Another timeshare scammer bites the dust!

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

From the Saturday, 9/10/11, edition of the St. Louis Post Dispatch:


EAST ST. LOUIS > Man admits telemarketing scam • Ralph Johnson, 34, of Delray Beach, Fla., pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud in a telemarketing scam that cost more than 22,000 people — including at least 54 from Southern Illinois — about $30 million, prosecutors said. Five others have been indicted. Johnson is alleged to have participated in 2009, although prosecutors said it went on from 2007-10. They said Johnson was a telemarketer for Universal Marketing Solutions and Creative Vacation Solutions, and took more than $282,000 from 141 victims. Prosecutors say the fraud involved cold-calling timeshare owners, pretending to have buyers and asking for up to several thousand dollars in closing costs. Officials said there were victims in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Canada.


I would just like to hear that the big cheeses behind these scams are going to jail, not just the ones making the calls.

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

More Indictments for Creative Vacation Solutions

EAST ST. LOUIS • Two telemarketers for a Florida company was indicted in federal court here Wednesday on a conspiracy to commit mail fraud charge and accused of scamming time share owners.

Joseph Arthur Grizzanti and Kenneth Foote were telemarketers with Creative Vacation Solutions, whose employees cold-called time share owners and flasely claimed that they had buyers waiting, the indictment says. The closing fees that CVS charged the owners depended on how desperate those owners seemed, the indictment says.

The indictment accuses Grizzanti of conspiring with CVS owner Jennifer Kirk and others from Feb. 1, 2009 to Sept. 2009.

In all, prosecutors say that CVS collected $29.3 million but never arranged a single timeshare sale. Grizzanti is accused of scamming 78 victims out of $156,000 and Foote is accused of scamming 40 out of $79,000.

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

I remember when the Gonczis were busted about ten years ago for their timeshare REIT scam. Their MO was that before acquiring the timeshare the REIT needed to be sure that there was clean title. So they had the sellers pay about $495 for a title search; the title firm as an affiliated outfit that just spit out worthless pieces of paper.

*****

All that's fundamentally changed since then is that the perps are getting between $1000 and $5000 per victim instead of the measly $495 the Gonczis were taking. Makes the Gonczis look like pikers now; I wonder if they're sitting around smacking themselves in the forehead for not having been as audacious in their fee as they could have been.

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

& some folks wonder why most folks despise timeshare



It makes me wonder why more folks don't despise the industry itself. The industry is what has forced owners to become the victims of scammers, by not providing and ignoring the need for an exit strategy.

All owners eventually will wake up . . . at exit time. Only when it becomes personal, you know.

Yeah, I know Mr. Bum, more whining.

consistent, though

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

Somebody in their prison may be smacking them in the head instead.

I remember when the Gonczis were busted about ten years ago for their timeshare REIT scam. Their MO was that before acquiring the timeshare the REIT needed to be sure that there was clean title. So they had the sellers pay about $495 for a title search; the title firm as an affiliated outfit that just spit out worthless pieces of paper.

*****

All that's fundamentally changed since then is that the perps are getting between $1000 and $5000 per victim instead of the measly $495 the Gonczis were taking. Makes the Gonczis look like pikers now; I wonder if they're sitting around smacking themselves in the forehead for not having been as audacious in their fee as they could have been.