Holiday Villa Scam
Scammers offer villas in popular places for holiday rental. They use legitimate websites as well as creating their own websites. This makes it difficult to tell they are scammers. They ask you to pay 50% in advance and 50% two weeks before your stay by wire transfer. They reply to your emails, offer directions and make arrangements for airport transfers. But when you arrive you find out you’ve been scammed.
Bogus holiday clubs
You are handed a Scratch card on holiday and you find you have won a free holiday. Now you just have to attend a presentation to collect your prize. Not all holiday clubs are bogus, but there are many that are. With a reputable club you should be able to take the contract away and come back in a few days time with your decision, you should have written cancellation rights and everything that was promised to you at the presentation should be written down.
How they contact you
Scammers can call you at home or approach you on the street whilst on holiday and give you a scratchcard which reveals that you have won a ‘free’ holiday. All you need to do is go to a presentation to collect your prize and learn more about a new holiday venture. You will be told that this is not about timeshare. You will later find out that the ‘free’ holiday isn’t free, as you must pay for extras, such as flights and other add-ons and go somewhere you don’t want to go at a time that doesn’t suit you.
At the presentation
Often the presentation will be at a plush hotel. The brochures will look glossy and convincing. You will be made to feel as if you are joining an exclusive holiday club which will offer exciting and great value holidays all over the world in top class accommodation.
What they don’t tell you
Unlike the law covering timeshare arrangements, you are not necessarily given a chance to cancel if you have second thoughts.
The contract
A bogus holiday club will try and get you to sign on the spot – but do not let yourself be pressurised -ask for time to think it over before signing. If you are unsure get independent advice.
Watch out for the technique the bogus club uses:
- The presentation has lasted so long you are tempted to sign just because you are desperate to leave
- You are offered unlimited free alcohol to get you in the mood to sign up
- They have made you a special a discounted offer only valid for that day
- You are not left alone to discuss anything with your partner and you are given very limited time to view the contract.
If you have already signed up for one of these clubs and would like advice on your consumer rights, contact Consumer Direct on 08454 04 05 06.
Source: E-victims.org and Consumer Direct
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Even where the holiday company is legitimate you should also check to make sure you are really getting a good deal from the offer.
Go away and then carry out a search for the cost of air travel on the particular day you have to occupy the villa. Work out the additional cost of getting to and from the airport. Look at whether a discount supermarket is located close by. If it is for 4 or more people how likely are you to always have that number able to travel with you. Look at the actual resale value and then work out how much it will actually cost per year.
Need help with Club Class Holiday scam
Have contacted my credit card issuing bank who have tried to deny the reimbursment of my money under the consumer credit act, they have refused saying the consumer credit act 1974 section 75 did not cover international sales, but have since discovered a court case which says these transaction are now covered but they still refuse to pay up stating debitor/creditor/suppleir relationship, because the money was paid to an agent not the hoilday club company.
Has anybody beeb successful in making a claim, would like advice on how they did this.
Have contacted office of fair trading but no reply yet
I have just received a similar response form my credit card company who say that as the deposit was paid to the resort we attended the presentation at, we are not covered under the SoG Act. Even though I sent them a copy of the contract with the Holiday Club (Van Gogh Promotions) that showed the deposit credited to them. I paid the balance by bank draft and have not received the RCI Points after 9 months! Would also be grateful to hear of any successful strategies.
Hi,
We are currently trying to reclaim costs from Barclaycard for having been taken in on a similar scam to yourself whilst on holiday in Greece. We have been told that we have provided insufficient evidence to support our claim, but like yourself have claimed breach of contract and gross misrepresentation under section 75 of the Comsumer Credit Act 74.We had a 4 month wait for our RCI membership to come through and have written to cancel our agreement with both the vacation club and RCI.(We could still be taken to court but have been told this is unlikely.)Have you made any further progress with your claim?
Look forwad to hearing from you
pvmostyn
Please be aware that FLIGHTZONEUK AND CROWNSERVICEUK is a fraud travel agent operating from 275 northolt road, south harrow, middlesex. ha2 8hx. I have recently become their victim, i did a google search for cheap airline tickets to pakistan and their name came up, i contacted them via the no. given on their website 0207-193-0250 and booked my flight for family of 5 people, the consultant asked me to pay via bank trasnfer in roder to get tickets issued, i offered to pay by credit card, they said it will incur a charge of 2.5% and will take longer for ticekts to be issued as company will verify credit card etc. hence he talekd me into maiing a bank transfer. I called them next day asking for PNR no. to confirm tickets had been issued, however they said there is delay in getting tickets issued as their supplier is having problems of sorts.. 3 days passed like this and no tickets, i began to get worried at this point, however i had received a receit confirming full payment, and emails to confirm that tickets will b issued in 72 hours, howver this period had lapsed and when i called them again, when they heard my name they put me on hold and after 10minutes holding the call got disconnected, i dialled again and they kept disconnecting it. i was very worried at this point, so i did a google search for this company’s name and added scam next to it, and my god, there were so many reviews for this company. i cannot described i awful i felt after going thru these reviews by other victims of this scam, and i knew at this point i had also become a victim. I HAVE NOW LEARNED THAT FLIGHTZONEUK IS ONLY A TRADE NAME, THE COMPANY IS CALLED CROWN SERVICE UK LTD. AND IS REGISTERED AS AN ACTIVE COMPANY AT THE COMPANIES HOUSE IN ENGLAND. since then i have made official complain to actionfraud on 03001232040 who are the online investigation wing for the police, i contacted consuemr direct who have recommended that i take the small claims procedure to get my money back, and i have also contacted civil aviation autority on 0207-4536424 who are aware of this company, and are not renewing their ATOL licence, until they resolve all outstanding complaints against them, but CAA canno tgive a time frame for when can they start refund procedure. I would urge other victims to contact the three bodies i have mentioned, and make sure actionfraud give u a crime reference no. relting to ure complain.
IT AHS RECENTLY COME TO MY KNOWLEDGE THAT THE SCAMMERS HAVE OPENED UP A NEW LTD. COMPANY BY NAME OF CROWNSERVICEINN AND TEL:02081331444, PLEASE DO NOT BUY TICKETS FROM THEM EITHER, THEY WANT U TO PAY BY BANK TRANSFER, WHICH IS NOT COVERED UNDER ANY KIND OF INSURANCE. U WILL NOT BE ABLE TO GET A REFUND FROM URE BANK OR THE SCAMMERS THEMSELVES
It took us 6 months to get our money back from Blue Atlantic (Gran Canaria)several years ago, and we only got that after the intervention of our MEP. I still can’t believe we fell for it – two professional adults. Most holiday clubs are a scam and they don’t fall under timeshare legislation as they ‘package’ their ‘deals’ in blocks of just under 3 years. I’m amazed these scammers haven’t been outlawed after all these years.
Just returned from a month in Tenerife where Club Class took us for €1500 on our credit card. Had appointment with bank tomorrow to arrange €3,500 loan to finalise what appeared to be a perfectly legitimate and feasible arrangement. Only for my daughter suggesting I check them out on the ‘scam’ website we would have gone ahead. Have cancelled my credit card and have to ring the Mastercard Fraud Squad tomorrow. Any advice as to how, or if, I can obtain a refund of the €1500 already paid?
If the contract has not been compeleted ie you have not paid the full sum and you have not received membership of Club Class Holidays, then your bank is liable under section 75 of the consumer credit act and also under the misrepresentaion act 1967.As the scheme is fraudulent. make a claim to the bank that issued your credit card, don,t be put of by any refusal by the bank and if not succesful take your case the The Financial Ombudsman.
Let me know the result of your phone conversation with the Mastercard Fraud Squad.
Just back from tenerife done the same as you Payed £1000 dep bal £2000 by c/card saves £1200 by not having bank loan buys 5 luxury holidays £95 a year after one year over 5 years then £1000 cash back trying to find out if genuine or not how did you get on ?
We had similar issues with Club Class Concierge but managed to contact a claims company who operate in Milton Keynes and got back 6.5k after 4 months .
There’s something about if you signed the contract at a 3rd party venue (eg. a hotel hired for the purpose of the presentation, and not on the Club’s own premises,) the deal is invalid. You’d need to check this out as I’m relying on memory. I found the Timeshare Consumers Association very helpful. And don’t worry about being taken to court – they will threaten this but it will cost them far, far more than the amount in dispute and they know it. Also they’re so crooked that if it all came up before a judiciary they’d lose their ‘case’ straight away.
Our MEP wrote our holiday club scammers a choice letter and we got our money back. I long for the day that all holidaymakers are given a warning with their plane tickets about these people so they can be pre-warned.
Good luck all of you.
Just got from Tenerife and got mugged into joining ora vacations paid£1000deposit with credit agreement for£4000 went back next day to cancell but refused refund of deposit paid using visa card now trying to claim it back using cash back scheme
Managed to get full refund from ora vacations with the help of Spanish local trading standards in costa adeje was given contact details from a site called mindtimeshare could not have done this with out there help they now have full story on ora on there site and would like any and everyone who have had dealings with this or similar company to leave details on there site for others to read and help each other
Ora vactions been on phone saying that visa are taking money out of there bank and can I help them sort it out I cancelled a section 75 I had against them with visa ,why they think that threatening to get police involved would make me help people who rip others off for a living is a joke mugs
Used a company called Express Claims Europe to get my money back frm Club Class Concierge after losing almost 11,000 with them in 2009. No upfront payments were made as I am not getting caught like that again either! I paid nothing until the money was sitting in my back. Very happy to see the end of all this and I wish you all luck in getting your money back through your card companies.
Laurence