23 November 2023 , 09:52
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Barely a week goes by without a phone call or email promising David McMillan thousands of pounds in compensation for a timeshare he once owned.
Around 20 years ago he bought part-ownership in a two-bedroom apartment in the Hollywood Mirage resort in Tenerife through a company that has since gone into administration.
The latest cold caller insisted that the Spanish courts have now recovered money on behalf of the “points owners” at his former timeshare company.
“The caller said they had a banker’s draft in mine and my wife’s name for €47,130, about £39,000 at the time,” said David. “However, she couldn’t pass it on because there was apparently an embargo and I would have to ring the court in Madrid to find out why.
“She said the money was collected by the court from Silverpoint Vacations which replaced Resort Properties, the company from whom I bought the timeshare from on Tenerife in the early 2000s.
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“Both went bust and my timeshare went with them.”
David phoned the number he was given for the Spanish court and was told that the hold-up was due to difficulties transferring money from Spain to Britain.
He was then called by someone saying that he worked in the litigation department in the Madrid court and had great news – there was another £56,000 waiting once the first payment went through.
“He then sprang the news that I would have to pay a fee of £2,850 for the work involved by solicitors to get the paperwork in order,” said David.
“I said they could take that from the money due to me but he maintained that this was not possible.”
David was then emailed an invoice and although the letterhead had the emblem of the Tribunal Supremo, the supreme court in Madrid, the account he was being asked to pay was not a court or government one.
“I was told that this was a private account because they were all freelance workers at the litigation department,” said David.
In a sure sign that this was a scam, the letter included a line telling him to lie to his bank if it contacted him to raise queries about the payment.
“If asked the purpose of the transaction you must say its (sic) a personal transaction and you know the person you are sending to,” the letter read.
Wisely deciding that this stank worse than a week-old paella, he decided to have nothing more to do with this shower, but that’s not been the end of it.
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“Since then I have had countless people saying they will act for me and get me compensation,” he said.
“I get calls and emails every week, they say they’re no win, no fee, but they all want money upfront.
“I tell them I’m not interested, my wife and I had 15 years of lovely holidays and I got some returns from some other apartments I invested in, I’m content to leave it at that.
“I think Silverpoint owners must be on some list that is being touted around.”
And it’s not just Silverpoint, other timeshare owners face the same plague of predatory scammers offering compensation deals for upfront fees.
The investigations and verification company KwikChex has come across numerous cases of former timeshare customers being targeted by compensation charlatans, particularly if they were owners in Silverpoint or Club La Costa.
“Some of these are out and out fraudsters who will not even file a claim, others are well-known ‘claims businesses’,” said KwikChex co-founder Chris Emmins.
“These businesses often fail to clarify that these will be ‘contingent claims’, which are extremely speculative and based on there being sufficient assets at the end of the process to pay the claims, when all the current evidence indicates that there is no viability.
"I regard this as serious misrepresentation by omission – businesses are obliged by law not to omit material facts that may affect a consumer’s decision to purchase a service and not to exaggerate potential benefits and returns."