Welcome to the new Friday page which now replaces our old Letter from America which was supplied by Irene Parker. We will say that we are very sorry to see this slot go as it provided a great link between owners of timeshare on the two continents, unfortunately, Irene no longer has the time to work on her articles for Inside Timeshare due to her commitment with the new organisation Tarda which we urge all US owners to join. You can find more information on the following link.

https://tarda.org/

Over the past few weeks, we have been highlighting the link between Solutions SL and CUC Abogados, today we publish some more interesting information sent in by one of our readers who has been contacted by this scam outfit. Once again this reader decided to do their homework and due diligence before parting with their hard-earned cash.

They received the following email which explains that they have been awarded 32,000€ which just happens to be the same figure for every “client” who has been contacted by them. This email has been sent from this email address [email protected] which we know has been used for quite a few years.

Dear Sir(s).      15^th October 2019

As you are aware the recent hearing went ahead as planned on Wednesday 25^th September.

Although you chose not to appoint a collection agency to represent you, it would seem that a favourable outcome was also reached in your case, however payment of subordinate claims is postponed until preferential and unsecured claims have been paid out first.

The original award of 32,000 Euros per claimant still stands.

A managed payment plan of 12 – 32 months has been set by the court, meaning that the defendants must compensate all members of the action group within this time period.

The plan includes the following stipulations:

• All compensation must be paid out no later than 32 months from the date of the sentencing.
• The court is to review the progress of the pay-outs every 3 months, with the defendants and their representatives appearing in person to testify to the progress made thus far.
• Failure to adhere to the payment plan or any attempts to stall it will be met with a strict prison sentence.
• Due to the total amount of compensation owed exceeding the amount of 1 million Euros, a prison term of no less than 7 years has been set.
• Should this prison sentence be enforced, all remaining assets will be distributed evenly by the court at that point.

To clarify, you may be paid out at any point during the set time frame of 12 – 32 months.

It is important to note that you will have to submit a request to the court to query the state of your pay-out. This can be done in person every 3 months, following the courts review of the proceedings.

To accomplish the above you may wish to employ the services of a para-legal for a nominal fee, who can attend the courts on your behalf a maximum of 4 times per year to submit the appropriate requests.

Should you require any assistance in doing so we would be happy to facilitate this for you. Please feel free to contact me to discuss this option further and request a quote.

Kind regards,

Julia García

Solutions.

Now we do actually wonder how the defendants will be able to appear in court every 3 months as the companies involved in this “case” Incentive Leisure Group, Designer Way Vacation Club and Personal Travel Group were all owned by the late Gary Peter Lee. So unless he has mastered the art of resurrection who will be appearing?

Now the cost for this service is £425.18 and has to be paid into the account of a named person a P Hall and not a company account, that in itself should always set the alarm bells ringing. If this company and service were legitimate why is the payment not made to a company account? (see PDF for payment details)

We now move to another new scam that our readers have alerted us to, this time it appears to be based on the Costa del Sol and the “company” is called Sanchez Services. The address they give on the email is:

4-7 Calle Cononel Ripollet 296405 Malaga

They also give details that they are a registered company with the CIF Number 8064689968

Now the address is fake, there is a street in Fuengirola called Calle Coronel Ripollet but the postcode is also wrong it should be 29640. The CIF Number is also fake, all CIF number begins with a letter consists of 8 figures For example B67313000.

It begins: My name is James D Souza from the compliance dept of Sanchez Services. He goes on to explain that to proceed with the claim the amount the client will receive is £5,950, this will be paid by cheque and delivered by courier or if they prefer it can be paid directly into a bank account, but obviously Sanches Services will need the client’s bank details.

Now obviously there is going to be a fee involved to pursue this “claim” but their advisors are not allowed to take the payment details over the phone. So they ask the client to “kindly” make the payment online or by visiting the bank. They then give the details of the “Escrow Account” for the payment of £595.

The account details are:

Pay: Peter Smith

Account Number: 01706758

Sort Code: 24-63-08

Reference: Name of the client

“IMPORTANT PLEASE CHECK THESE DETAILS WITH ADMIN DEPT BEFORE PAYING”

Now once again this account is in the name of a named individual although we must admit that Peter Smith is a very strange name to use and unfortunately we have been unable to identify which bank it is. We do know that the sort code does not appear to belong to a UK bank as we have checked using the sort code checker but have not been able to identify if it is a Spanish bank. So we do have to ask why do the details need to be checked with admin before making a payment?

The email also goes on to say that the £595 will be held in the escrow account for 10 days if the client has not received their £5,950 within the 10 days the money will be returned. Then once the client has received the payment they must sign and return the attached forms so that the £595 can be paid to Sanchez.

Sound all very good and appears to be safe!

Well, we think not.

The email is then signed off in the following manner:

Have a wonderful day, Best Regards William D’Souza

I do think he may just have forgotten that his name, to begin with, was James!

Now if these two examples don’t warn you to be on your guard then I’m afraid you do deserve to lose your money.

As we always warn our readers

DO YOUR HOMEWORK BEFORE PAYING ANY COMPANY MONEY NO MATTER HOW MUCH IT IS OR HOW MUCH THEY HAVE PROMISED YOU WILL RECEIVE!