anyone heard of IMF on Connecticut Avenue, Washington, D.C.? are they legitimate?

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

my Mom received a blind phone call from a lady with this firm, the lady said she had a buyer for my Mom's timeshare, but wanted $2,250 sent for a sales fee, the lady faxed a contract, but the buyer's name was listed as "Corporate"...looks like a scam to me

[timeos2 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close timeos2]

my Mom received a blind phone call from a lady with this firm, the lady said she had a buyer for my Mom's timeshare, but wanted $2,250 sent for a sales fee, the lady faxed a contract, but the buyer's name was listed as "Corporate"...looks like a scam to me

ANY group that calls YOU is 99% certain to be an upfront fee company. What are those? A group that makes great sounding promises to rent/lease/sell/transfer/etc your timeshare or system membership points at a good to great price. They often claim to have a buyer or a renter or a group wanting space, etc - but then YOU have to pay to assure the process gets done. In realty that is all they really want - the upfront money paid by you and they can basically disappear (you'll hear nothing more from them & they will be very hard to impossible to reach) to go after the next victim.

DO NOT try to deal with them as it is a scam. Forget any "guarantees" as they are unenforceable (ask yourself what recourse you'd have if you couldn't reach them tomorrow or they simply never followed through with the promises made). Forget any protection from a credit or debit card. They have things set up so what you are promised meets the minimum requirements to assure they, not you, get paid.

DO NOT try to use them or you will be out whatever money they manage to get from you. THAT is a guarantee you can bank on unlike the meaningless, unenforceable one they are trying to lure you in with.

It sounds like this group is one of this type of scam operation. You are wise to tell her to beware & hopefully look for a real way to sell her ownership if she wants to.

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

The new wave of scammers are now promising "no upfront fee" but like everything else about them, it is just a lie..

They send the timeshare owner a contract, which calls for a broker commission at closing. However, they assign you to a "fake" closing company which requires various fake closing fees and taxes before they can "release the seller's proceeds".

Have your mother contact a respected brokerage and request a free comparative market analysis for what she owns.. Most timeshares have very little resale value in this economy, so hopefully if she knows what price to realistically expect she'll be better prepared to deal with unsolicited scam "offers" that she receives in the future.

Welcome to the Forums.

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

thanks for your replies, my Mom almost fell for the deal, after the "Agent" agreed to shave $250 from the fee, fortunately I was able to read your posts over the phone, to her, and she realizes these people are scammers