Superior Resales Services of Fort Wayne, Indiana Will Take Your Money and Run!

It started with a call to Resort Closings Inc, where our escrow specialist Cindy took a call from Anne in California. She had been contacted by “Michael Thomson” of Superior Resales Service, with the message that he had found Anne a buyer for her Monarch Grand Vacations timeshare – with a whopping $19,500 price tag. Anne was thrilled, after all she had paid thousands for her MGV timeshare contract and paid thousands more in maintenance fees over the years. She had a lot of money in this timeshare and believing it was an investment, that appreciates like a condo or home, didn’t find the $19,500 price tag odd.

But it was a huge red flag for Cindy at RC Inc.  She immediately contacted Anne for more details about the sale and asked her to forward any documents she had.  Cindy passed this information to John Kushman, Vice President of RC Inc. and our resident expert in timeshare fraud for review.

A quick search revealed a generic website with general claims about services provided, no accreditation (Better Business Bureau or Third Party Review Site), no staff page with photos or personalized contact information. And the site owners were not listed on – whois.icann.org – the information was kept private. Superior Resales Services was definitely running a timeshare scam.

Here are some other key features that any timeshare owner being solicited for the sale of their timeshare can look for to identify a fraudulent offer.

1. Exorbitant sales price. No MGV timeshare resale would ever sell for this amount. In fact most sell for a dollar.
2. Timeshare owner was contacted out of the blue.  If it sounds too good to be true, it always is with timeshares. Scammers can often acquire a list of timeshare owners, or scrape resale sites for information. They know you have a timeshare you might like to get rid of so you become and easy target. Add  a tempting sales price and many owners fall for the next part of the scam, see number 3.
3. The timeshare owner  will be asked to wire money as part of the fees associated with the sale. Believing they are going to be collecting thousands from the sales price, unsuspecting sellers often think nothing of sending one to three thousand dollars in associated sales fees with the justification that they will recoup their costs once the sale is complete.
4. The so called Secretary, Sales Director, Sales Agent, and another Sales Agent all use the same email address. Furthermore, they use a Gmail address instead of domain email, for example name@resalesservice.com.  This is a big  red flag wrapped up in a small detail that folks often overlook. This screams scam!  
5. Check to see if business is registered in the state they claim.  There is no business registered in the state of Indiana by Superior Resales Service, or anything resembling that name.  Simply visit a Secretary of State’s website to verify business listings.
6. Additionally, Superior Resales Service has no record on the BBB.  Most legitimate timeshare businesses will show BBB verification on their website.
7. Their website was registered less than a year ago, and they did it through a private registration firm. A legitimate online business shouldn’t require a private service like this.
8. Their address says 944 S. Calhoun St, but a quick search on Google street view and smartystreets.com  reveals no such address.
9. Buyer is conveniently located in a foreign country so a seller will often assume contact with them via phone could be challenging or they may speak a foreign language and any email communication could be easily conducted by the scammers.

The following are very precise details that probably will only be clear to a timeshare expert. That is why we offer our free timeshare scam assessment, simply call us at  1-888-613-8770 and we will gladly investigate your case.  A quick search on our Timeshare Scam Database  can also help identify a scammer.

9. In the sale agreement paragraph 4) The only reason a seller would need to pay a tax is if it is a US state that requires tax withholding for real estate transfers (currently Hawaii is the only state that does this). Any legitimate timeshare broker would be utterly confused by that paragraph. Also, the closing date of March 21 is completely impossible. A legitimate company would know that timeshare transfers take on average 6-8 weeks, and with Diamond resorts that time frame is about six months.

Names involved in this case

Susan C. Beckner, Secretary
Thomas Brito, Acting Sales Director
www.resalesservice.com
944 S. Calhoun St.
Fort Wayne, IN 46802
(260) 220-1096

Michael Thomson, Sales Agent
Ralph J. Shaw, Sales Director
www.resalesservice.com
944 S. Calhoun St.
Fort Wayne, IN 46802
(260) 220-1096
superiorresales01@gmail.com