Welcome to the last article of January and the end of the first month of the new After Inside Timeshare. Thanks to Irene and our US friends we have had plenty of input about the goings-on in the timeshare world across the great lake and some of our old Inside Timeshare readers have also sent us information on the latest scams. Today we highlight another “TAMPERED” court document, just the same as we have seen in the first article “Spotting The Fake: A Basic Guide”. We also give some advice when commenting on posts, what we have seen is leaving people very much open to scammers.
At the start of last week, we published “Spotting The Fake: A Basic Guide”, which highlighted the use of “fake & tampered” court documents to fool the consumer. As we have seen in the past some of these are very good “fakes”, the latest use is a genuine court document that has been tampered with.
Below is the heading for the genuine court document which we downloaded from official sources, the next is the same case yet the court has changed from Barcelona to Valencia. There has also been added the “NEW DEFENDANT” Club Sunterra.
But it does not end there, compare the two images of the header, then compare this to the cut & paste of the Valencia PDF file below:
The Doctored Header
The Genuine Header
The Cut & Paste Result!
AUDIENCIA PROVINCIAL DE BARCELONA SECCIÓN SÉPTIMA
ROLLO Nº 311/2021, 312/2021, 313/2021 y 383/2021 DILIGENCIAS PREVIAS nº 889/2019 JUZGADO DE INSTRUCCIÓN Nº 16 DE BARCELONA APELANTE: D. S. d. T., M. P. i E., J. V. i T., E. R. L., A. G. P., M. H. S., J. M. i B., R. L. C. y J. R. V. R. Blue Chip S.L.
As you can see the original Barcelona court is back but instead of Club Sunterra a company known as scammers from many years past has appeared, “Blue Chip SL”.
Does this lead us to believe that there are consumers receiving a similar “court document”?
We also have to look at the full document, one of the first things we noticed was the footer of the document, this has not changed from the genuine, it is still stated in Catalan and Castilian “Administration of Catalonia”, which is an autonomous part of Spain.
Again we can see this in both document where it mentions the “Unitat Central Anticorrupció de la Divisió d’Investigació Criminal del Cos de Mossos d’Esquadra.” This is the region’s own police force and has no jurisdiction in Valencia, which is another autonomous region with its own government.
Further down the document it can be seen where Club Sunterra has been added, not very well we must say, different fonts, out of alignment, to name a few.
The copy we have been sent has definitely been tampered with as we have seen with the title page, cutting and pasting from the PDF revealed the changes from a previous document. Then we have the bank Transfer document from Santander.
Apart from the name and address of the “beneficiary” and a reference to a “Civil Case” against Club Sunterra and the reason being “Compensation”, there is nothing else, no IBAN numbers account details, not even a “REFERENCE” number for the transaction.
We also have to ask what is it also showing US Dollars, after all the court would be issuing in Euros to Pounds Sterling?
We then have the settlement description supposedly from the Valencia Court, the defendant’s address is given in Malaga, so the question has to be asked: why is a Valencia court dealing with a case which should be in Malaga and using a Barcelona court document and the Catalan Police?
As we know Club Sunterra disappeared when Sunterra filed Chapter 11 in the US, they were taken over by Diamond. All cases against Sunterra sold timeshares in Spain* have been against Diamond and in the jurisdiction of the court where the business address is located.
*Diamond converted the vast majority of Sunterra members to Diamond Vacation Club through the sale of various points upgrades.
Valencia Club Sunterra Highlighted
Highlighted Genuine Court Transcripts Barcelona
Again we show how easy it is for the fraudsters to deceive you, there was once a saying “the camera never lies”, well, it does and computer technology does as well.
During the weekend in between playing games and being tired out by “Baby Dog”, We had a look at the various groups which we follow, there was something very disturbing that we noticed.
Most groups are “closed”, to post or comment you must be a member, some groups are very strict some not so, but there are many “open” groups and one, in particular, has given rise for concern, Timeshare Cancellation Information on Facebook.
It may have been set up for good reasons and intentions, but it is becoming a “hunting ground” for the “predators”. The number of people who have been sharing sensitive personal information about their timeshares is amazing.
Then we have the comments to their questions, their “recommendations” of the best company to help them, along with links to them. The glowing testimony of how they helped them in their “hour of need”.
It is when we start to look at the links we see the pattern, the scammers are at it. Many of the “Recommendations” were for “companies/law firms” we already know as “dodgy”, including some of the “fake law firms” operating out of Mexico. These were highlighted in the old Inside Timeshare publication.
So we then had a quick look at some of the profiles of those making these recommendations, low and behold just as we thought, very little, all the hallmarks of a “fake” profile and account.
These groups are useful but they also hold a potential danger for the unwary and the vulnerable, our own Fb group has declined several persons due to company links or their profiles did not appear genuine. Some will slip through but eventually, they get found and removed.
Do your checks first, someone in the group may know them or their recommendation, be careful what information you give on the posts and comments. Beware the sudden influx of “personal messages” especially from people you don’t know. Come on folks, how many of us tell our children, grandchildren, nephews and nieces to be careful, yet do we follow that advice?
This is simple advice and also holds for cold calls, unsolicited emails and “court documents”, the “predators” are clever. If in doubt please feel free to contact After Inside Timeshare, we will help you check any company or document you may find suspicious.
Irene Parker
I have rescued about 20 people from the Timeshare Cancellation Information Facebook. One of our volunteers said it should be called Timeshare Cancellation Misinformation. One person I spoke with from that Facebook was asked to send more money because his law firm “had found an investor” for his old timeshare. I asked who called. I know the person. He had been fired from a resort and also spent time in a federal penitentiary for falsifying tax returns. And Wayne Robinson, author of Everything About Timeshares, Before, During and After the Sale, a Mexico expert and former executive and contract reviewer, says no one should retain a Mexico lawyer.