I posted this information last year, but I am hearing from a number of MVC Owners who are being contacted. The concept is the same, so I thought I should remind all of you to not fall for their tactics!!
There isn’t a week that goes by that I don’t receive an email, text, and phone call trying to sell me something — I’m sure it is the same for you. I typically don’t even listen or open it. But this one caught be off guard.
It started with a phone call to my husband — his number is listed on our Interval International account. They left a message stating our account with Interval International had been tagged and they needed to talk to us about our week recently deposit. Coincidentally, we had recently received a bonus week that was deposited into Interval and it was a real possibility that this was a legitimate situation.
I know MVC really well, but haven’t worked with Interval for many years. So when I called back, and he stated that he could see from our account that we had a number of unused certificates, it was true. He verified my husband’s phone number, and “looked” up our account. He said that instead of using our bonus certificates which expire by the end of the year, they would like to use them for a corporate event in Orlando, and let us keep part of the revenue received for renting them. We would get $1700 minus the $299 fee to reserve the certificate. No touching our points or properties — just using my bonus week certificates to help with the corporate event. The real “red” flag that helped me not do it was I just needed to give them access to the certificates by paying the $299 first and I would get $1700 within 60 days.
I told them no, but I’ll be honest, I was doing the math in my head — if I got $1700 for each of the unused certificates we have, that money would come in handy. As soon as I hung up, I called Interval and asked if they had ever heard of such a thing. She assured me that she hears it every day, and very often the owner is trying to cancel their credit card before the money is delivered.
As I reexamine what happened, it seems pretty obvious it was a scam, but maybe I was caught up in the moment and the coincidences — I was intrigued and actually considering it. Don’t fall to these scams! They are clever, but nothing good comes from it. NEVER “buy” anything from a phone call to you — and don’t call the number they give you. You look up the company yourself, call THAT number, and verify it is legitimate. You’ve heard the council for years, but these scammers seems to be getting more sophisticated in their tactics.
Thank you so much for this post. This is such a scam! It is now January 2022. I just hung up from talking to the scam. The person used the exact same verbiage as you described, only now it is a 399.00 fee to activate the certificate. I was ready to say yes, and pulled up this post while he was explaining this to me. They want a two or four year commitment to deposit our certificates and said they would send a contract over so they could activate (charge our credit card) the certificates.
So glad you saw the post before you said yes. I’ve talked to a few owners who said yes and was trying to get their money back. Sad we have to always be on alert.
Thanks for your comment!!!
The call just came, I was suspicious so googled it and found this post, thank you!!
I just got this call. 689 201 8457. Very nice informative young person. They new I had these certs on my Interval account, said that today is the last day to LIST them. He wound’t send me any info but he says he’s from VRBO….that for the last two years the inventory has gone unused. That all Interval customers get these certs for free and that I can sell them for 300 a night or higher. That I choose the price….I am waiting for a VRBO rep right now to see if this is actually them but it sounds very similar to what you all have gone through.
I just got this call too
I got this call yesterday and I almost fell for it. I was able to log onto my Interval International account and verify that I did have 2 weeks expiring, though. Which made the call so believable. I even said yes to making the weeks available to “sell” for $300/night. That’s when the lady said that she realized I’m not enrolled in the program and I can enroll now for $6k but then I’d be making $4200 of that back if I sold. I said I’m not comfortable and then she said we could “hack” the system by creating a new interval account and she could give me half off ($3k). She was very convincing. But I guess it turns out that those 2 weeks I have e courting are just discounted weeks anywhere that they have listed. It’s tricky how they can get that information and try to scam you with it. Like how did they know that I had those weeks and that they were expiring?!
I’m not sure they “know”. But so many owners are unfamiliar with their account status that they think it might be true.
I got this same phone call with the same exact offers. Scam for sure. Don’t fall for it!
Just received the same call regarding monies we would get back from them as they needed the rooms for a conference. When I was transferred to the next person he explained that I would need to pay $399 for the certificates. I asked why would I pay them if they owed me money. He tried to explain but I hung up on him. Just sad. The telephone number was 1-844-778-0195
Congratulations!! and good for you. Unfortunately, I have heard from a few people who didn’t realize the scam until they paid them. They were working with their credit card company to get the money back.
I don’t know why Interval International wouldn’t send out an email to alert their clients. 🤷
Thanks for the heads up. I assume ALL timeshare calls that I receive are scams. Being a long time owner it helps to be suspicious.
How does II explain how the scammers get “private” detailed info of your account?
Phil, thanks for your question. I believe that II is selling them our contact info for “marketing” purposes. The scammers know we belong to II when they contact us, and that most owners receive these certificates. They prey on that to try and get us to let them use the certificates and receive compensation instead of using the certificates ourselves. So they don’t KNOW our private account information, but use the system to con members to send them money thinking they will get substantially more money back.
I just received a call stating that I am losing out on bonus exchanges and that I need to upgrade my membership for $6,000 then it was $3,000. I just hung up on them.
I’m glad you didn’t get caught up in it.
I just got a call and it was from 321 3209912 an Orlando Number. Same scam and wanted me to give him my Marriott Visa. When he questioned my name on the card it really hit my “scam alert “ sense. Too bad Marriott can’t protect us better and they own II!!!!!!
So glad you caught yourself in time. Unfortunately, I am seeing an uprise in these scams — I’ve had a lot of inquiries about just this. Congratulations on staying safe!!!
We have received several calls in the last couple days from these Florida numbers using the same scam details as previous MVC members on this thread reported So glad I found this forum! Thanks!!
+1 (407) 604-8952
+1 (689) 207-0087
Thanks for sharing. Glad you didn’t fall for it.
Add 407 544 0458 to the list
Frederick was his name
Got the call today and, as you all know, it sounds legit until I asked why I had to pay. They said when you book you need to pay II. I told the gentleman that I need to call him back – he was getting pushy at this point. I called the company back and asked what company it was and they said ATH(?). I called the same person back who was being pushy and asked if I could split the payment between 2 credit cards and he said no which was weird. I then said I’d call him back again – red flags are already up at this point. A few mins. later my wife shows me this article so, thank you for confirming my suspicions.
The scam group must have increased their efforts — there are lots of owners being contacted. I’m glad that you avoided their tactics.
Just got a call from this # asking us to deposit 4 weeks of our MVC with Interval. Said they need the weeks for a conference in Orland in November . Wanted our credit card number to charge us $440 per week and we would get back $5200 in November. We asked to have the information emailed to us. Said they needed to secure the weeks with a credit card first. We hang up quickly at that point.
Glad you didn’t give them any money. Good job staying on top of it.
I was called yesterday, and they told me the same thing. Corporate conference happening in Orlando. If I would release 4 weeks, I would get paid $1800 for each week. I just needed to pay for the weeks up front, which raised red flags. I told them to call me back later, I wanted to research it- of course it was a scam!! These guys had all the verbiage, and said the money would be sent to me direct deposit if I gave them my bank info, another red flag!
Whenever something sounds too good to be true, it is! It is so sad that we have to be so diligent!
So glad you didn’t give them any money!
Thank you for the post! Innocent people are duped everyday! At least your post could help warn them!
I just got the exact same call today from ORLNDO. Girl knew my name and then referred me to a guy who called back 689-262-7377 and 689-262-7385. When he wanted to “axe” some questions, I told him to call back.
Interval International needs to stop selling information on my account to scammers who seem to know all of my personal information. They know my address, my 2 phone number and the fact that I am a Marriott owner who they say owns Interval, and in checking my account, said I have the 6 bonus weeks to rent out with Interval for over $9,000.00 if only I pay them over $2,000.00 for the rental use so they can rent them out for over $9,000.00. Well you know that old saying “if it’s too good to be true then it isn’t.. Glad I didn’t fall for it. .
I’m glad you didn’t fall for it, too!! I really doubt they actually know how many bonus weeks you have. But they use the “lingo” that gets us listening and seems legit. Thanks for your comment!
Just got this call from two guys supposedly from Interval. They were going to send me E-mail docs to sign. They never got to asking for my CC info or payment upfront, but that’s clearly where it was going in order to get my $12,000 in profit. I said I needed to call Marriott to see if this was legit. They said to call Interval. I said okay, ended the call and found this very helpful post. One illogic was that corporations wanted to buy my 6 weeks for $2,400 each that would require their clients or employees to sit through a 90-minute timeshare pitch. No way!
Glad you didn’t give them any money!! Thanks for your comment!
We actually received a call from Interval International the other day. They were offering a free four night all inclusive in Mexico at El Cid resort. I was highly sceptical. They asked if I was interested and I said I don’t know because I don’t know if it is legitimate. They said they would email me the information and said they already had my email address and I should be getting something shortly. I did receive the email along with another inviting me to this “exclusive event”. Unfortunately the dates are fixed and you need to purchase your own flights. The dates don’t work out for us, so we won’t be going. I was shocked to actually get a legitimate offer via a cold call phone call.
OK just got this call and the woman doing it is GOOD. Sounds so professional and real. Wants $ 399.00 for the certificate first. not pushy. will call back anytime. So glad to see this post. phone number was 689-407-1867. she actually might not even know it is a scam…. which then makes her more believable
I also got this call but I don’t own any mvc that I know of. I had no idea what it even was until they explained it to me. It could be that they got the wrong number, but they knew my name so I don’t know. They said that I would get a total of $8000 for the bonus weeks if I paid the $199 activation fee.
Not sure why you got the call, but glad you didn’t get scammed!
10/19/22 Scammer…quite an impressive delivery. 1st red flag was that the “Aircraft Survivability” conference he was trying to utilize my guest pass weeks for is online for November, not December. Said they “change them all the time”. Uh huh. $2105 payment to receive $1500-1800 per week for my 6 weeks of guest pass weeks.
They seem to be getting more sly. Unfortunately, a number of owners have fallen for their tactics. Glad you weren’t one of them!!
This phone number calls almost every day, sometimes more often with the same recorded message. I blocked the number, but wish I could block messages from the number.
They just called two days ago and left a message. I listened and it had information about my II account so I called back. “Stephanie” got a little upset that I asked who she was with because she never said it on her message. She passed me to her supervisor “Frank” who talked through shit so fast I couldn’t follow. I had him email me the info (they already knew my email address) but I have no plans on getting back to him or clicking any of the links. Thought I would Google the scenario and found this page. Thanks for having this up here.
My wife took a message yesterday from 904-922-4902 (a Jacksonville, FL #) about Interval International. I never get calls from them, but I decided to return the call. A professional man with no accent answered (did not write down his name) and went thru his spiel about how I had 6 unused Get Away offers from II that I had not used and that they could be booked at $399 per week and then they would sell them at $1,400 per week netting me a $6,000 profit and they would handle all of the work! He further said that he recommended not trying to negotiate for a higher offer with the corporate buyers until I had been with the program for a year (make it sound even more convincing, right). He explained that they have all of these corporate clients trying to find weeks for conferences for their employees in Orlando as well as Vegas, San Francisco, etc. When I stated, so I book these weeks and what happens if none of your clients wants to use the weeks that I booked. He went on to say that they are completely booked out through 2025 for Orlando, so there is no way that that is going to happen! He went on to say that he would transfer me to sign an online contract, give him my banking information and “they would handle every thing and that they would send me a recording of the conversation to protect me”. I could hear their VACUUM CLEANER REVVING UP TO SUCK MY BANK ACCOUNT DRY! Basically, when these marketing people call you and their lips are moving, they are lieing, NO MATTER WHAT THEY TELL YOU! NEVER, EVER give money or your credit card or any information to someone calling you out of the blue, no matter who they say they are or where they are from. Same goes for text message requests for donations, anybody can copy and paste an image from a legitimate site! I did ask for the business name and he told me International Corporate Offering(s). I told him that I would think about it and call him back and he said OK, “ask for extension x1023”.
Thanks for this SCAM awareness thread!
So glad I came across this thread while on the phone with Advance Travel. They were patient and allowed me to call back days later once I thought it over. I was ready to do the deal until they asked for my credit card number, which made no sense to me. If I had to buy MY weeks from Interval, why do I have to pay Advance Travel for MY weeks through Interval??? Started smelling scammy for sure. So I googled and found this thread. Thanks everyone!
Hi – I just spoke with someone at Interval who said we cannot sell Getaways we buy at IntervalWorld.com… we can give them away, but not sell them.. selling them is illegal. The people asking us to give our credit card info are scammers…
(if we do contact them again and ask where our money is, they will say we are not getting it because something didnt work out, our weeks turned out to not be eligible, etc.)
These people caught me at a very low time and I needed money. They got me for $2400. Now I’m really monetarily in trouble. What can I do to get my money back?
So sorry — I can’t understand how scamming people sleep at night. I would contact and cancel payment, if that is possible. Let them know how you are scammed. Some owners have been successful doing that — others have not. Good luck!
I was just contacted by these same scammers, same story. I was so very close to doing it. He even gave me a phone number to call him back at. Thankfully, I called interval international to confirm this, and she let me know that it was a scam. I would’ve been out almost $2000. So sad!
My husband and I were contacted today. Anything that seems too good to be true IS!!! I googled the details, and this warning page came up. They are still at it!!!
Why don’t Marriott and interval put something on their website warning people of this scam? I have asked Marriott to do this but nothing has happened so far. If you go to target in the gift card area there are warnings telling you about the scams and not to buy the cards. I have offered these callers $2,000,000 for their house unseen but first they need to send me $250.000 so I can prove it’s them and they own the house. It hasn’t worked so far.
I just received a call very similar. Asked if I was in the rental program said they could rent out my certificate weeks for $2100.00 I was told it would cost $6300 to sign up for the program I said no, so offered me half price, since I wasn’t told about it. I had research to do could I call back, I said. No it was expiring today! Today is Feb 21 2023 and what exactly was expiring? The time I could sign up because every year you have to give them your certificates by Feb 21st. Also I could not call them back this was a one time offer!
This post totally saved me! I almost fell for it even though it was a different scenario. They said I had unused weeks and I could make them available for others to buy for $300 a night so total $2100 each for the 2 weeks I had. I even said yes to making them available. Oh but whoops, there was an issue with my account because I wasn’t enrolled in that program. But, no worries, it would only cost me $6.3k to enroll now! When I said I wasn’t comfortable, she said she could “hack the system” by enrolling me as a new member and giving the one time only discount of $3k. After all, the weeks I’d make available right away would pay for it with $4200 coming right back to me. SMH. The scary part was that as I was talking to her I was logging into my II account and did see the weeks and she did verify my email so I thought it was legit! Then I started googling and this article came up. Man, if they said enrollment was $500 instead of $6k, I may have totally fallen for it! It’s different from yours but just goes to show how creative they’re getting. Thank you!
March 2023 just got one of these call. Still going on. Thanks for putting this out there.
The scam call is still on going. Just got a call and it somewhat sound “legitimate” until they ask for the credit card. It’s unfortunate that Interval or Marriott doesn’t send out beware emails to everyone?!
May 2023 and I just got one of these calls. Same fact patterns as others mentioned previously. She knew of my expired certificates and had our address. Clearly they have access to some database. However, they tried to pressure me by saying I had to make a decision today because today is the last day to deposit weeks for this year. Didn’t make sense, but I played along with her (indeed she was quite convincing). Once I said yes, then she said I wasn’t enrolled in the program and therefore would have to pay a one-time fee of $6500. She later spoke to “her manager” who would give me a 50% discount ($3180). I asked for a website for the information, but she was unable to furnish anything. At the end, I told her this all sounded a bit too good to be true and that I’d be foolish to give someone my credit card over the phone who solicited me.
This just happened to me 2 minutes ago. Two men called to say they were from interval Int’l and wanted me to rent my bonus weeks on my account. Well it’s nonsense – hang up because they sound very nice as though they care butI iknew it was BS because they talked very slowly to me (as though I wasn’t computer savvy). kIn a nut shell, if I paid the $399 upfront for the getaway, they would then find a renter who would rent it from me for $1600 or !800, I would “make back” my annual maintenance and there was no limit to how many times/bonus weeks I could use. It’s an interesting idea but I started poking holes in it and they kind of shut down. I finally said, no because I knew this was a scam and I would/will report them.
Thank you sooo much for this post 🙏🏼. I just received the call with a little different spin on it. I canceled my Interval membership some time ago, but I still own my timeshare. The caller advised this did not matter because I still have getaway weeks available to rent out. It was the same scenario from there I pay $365 for each week up to 6 weeks and they rent out the weeks for up to $1800 a week and I make 100% profit, they don’t even make a commission:((. As the saying goes, “If it sounds too good to be true then it is”. Scam Avoided:))
Thought what’s the harm in calling back after getting the below same voicemail twice in the last week (was figuring it to be a scam). First though I was fortunate to have found this site – thanks!
Voicemail transcription: “Hi this is April calling in regards to your Marriott in your interval you do have a few weeks I need to be used please give us a call back at 689-732-0227 thank you…”
Almost
I thought no scammer could trick me. The representative was good.
Same story on these comments. Advertising my bonus weeks to rent out rather them expire.
I received a contract via email and had a feeling it was a scam. I had my credit card in my had and then told the representative I charged my mind. She wanted to know why I changed my mind and I told her it went from $399 to over 2,000 she said well just do 1 week and not all.
She talked very fast to confuse me.
I’m so glad I went with my gut.
Just got a call on 9/13/23 today with this scam. They do have a database and they do have a lot of industry information. It’s being sold as using our “getaway weeks” up to 6 weeks a year at $399/week that a corporate entity they have contracts with like “Coke” has a convention in Orlando and purchasing a block of 174 weeks at $2K each w/ extra tickets/vouchers to “sea world” etc… and their employees just need to sit thru a 90 min presentation where they have an opportunity to buy a timeshare themselves or not and it’s a win for corporate on price, win for employee, win for us to get reimbursed for some of our timeshare costs, BUT all we need to do is pay the $399 fee for Interval (or RCI) to release the weeks to them with a contract they are fulfilling already in hand w/ corporate company and we will get paid within 60 days by certified check or bank deposit. These were Americans. Not foreign and talked like us. This is operating in the USA. The first girl that answered said she was in “Orlando” and it was super hot. Transferred to a specialist who was the super talker and was then going to transfer to legal that would send an email, review the “contract” and “docu sign” stuff to finalize the transaction. I could go on and they were good with my questions and even when I tried to catch them in “a lie” like since she said they work with both Interval and RCI is that owned by the same parent company? And she said no, which is true. I asked for their name and she said: Owner’s Accommodation RCI and Interval International. I didn’t get to the email part yet, but damn they are good and this is a travesty it’s happening inside the US and not being stopped. Where are the Fed’s?
I want to add that they were selling an owner cost of $399 for each chosen week up to 6 weeks which would cost me $2400, but I was going to get paid $12,000 ($2,000) each week minus the $399 each week, therefore profiting $9,606 for the total. This was also, not going to affect my time share week that is banked with Interval. Please add that to the above information. Everything that can be given to the unaware public is IMPORTANT. Thank you.
9/14/23 update: “Ebony” called back today to ask if we were interested and I said, “No, we are not going to do that.” She said, Oh, well thank you and didn’t push and I hung up. In the background I could hear a busy office and this is crazy it’s being allowed and not shut down here in the USA> not offshore. Note: when I called to report this to Interval, she said that we are not allowed to profit or sell any “bonus weeks” offered anyway, so this is not even possible to do legally.
Thank you for posting, the scam is still going. I was called and was trying to go through the verification process. The wanted 399 for 1601 return, with a minimum of 2 weeks options.
Just had this exact call!!!!
Thank you for this important post! I too received a call from them today and I asked if I could call them back as I wasn’t home at the time. When I arrived at home, I was able to do a search on this topic and your posting came up! Needless to say, I won’t be doing anything with this scam company!
They called this week and said i had 12 bonuse weeks. I asked do i have to pay anything? The guy said yes, i said not interested and hung up.
Totally still a scam. Got a call from “interval” trying to acquire my getaway weeks – all I had to pay is $399 a week and they would then turn around and sell my 12 weeks for a profit of 17-20K and pay within 120 days. Sounds too good to be true… it is. Everyone watch out. This one almost got me. It was very well done.
This just happened to me yesterday, so they are still at it! I played along with the game, but fortunately didn’t fall for it. The phone numbers they called from were 321-414-0361 and 813-435-6049.
Thank you for posting. We got the call yesterday and it the two ladies were very convincing. We are brand new members, just closed last week so we are not familiar with the interval getaways yet. It sounded too good to be true so I said I needed to research. Your posting came up.
Thank you for posting this. They are still calling from the same number:: 321-414-0124