Sad tale of elderly woman scammed by timeshares by owners

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HUDSON VALLEY, N.Y. – A writer for The Times-Herald Record, a newspaper based in Upstate New York, has recorded the cautionary story of a woman determined not to allow her elderly mother to become another victim and sorry statistic by fake timeshare resale firms. In an article published on Feb. 17, writer Steve Israel chronicles how New Yorker Aviva Schwab is still trying to get justice for her mother, who got scammed out of a whopping $50,000 from a timeshare firm that was under investigation in Florida. It was a scam, Israel wrote, that Schwab’s mother – an art teacher and graduate of the University of Wisconsin – initially was too embarrassed to admit she fell for.

“Schwab’s mother, Annette Fettman, then 84, swallowed her pride and told her the sad tale,” Israel wrote. “We all should pay attention, since one of seven seniors in New York is a victim of abuse. That’s why advocates are trying to get Albany to pass three laws to protect the elderly.”

It started when Fettman got a phone call from a company that was responding to her ads she for the timeshare she owns and was trying to sell. Timeshares By Owners asked her to check out their web site, then send them $1,500 for their assistance in marketing the property.

Israel noted that after Fettman went on the web site, she though it seemed legitimate, so she sent the money.

“Three weeks later, the phone rings again,” Israel wrote. “ ‘We have a buyer,’ the caller says one evening, when many seniors are tired and vulnerable. ‘But …’ They need $6,487 for a title search — normally done when the sale is confirmed.”

There was also a $1,999 fee for the advertising, the company insisted, and Fettman provided them with her MasterCard. What she didn’t know at first is that Timeshares By Owners was under investigation by the Florida attorney general and had become the subject of 1,120 complaints. But she would find that out a few weeks later, when Fettman got another call, informing her that Timeshares By Owners was a bunch of crooks.

“They also have good news,” Israel writes. “They’ll get Mrs. Fettman out of her original deal — and sell her condo. ‘Just send us $3,000.’ “

Israel said this process went on for months, as Fettman got more and more night time calls requiring more credit card charges. He reported that Fettman feel into a deep depression as she began to see the depths of how badly she had been scammed, and he quoted her saying “It just got so overwhelming, I felt like I was falling apart.”

She finally worked up the courage to call her daughter, who was determined to fight back – and, sadly, frustrated to find out how difficult that was. When Schwab took her mother’s cas to law enforcement officials, she was told the company was operating overseas, outside of thei jurisdiction. Besides, the police said, Fettman was the third person to file a complaint agains that company.

Fettman did get a refund from Visa after she contacted them, but MasterCard would not.

“So now, along with battling the apparent scammers, Schwab is fighting MasterCard,” Israel wrote.

To learn more about this case, contact Israel at [email protected].