Press Release
Court Orders Nearly Half a Million in Penalties and Restitution Against Timeshare Exit Scammers
October 4, 2024
(Anchorage, AK) – Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor announced that the Alaska Department of Law’s Consumer Protection Unit obtained Superior Court orders requiring a group of defendants to pay a total of $310,000 in civil penalties and an additional $177,349 in restitution for operating a fraudulent timeshare exit scheme.
“Our office is fighting to bring scammers to justice, but Alaskans also need to vigilantly protect themselves” said Attorney General Taylor. “Alaskans should have a healthy skepticism when they receive unsolicited calls, letters or emails. And we should always do our due diligence before paying large sums to businesses, especially if they are pressing you to make payment quickly.”
Fraudulent timeshare exit companies pretend to help people who own timeshares exit their timeshares by either getting them out of their contracts or selling the timeshares. These companies typically encourage consumers to make a large upfront payment to engage their timeshare exit services. Instead of fulfilling their promise to help, the scammers steal the upfront payment.
The defendants in this case were Consumer Law Protection, LLC, Consumer Rights Council, Premier Reservations Group, LLC, Resort Transfer Group, LLC, Square One Development Group, Inc., Square One Group, LLC, Timeshare Help Source, Christopher Carroll, George Reed, Louann Reed, Scott Jackson, Eduardo Balderas, Sherrod Banks, Courtney Kirkpatrick, and Gary Adamson.
The complaint, which was filed June 23, 2022, alleged that the Defendants sent flashy postcards in the mail that lured timeshare owners to sales presentations at Anchorage hotels with deceptive promises of a $250 shopping card and information on how to eliminate timeshare maintenance fees, improve their ownership experience, or legally exit their timeshare.
When timeshare owners arrived at the hotels, the salespeople used scare tactics, telling the timeshare owners that if they did not exit their timeshare, their maintenance fees would skyrocket and their heirs would be forced to pay the maintenance fees in perpetuity. These salespeople claimed that the only way to exit timeshare contracts was to pay for the defendants’ timeshare exit services, and that they needed to make a decision that day. But after taking thousands of dollars in upfront payments, the timeshare exit scammers never helped consumers get out of their timeshares.
In addition to civil penalties and restitution, the Court’s orders ban several of the defendants from selling goods or services to Alaskans for five years.
The Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission, and the State of Wisconsin, have filed a similar case against several of the same defendants, alleging that the fraudulent scheme operated nationwide. In addition, two of the defendants are awaiting sentencing in federal court in Missouri for crimes related to Paycheck Protection Program fraud.
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Department Media Contacts: Communications Director Patty Sullivan at patty.sullivan@alaska.gov or (907) 269-6368. Information Officer Sam Curtis at sam.curtis@alaska.gov or (907) 269-6269.