These are the true scammers. They call or send a postcard telling you how they can sell your timeshare for far more than it's worth. They ask for money upfront and tell you they have a buyer. In the end, all they have is your money.

Then there are the companies who tell you to give them $2,999 and they'll make your timeshare go away. They promise to transfer the title out of your name and they'll depose of the timeshare. Unfortunately, some of these companies take the money but leave the timeshare in the owners name. When they can't dispose of the timeshare, the original owner still get stuck with another years MF's. This after having given a company thousands of dollars to get it out of their name.

Developers are slick salesmen but, what they're doing is legal and, in the end, you get what they sell you. It's not their fault that to many people buy a timeshare, then never figure out how to use it. Is it a wise purchase? No, it's a luxury purchase sold to a lot of people who probably have no business buying luxury items.

[1950bing Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close 1950bing]

If a salesman tells all the lies he needs to get one to sign how is that getting what you paid for? I didn't !!!!

[StudentULg Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close StudentULg]

Thank you to those who have already responded to my request.

However, in order to validate my survey, I need more answers to my questionnaire. So, could you please take a few minutes of your time to respond ? It would help me a lot. Thank you in advance for your precious participation !

Here is the link to access to the questionnaire :

https://spreadsheets.google.com/spre...laMVE6MQ#gid=0

Thank you again for your help.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

Just curious . . . how can a survey of strangers on the Internet be used in a thesis?
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FWIW, for others, I don't see any mention of illegal, in the OP, just scam. That leaves it pretty wide open, like more than ten years ago when Stroman's escrow attorney absconded with our (and everyone else's) escrow money and Stroman refused to do anything about it.

Or when a developer never turns control over to owners, and keeps nickel and diming them.

The public would likely say there must be element of scam involved when someone sells a dumpy apartment in a 40-year-old building for $1,000,000, especially when it cannot get a $1 bid on eBay.



Hey, there's an idea . . . anyone want 1/50 of a 2-bed/2 bath on a canal in SW FL? Lotsa golf and Gulf nearby.

$25K would do it . . . pick your week, or float (during storm surge).

[rikkis_playpen Diamond Club Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close rikkis_playpen]

Lead generation for scams pays pretty well.. What better leads than people who admit they already took the bait once..

Kind of like fishing, I've always been amazed that the same fish can get caught twice! You'd think the painful first lesson would have been enough to stop the behavior....

Guess not!

[eal Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close eal]

Canadian universities require at least two pages of explanation and consent before using a questionnaire in research, especially at the master's level. This post just doesn't sit right with me...

[JoshA Member Find all posts View Profile Close JoshA]

Maybe is different in Belgium!