8 ms·

I remember a few years back walking on the beach with my dad and some similar time share scam people asked us if we wanted to enter a competition. We were hande

I remember a few years back walking on the beach with my dad and some similar time share scam people asked us if we wanted to enter a competition. We were handed two scratch cards with various prizes; cash, a holiday or the grand prize of a car. Obviously all the scratch cards were winners for the holiday. My dad scratched his card and said "Oh great, I won the car!" The scam guys eyes opened wide and he had a confused look on his face and asked my dad to show him the scratch card. Obviously it was actually for a holiday, but it was great seeing the confusion in the guys face since he knew there was no car.

quickthrower2 8y ago
What the scam? "Free flight" if you buy the timeshare or something?
- skate22 8y ago
  They make it seem like they want to give you something free, but their only intention is to get money from you i guess
  - stronglikedan 8y ago
    They do give you stuff for free. I got two free tickets to Disney. I just had to convince them that I was interested in buying a timeshare for 90 minutes. Once I got past that mark, they were obligated to give me the tickets - a fact that I promptly reminded them about. Two aggressive sales people and one super pissed off sales manager later, and I was off to Disney. I would never do it again - it was sheer agony.
- abrookewood 8y ago
  These are all through Bali. The scam is that you appear to win something, but really it is just to get you into a high pressure sales environment. So you go back to their office (where everyone is amazed that you won!) and then realise the prize is a tour of some holiday destination they want you to invest in etc.
- pwg 8y ago
  Roping the unsuspecting into an incredibly expensive time-share using hard-sell boiler-room tactics without ever being up-front about the true costs. I sat through one of these once, curious about how it was going to go, and with the intent going in of not ever buying anything anyway. They present the timeshare as if it costs only pennies a day, and never admit to the true cost unless pressed very hard (and even then they never quote a final figure). What they are really selling is a loan package for the purchase of the timeshare (where the timeshare company is themselves loan originator) with an attached interest rate of something like 12 or 13% APR (bank mortgages at the time I sat through the one I sat through were running about 3.5-4% APR). The timeshare, if you can squeeze a dollar figure out of them comes out to be about $40,000 for which they finance it for you at their 12-13% APR (so a gold mine for them, but bad for you). I ended up getting the double-team effort (two trying to convince me to jump in) to try to sell me on the value of the scam before I had finally had enough and cut off the sales pitch. Meanwhile, all around me (they did the pitch in a large room with small tables where everyone was in view of everyone else) I was watching the gullible filling out their "loan applications" and setting themselves up for $500/month for the next ten to twenty years before they could pay off the 'loan'. The cost, plus the interest, was setup such that one would be hard put to actually be able to go on enough vacations at the timeshare to actually make the timeshare profitable for the new owner. If one went on the number of vacations that are typical, one was setting oneself up for each vacation ultimately costing $25K+ (for what should have cost only about $2-3K). This, of course, was the intent of the group running the timeshare, hide the true cost enough that the gullible don't realize they are paying $25K for what should have cost them $3K, and pocket the difference as pure profit.
  - Angostura 8y ago
    > I was watching the gullible filling out their "loan applications" and setting themselves up for $500/month for the next ten to twenty years before they could pay off the 'loan'. I presume that quite a few of these are actually timeshare employees playing the role of "conspicuously convinced punter"
    - ngvrnd 8y ago
      let's hope.
justinclift 8y ago
> The scam guys eyes opened wide and he had a confused look on his face and asked my dad to show him the scratch card. Obviously it was actually for a holiday, but it was great seeing the confusion in the guys face since he knew there was no car. As a lark, it would've been super funny to create a realistic winning "ticket" for the car and substitute that in place to see the reaction. Obviously it would require some prep work... but for kicks it would appeal to some. ;)
- mabbo 8y ago
  Well, now I know what my next side project is going to be
  - jopsen 8y ago
    Just be careful it doesn't turn into felony document freud :)
    - lebanon_tn 8y ago
      Now that's what I call a Freudian slip
HeyLaughingBoy 8y ago
I would have taken the magic box.

quickthrower2 8y ago

What the scam? "Free flight" if you buy the timeshare or something?

skate22 8y ago
They make it seem like they want to give you something free, but their only intention is to get money from you i guess
- stronglikedan 8y ago
  They do give you stuff for free. I got two free tickets to Disney. I just had to convince them that I was interested in buying a timeshare for 90 minutes. Once I got past that mark, they were obligated to give me the tickets - a fact that I promptly reminded them about. Two aggressive sales people and one super pissed off sales manager later, and I was off to Disney. I would never do it again - it was sheer agony.
abrookewood 8y ago
These are all through Bali. The scam is that you appear to win something, but really it is just to get you into a high pressure sales environment. So you go back to their office (where everyone is amazed that you won!) and then realise the prize is a tour of some holiday destination they want you to invest in etc.
pwg 8y ago
Roping the unsuspecting into an incredibly expensive time-share using hard-sell boiler-room tactics without ever being up-front about the true costs. I sat through one of these once, curious about how it was going to go, and with the intent going in of not ever buying anything anyway. They present the timeshare as if it costs only pennies a day, and never admit to the true cost unless pressed very hard (and even then they never quote a final figure). What they are really selling is a loan package for the purchase of the timeshare (where the timeshare company is themselves loan originator) with an attached interest rate of something like 12 or 13% APR (bank mortgages at the time I sat through the one I sat through were running about 3.5-4% APR). The timeshare, if you can squeeze a dollar figure out of them comes out to be about $40,000 for which they finance it for you at their 12-13% APR (so a gold mine for them, but bad for you). I ended up getting the double-team effort (two trying to convince me to jump in) to try to sell me on the value of the scam before I had finally had enough and cut off the sales pitch. Meanwhile, all around me (they did the pitch in a large room with small tables where everyone was in view of everyone else) I was watching the gullible filling out their "loan applications" and setting themselves up for $500/month for the next ten to twenty years before they could pay off the 'loan'. The cost, plus the interest, was setup such that one would be hard put to actually be able to go on enough vacations at the timeshare to actually make the timeshare profitable for the new owner. If one went on the number of vacations that are typical, one was setting oneself up for each vacation ultimately costing $25K+ (for what should have cost only about $2-3K). This, of course, was the intent of the group running the timeshare, hide the true cost enough that the gullible don't realize they are paying $25K for what should have cost them $3K, and pocket the difference as pure profit.
- Angostura 8y ago
  > I was watching the gullible filling out their "loan applications" and setting themselves up for $500/month for the next ten to twenty years before they could pay off the 'loan'. I presume that quite a few of these are actually timeshare employees playing the role of "conspicuously convinced punter"
  - ngvrnd 8y ago
    let's hope.

justinclift 8y ago

> The scam guys eyes opened wide and he had a confused look on his face and asked my dad to show him the scratch card. Obviously it was actually for a holiday, but it was great seeing the confusion in the guys face since he knew there was no car. As a lark, it would've been super funny to create a realistic winning "ticket" for the car and substitute that in place to see the reaction. Obviously it would require some prep work... but for kicks it would appeal to some. ;)

mabbo 8y ago
Well, now I know what my next side project is going to be
- jopsen 8y ago
  Just be careful it doesn't turn into felony document freud :)
  - lebanon_tn 8y ago
    Now that's what I call a Freudian slip

HeyLaughingBoy 8y ago

I would have taken the magic box.