VACATIONPROPERTIESBYOWNER.NET Michael Scott Timeshare resales scammers Media Pennsylvania
We corresponded with a Michael Scott, the "sales manager" who was said to be from Media, Pennsylvania and advertised himself as a broker for timeshare resales. He marketed his business as:
VACATIONPROPERTIESBYOWNER.NET.
After paying a fee of $800.00 to Scott, his bookkeeper, Sara Gravely, in their “North Carolina office” was allegedly working with the title company to manage escrow funds, earnest money, and deed transfer. A couple from Pittsburgh signed a “non-rescissionable” contract to buy our California beachfront timeshare and Scott apparently proceeded to deposit the earnest money into his trust account. The buyers were arranging a loan through Scott’s designated lender. Months into this “deal,” Scott reported that the buyers sought a different source of loan funds with better terms and this condition persisted until “the end” when the buyers announced that their lender refused to provide funds for the purchase of our timeshare. Scott announced that the earnest funds were to be transferred to us as per the terms of the contract and current statutes.
Then repeated attempts to reach Scott and Gravely failed. Phone numbers would not be answered. Finally, the Website disappeared (according to ICANN records) and all phone lines were disconnected. We were scammed out of $800.00. And the “real estate” deal was interstate, which means that if we want an investigation or if we want these criminals apprehended, we’d need to spend far more than $800.00 to put these scum in prison.
Not sure that the buyers were not victims themselves, we have not noted their names here. They have a functional email address but our emails have received no responses.
The moral of our story:
DO NOT SELL TIMESHARES USING “BROKERS” WHO ADVERTISE ON THE WEB, AND “TRANSACT” ACROSS STATE LINES, UNLESS THEY ARE CLEARLY PROVEN AND OF THE MAGNITUDE OF A MARRIOTT OR HYATT.