Timeshare Mega Media employees get charged with defrauding customers

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FORT LAUDERDALE, FL. — Four more telemarketers who used to be employed at a timeshare resale company in Fort Lauderdale have been charged with conspiring to defraud people that wanted to sell their vacation rental property, The Sun Sentinel is reporting.

The newspaper based in South Florida noted that since last year, 19 former employees of Timeshare Mega Media and Marketing Group have been charged by federal prosecutors as part of an investigation into the now-defunct business.

So far, 14 employees have accepted plea deals, and four have already been sentenced. Their prison terms have ranged from between 5 and 33 months.

Based at 2652 E. Oakland Park Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale, Timeshare Mega Media got described by federal authorities as an example of “naked fraud” for the way customers got treated. According to investigators, clients were asked to put down as much as $10,000 in fees before their property could be sold. The telemarketers, authorities said, were trained to tell the seller that the company already had buyers lined up to purchase their timeshare, and the up-front cost was an administrative fee that would be refunded later.

But prosecutors said it was all a lie — no buyers were waiting to purchase any timeshares, and the sellers’ money never got refunded.

The former telemarketers charged this month were Joseph Ackermann, Eric Friedman, Alvaro Rodriguez, and Hernando Osorio.

They’re expected to join the other telemarketers from Timeshare Mega Media and Marketing Group that have gone before federal judges in the last two months.

FBI agents had raided the company’s office in July 2010, and the Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against Timeshare Mega Media a few months later.

The investigation may have been prompted by a blast of customer complaints, including ones posted online. On June 16, 2010, a customer named D.B. wrote a lengthy complaint on the web site Trustlink.com, outlining his experience with the firm.

In his complaint, D.B. wrote “How is this company able to stay in business? They are very clearly conducting unethical and what appears to be fraudulent business. They asked me to verify my credit card I used with the other company to get my $500 paid to that company refunded back to my credit card. He gave me the last four numbers of the card I supposedly used to pay the other company as ‘0029.’ I told him that I didn’t have a card with those numbers, so he said I could just ‘give him a different credit card number.’ I told him to just forget about the $500 for now from the other company and work on the sale. It was at this point that he first mentioned needing my credit card number for $1,900 to cover costs that would be put in an escrow account in my name and eventually supposedly be refunded to me … I told him that I wasn’t going to give him any credit card number until I checked the company out and he sent me a copy of

the signed sales agreement/offer. He then pulled the time sensitive thing and said it had to be done tonight (Saturday). I said no problem – email me a PDF of the signed offer. He made more excuses and did not bother to email anything. I later talked with a manager there who said they don’t send copies of sales agreements/offers to the customers. I asked him how he expected me to pay him $1,900 without any proof of an actual sale pending? His answer was something to the effect that you just have to ‘trust us.’ Right ……. At this point, I would not believe anyone saying they successfully sold a timeshare through this group without them providing the property location, date of sale, deed number and place recorded.”

Another customer, Mari, wrote on the same day: “Yeah, your experience is not their first scam, they have earned their F rating.”

This case also prompted Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to file legislation that would crack down on timeshare fraud. The bill is now before the Florida Legislature.