Transfer Smart News: OTE Intensifies Measures to Reduce Timeshare Scams

As scams in the timeshare industry has increase dramatically nowadays, the Organization for Timeshare in Europe or OTE augmented their spending on its Enforcement Project in Spain last year to €130,000. Such scams may victimize either potential owners or current owners who are eager to get out of their timeshares. Meanwhile, the said project launch by OTE has logged a series of key successes over the past year. This includes the closure of 10 fraudulent Discount Travel Membership Club (also known as holiday clubs) sales decks and 23 bogus Resale and Class Action companies.

On the other hand, a further 3 Discount Travel Membership Club sales decks closed down voluntarily as a result of pressure from the authorities. Such results are just part of OTE's concern to reduce fraudulent practices which severely affect the timeshare owners and other holiday makers. Over the past year, OTE had intensified the measures in the Canary Islands primarily in Tenerife, where fraud has been more prevalent. The measures include the identification of sales decks for Discount Travel Membership Clubs leading to heavy on-street sales activities.

According to The Office of Fair Trading (OFT), there is an estimate that 400,000 Britons lose £1.2 billion each year to bogus Discount Travel Membership Clubs. Such figures compare starkly with complaints about timeshare, which have been reducing steadily year on year.

Nowadays, as there are many owners who are eager to get rid of their timeshares, scams also increases. That’s why some owners hire a timeshare transfer company such as the Transfer Smart just to get rid of such property. On the other hand, as such frauds had caused so much damage to the tourism industry in general and legitimate timeshare operations in particular, the authorities and some stakeholders like OTE are active in their efforts to mitigate it.