FORGED, SCAMMED, MISLED, ADD MORE MONEY,DECIEVING
Complaint
CYNTHIA KENNEDY
Country: United States
WAS OFFERED ALOT OF INCENTIVES(4 7DAY,8NIGHT FREE VACATIONS TO DIFFERENT LOCATIONS AROUND WORLD) THAT IS WHY I ELECTED TO PURCHASE, BUT WHEN I GOT HOME AND READ MY CONTRACT IT WAS SWITCHED, IT WAS DIFFERENT FROM THE ONE I SIGN WHILE AWAY AND THEY ADDED MORE PAGES IN(MONEY AMOUNT), THEY SWITCHED AND MADE NEW ONE OTHER THEN THE ONE I SIGNED BECAUSE THE ONE I HAVE DO NOT HAVE MY SIGN SIGNATURE ON IT.... SOMETHING REALLY NEED TO BE DONE WITH THESE SCAMMERS WHICH THEY ARE LOCATED ALL OVER.... I NEED TO KNOW WHO I COMPLAIN TO OR HOW I MAY GET A COMPLAINT FORM FROM PROFECO, MEXICO'S FEDERAL CONSUMER PROTECTION AGENCY AND THE ENGLISH VERSION...IF ANYONE KNOW PLEASE RESPONSE
Comments
Since the "contract" has been altered after siging, that is your basis for invalidating it due to fraud and forgery.
It is not likely to be productive to attempt to enforce the original contract you believe you signed when you are dealing with people willing to forge and alter it. Instead, take all actions you can to report it and block or reverse payments. If your payments are by check or credit card, see if you can reverse them due to fraud. File law enforcement complaints to back up your claim.
Contact the US Attorney, your state AG, FTC, and local DA to file fraud and forgery complaints. They may or may not take, or be able to take, any action against a company in Mexico, but the reason for producing a forged contract in the first place is to try to use it to extort payments beyond the original agreed terms.
Since you are in the US, to do so they would have to either assign or sell it off to some US debt collector, or possibly attempt to use US courts. That is why you file your complaints now, when you first become aware that you have been defrauded.
The manner of contract forgery and fraud you describe, by substituting additional pages, is typical of this type of scheme. It has been reported in connection with predatory lending mortgage fraud, and small business credit card machine leasing fraud. Often the victim is not provided a copy of the contract at signing, with promises to send it "after the paperwork is completed" or similar excuses. The contract when sent then has the additional pages, or even filled in or altered blanks, that were not present when the original was signed. The amounts involved are usually in the several thousand dollar range, since this is the level at which it is unlikely to be worth hiring an attorney, throwing good money after bad.
What were the amounts of any up-front payments they had you make?
What contract or documentation do you have from when you originally signed?
When it occurs, it tends to be perpetrated systematically on a large scale, affecting many victims, since each "sale" rakes in a big chunck of money up front, with the possibility of additional money from attempting to pressure victims for payments based on the alleged "contract". It is unlikely that this type of crime has been done only once by these people with you the only victim.
The other aspect you will probably find is a shell game between various corporations to distance the fraudulent sale and signing from allegedly separate entities claiming to be "financing", "debt collection", etc. each entity claiming no responsibility for fraud by any other party while they claim they are entitled to rely on their representations in "good faith". This is to put legal and cost barriers in the way of you recovering your money, while selling the now "bad debt" off to scum debt collectors to ger some more. It also indicates the level of organization of such a racket.
The major barrier is already in place from the start: they are in Mexico, with different laws, different courts, possible home court advantage and bias against foreigners, unfamiliarity by you of Mexican legal system, etc.
(As a side note, Canadian cross border schemes are typically for lower amounts, hundreds of dollars to several thousand. Although there may be cross border barriers to prosecution, U.S. and Canadian authorities cooperate closely in prosecution of cross border scams, and the legal systems are similar. The threshold for avoiding prosecution may, as a result, be lower, as indicated by the lower amounts involved in such scams.
There are a couple complaints already on this site against this company.
Other complaints.
http://royalholiday.wordpress.com/2008/06/08/ ... ed-on-abc-news/
ABC News story.
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Story?id=4627886&page=1
"...
Royal Holiday's lawyer says members must read their agreement and the operating rules, and remember -- this is key -- nothing the salesperson says really matters. But at least until late last year, that advice may have been less helpful than it sounds because even those who read their contract might have been fooled.
For example, in Mexico, a buyer can cancel a timeshare or vacation club contract for any reason within five days. That's the Mexican law. But that's not what a Royal Holiday contract signed in 2006 and obtained by "20/20" said. That contract not only made no mention of the right to cancel within five days, it actually declared, "This agreement cannot be canceled by either party" and "this agreement, for which there is no reconsideration period … "
We asked Garcia whether he found that misleading and why the contract would include those untrue statements. He said, "No, I cannot think … why. … " Asked if it bothered him, Garcia said, "well, yes."
The company later told "20/20" that until late last year Mexican law did not require it to disclose customers' right to cancel, so it didn't. Royal Holiday is now required by law to disclose the five-day cancellation plan, and they say they have changed their contracts accordingly.
...
In Cancun, the sales presentation we were told would last just 90 minutes dragged on for more than three hours. Breakfast was followed by an open bar. But even after a couple of cocktails, our producers turned down a $70,000 membership. A new saleswoman took over, and cut the price in half. The producers said no again, so the tag team continued with yet another saleswoman, the third.
But perhaps the most incredible claim we heard all day was the promise that our entire purchase price would be invested in a Swiss bank, that would return every cent to us in 30 years. Even Royal Holiday's lawyer said he never heard that one. Later, Royal Holiday explained that it offers an option to invest a small part of the purchase price with a company in the British Virgin Islands and, if the investment pays off, 30 years later customers could get their money back.
But while your money may be traveling to exotic locations, most of the would-be world travelers we interviewed said they have gone nowhere. "We expected to do a really cool thing for our family," New Yorker Rajtar said. "We thought that we were doing something that would enrich our lives, and it's done nothing but the opposite."
After "20/20" began investigating, Royal Holiday refunded the money most of the members we interviewed, and released them from their contracts.
..."
Royal Holiday Club is an international institution that is dedicated to scam many people all over the world. I am one of the following people that have been robbed by this particular club. I went for holidays to Punta Cana (Dominican Republic) on December 7,2009. I stayed at the hotel Bavaro Princess for the time being. When I was in the lobby of the hotel I met a sales person that worked for Royal Holiday club, he also said that Royal Holiday Club was a part of the hotel; he then invited us to his office. When we arrived to their office they served us wine and all kinds of alcoholic’s drinks. They made sure that we were completely drunk, so then they started talking about business, telling us how successful they are in their tourist industry. They talked so innocently that we believed everything that they have said to us. They brain washed us until we decided to buy from them for what they call timeshares or holidays for life.
We bought the membership from them and we paid more than $3000.00USD. These thieves told me that we can cancel the membership in 20 days if I am not pleased with the purchase. When I arrived to Canada I realized that I have been robbed by this company then me immediately I contacted them by sending register mail but they never responded. I am a victim that has been robbed like the other millions of North Americans that are in the same position as me.
I tried to contact the Dominican Republic authorities and I have mentioned them of the scam that is running in their country, but their was no use complaining because they didn’t do anything about it. And then called the Ministry of tourist and Dominican Republic, but is the same thing they told me that they are doing an investigation about this company. I do not know if they will get my money back.
The government of Canada should put signs of travel warnings to countries like Dominican Republic and Mexico in all airports to prevent this from happening to Canadian citizen.
Well-written.. but how truthful information - both of them? Like websites - well done, but do they work, at least the way they should?
BBB rating A+ - really???