Scam Type
Other Scam
Business Name Used
Unavailable
Date Reported
August 24, 2023
Postal Code
None
Total Dollars Lost
$ 85000
Scam Description
We have a timeshare with Sunset Resorts in Mexico. We were called by this Realty Corp stating that were was a buyer interested in buying the timeshare. We were told she was buying out all the timeshare for this resort. We were told it was María Asunción Aramburuzabala, Mexican businesswoman billionaire. They wrote up the contract to start the process and then it started with fees they said needed to be paid by us. We did do our own investigation on this corp and it seemed legit with documents from the Mexican Government with what was paid and we were sent document of paid invoices. It started with Income tax fees, then Legal & Recording fees and then Custom fees. This all totaled over $85,226.40. All these fees we were going to get reimbursed according the Christopher Gallo, the realtor we were dealing with. They would provide a bank statement from Banregio, Mexican Bank which we wire transferred the money from our bank to their bank, with the price of the timeshare they was being sold and the reimbursements.
We did our own investigating on the corp and bank. I actually called the Mexican Bank to verify this account was valid and they said it was. Once all fees were paid, the release of the money was suppose to be done to send the money to my bank then it stopped. Christopher said the bank wants a ‘Collateral Bond’ paid for the amount of $76,670 to protect the bank for any fraud. At this point, we stopped thinking this has to be a scam. The realtor Christopher actually offered to by 70% of the Collateral Bond if we paid the 30%. We said we were done paying these fees and this doesn’t seem legit. He even said they were going to file a lawsuit because we didn’t comply with the contract.
I have done some more research and the office they said they are located in Pittsburg, 620 Liberty Ave., 22 Floor. The business is not in that building. I just want to make other people aware of these scammers. They are good with all documents, website and every Mexico Bank bank. I even talked to the Bank Manager ( which I believe is another scammer). This corp is working with Mexico on scammer people saying they will buy their timeshare and then asked the sellers for all these fees. SCAM. I am lots of documents from the corp, bank and what looks like mexico government documents.
