It is Royal Resorts policy to alert members of possible scams attempted by companies or individuals operating online. On this occasion we would like to share reports received from several member about a company called CTrip, which called or emailed them with offers to buy their villas.
This company claims to be a travel service provider in China, but the offer received by members has a Mexico City address.
CTrip representatives contact members to make them an offer for their unit, invariably more than the asking price to make it seem attractive. If the offer is accepted they charge the member a processing fee, which is a percentage of the price and runs into thousands of dollars. Sometimes they claim to be charging Membership Company fees (fees that your Membership Company does not charge you).
According to information the member received from the Owners Manual, which has seen evidence of a number of scams involving CTrip, when the member issues a check for the processing fee the representative sends a money order, which arrives late. The money order turns out to be a forgery with no funds when the member goes to cash it. Needless to say, the representative has vanished and the affected party has no way of getting his/her money back.
The Owners Manual has seen many cases where the fraudsters disappear with the check and the membership unit. They target the elderly and people who may have their timeshare on the market anyway. The red flags to be aware of are that scammers offer a ridiculously inflated sale price that sounds too good to be true and ask for money upfront to cover processing and administrative fees.
If you receive a call or email from CTrip or any of the companies we have alerted you to in the past, we recommend that you do not do business with them.
When such companies contact you via email or phone to offer unsolicited broker, resale, exchange or rental services and ask for cash in advance to cover “administrative fees” “guarantees” or “deposits” it is generally a good indication that they may not be genuine and if you pay it is very possible that you will not hear from them again.
Protecting your personal information
Royal Resorts has a rigorous privacy policy and is in full compliance with privacy laws. Our members’ personal information is confidential and we do everything possible to protect it. We do not sell and have never sold personal information to third parties.
Always follow these steps if you receive a suspicious email or phone call:
- Check the source of the email if the company or individual claims to be associated with Royal Resorts. All Royal Resorts communications are sent from an official royalresorts.com email address, if this is not the case, then the email is not from Royal Resorts.
• Disregard the email or phone call if money is requested in advance for resale or other timeshare-related services.
• Do not supply personal data or the contact details of friends if referrals are requested.
• Do an online background check on the company to see if it is legitimate.
• Ask Royal Resorts if you are in any doubt, we are here to help you.
• Above all, do not send any money.
We recommend that you avoid disclosing your personal information on forums, blogs and other open media venues and participation in Internet referral schemes that ask you to send the names and details of friends. When you provide your information to others in order to rent, sell or lend your unit please ensure that your information will be protected.
