Your daily adult tube feed all in one place!
'How could I be so stupid?' FBI reveals how crafty Mexican cartels scam millions from US timeshare owners
Timeshare owners who want out of their holiday homes need to be alert, the FBI says.
They're increasingly targeted in cons run by Mexican drug cartels, the agency warns.
Victims are most often rich, older Americans looking to recoup some of the money they dropped into their part-time properties.
Some 6,000 victims have reported upwards of $300 million in losses these past five years, says Paul Roberts, who leads FBI New York's Complex Financial Crimes Branch.
'Timeshare fraudsters aim to suck their victims dry, with devastating consequences for victims' financial futures, relationships, and physical and emotional health,' says Roberts.
James, 76, and Nicki, 72, from California, were scammed out of almost $1 million by a deadly Mexican cartel who made a fraudulent offer for their timeshare in Lake Tahoe
Owners of timeshares in holiday homes, like these properties in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, are increasingly targeted in sophisticated scams
Among their prey were James, 76, and his wife Nicki, 72, who wanted out of the Lake Tahoe, California, timeshare they bought for nearly $9,000 in the mid-90s but seldom visited.
James jumped at the chance to sell it when he was approached by a slick real estate agent offering upwards of $22,000.
But it was in reality a sophisticated con linked to a cartel that cost the couple nearly $1 million within six months.
The FBI's Paul Roberts says timeshare owners shouldbe on alert
'It was very elaborate,' James told DailyMail.com.
'That's why I was sucked in. I just thought there were too many players involved for it to be a scam.'
The fraud that devastated James' finance's followed a pattern familiar to federal investigators.
Scammers create bogus documents and impersonate individuals from banks and other trustworthy institutions.
They then use high-pressure sales tactics and phony information to make offers to timeshare owners.
Initial contact is usually made by phone or email, with the scammer pretending to be a US or Mexican-based third-party timeshare broker, the FBI said.
They then urge the owner to rent their property or sell out of the timeshare scheme.
They push victims to pay upfront fees or taxes to secure the deals.
Later, the scammers re-approach the victims posing as lawyers trying to help them recoup the money they lost to the first con artists and asking for court or legal fees, the FBI said.
They even circle back again, impersonating government officials who say they can help recoup some of the lost money — for a fee, of course.
Scammers have even threatened timeshare owners, saying their initial payment was dodgy, and they are being fined or investigated.
Jalisco New Generation uses dozens of call centers in Mexico and even bribes resort employees to leak guest information as part of its schemes to scam timeshare owners
James and Nicki wanted to get rid of their timeshare in Lake Tahoe, like these properties at the California beauty spot
All of these ploys are an effort to part victims from their money.
Roberts says it's hard to know how many cons occur because victims are loath to report being stung.
'The worst thing that people can do is suffer in silence out of shame or fear of judgment,' he said in an alert this month.
Timeshare scams have been around for years, but Mexican gangsters have jumped on the bandwagon this past decade, the FBI says.
The Gulf Cartel, and the Sinaloa Cartel are dabbling in scams, but the biggest Mexican players are the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), it adds.
Independent call centers in Mexico with English-speaking staff are also likely playing a role, the FBI says.
Gangsters appreciate the low startup costs and cash flows that are easy to hide, says Roberts.
The cons have a 'lower perceived risk of prosecution and extradition,' he adds.
Roberts urges timeshare owners to be on the lookout for scammers and any red flags, such as being asked to pay upfront fees or taxes in advance.
The FBI has the following advice:
- Don't answer phone calls from unfamiliar numbers.
- If someone contacts you about your timeshare and requests cash upfront, stop communicating with them, and don't pay up.
- Never sign, notarize, or send any power-of-attorney or legal documents via email.
RETIREE'S RUIN
When James, 76, received a call from an estate agent in Atlanta, Georgia, offering to buy his timeshare, he could have bitten his hand off.
James and his wife Nicki, 72, had bought the property in Lake Tahoe, California, in the mid 1990s for just shy of $9,000, but only stayed there twice in the last 20 years.
The agent gave a slick pitch and a few days later called back with 'good news': he had found a Mexican investor willing to part with upwards of $22,000 for the West Coast retreat.
James and his wife Nicki wanted out of their timeshare in Lake Tahoe
Around six months later, James and Nicki had lost almost $1million as part of a bizarre but sophisticated scam allegedly linked to a deadly Mexican cartel.
James told DailyMail.com about that initial phone call, purportedly from a man named Michael from Worry Free Vacations in Atlanta in October 2022.
'He was good at ingratiating himself,' James said. 'He had an air of confidence. I thought 'this guy's legit'.'
In hindsight, he may have had a slight accent, possibly Mexican, James recalls, but it barely registered at the time.
Michael had wealthy clients who wanted to invest in US timeshares and James had four, with one, in Lake Tahoe, that he was keen to offload.
A few days after James was told of the Mexican investor, Michael called back. He had 'ran into a little bit of a thing'.
A fee of $2,600 was required for the cross border transaction, but the buyer had promised to cover this.
James, who did not want to share his last name, admitted his wife had concerns about this deal from the get-go.
But he was reassured when Michael told him the buyer would send the cash to US Commercial Escrow Corps, an escrow company with a registered address in Manhattan.
James was given details for the account and when he checked it, the $2,600 reimbursement appeared to have been paid.
The scammers use forged bank statements that look authentic
He even made contact with a representative of the escrow company, who spoke with an American accent.
Convinced of its legitimacy, he wired the $2,600 fee to a bank account in Mexico, as requested.
But then the deal hit another snag. A different cross border registration fee would cost another $3,600, but the buyer would again reimburse James for his troubles.
He checked the escrow account and, as before, this payment appeared to have been made.
'I felt alright,' James said. 'I thought 'I'm getting reimbursed for this, all will be well'.'
About a week later, Michael called again. And so it went on.
The fee total soon hit the $50,000 mark, at which point he was contacted by a man who purported to be from the UIF, Mexico's financial intelligence unit.
He demanded heftier fees for various violations James had supposedly committed, with threats of extradition if he did not comply.
All the while, his costs were seemingly being reimbursed by the mysterious Mexican investor, who clearly had no limits to his wealth.
The money always appeared in the New York escrow account, but no funds were ever released.
James was even convinced by the scammers to invest $32,000 in a sustainable housing investment in Mexico.
He received paperwork confirming the transaction that appeared to be from the Bank of Mexico, with detailed addresses and letterheads.
In total, James was required to make a dozen payments for a variety of reasons.
He made his last payment in January, with the grand total reaching a whopping $890,000, spread across various bank accounts in Mexico.
A little under a third of this was related to his timeshare, with the rest accounting for by fees for the sustainable housing investment.
The gun-toting Jalisco New Generation cartel is best known for drugs, but has also scammed US timeshare owners out of millions of dollars in recent years
To fund these payments, James had to borrow $150,000 from his daughter and sell his childhood home.
By the time he started to uncover some worrying details, it was already too late.
James discovered that the website for the Atlanta estate agency had been registered in 2021, but was taken down just days after his first phone call from Michael.
The email address he had for a man who claimed to be from the Bank of Mexico, alongside domain names for other 'Mexican' companies that had been involved in the racket, appeared to have been registered in Arizona and, inexplicably, Reykjavik.
'None of them had any addresses or locations in Mexico,' James said.
When DailyMail.com visited the address for US Commercial Escrow Corps in midtown Manhattan, it appeared that the suite number it had provided did not exist, and no one in the building had heard of the company.
For James, the scam cost him his life savings — and the respect of his wife.
'It was very elaborate,' he said. 'That's why I was sucked in. I just thought there were too many players involved for it to be a scam.
'My wife said from the start that it didn't sound right. Obviously, I should have listened to her.
'She's p***** about the whole thing. But she's kind of resigned herself to the fact that I was the stupid one.'