Older people risk everything to leave as much money as possible to their families.
A Mexican criminal gang formerly known for drug trafficking, avocado trafficking, real estate and construction has now turned its sights on elderly timeshare owners.
Timeshare — or timesharing) is a form of ownership or use of real estate in which multiple buyers acquire rights to use the property for a certain amount of time each year. Most often, timeshare is associated with holidays and resort apartments, where the buyer, in fact, purchases the time spent in a certain place, and not the property itself.
The Jalisco New Generation cartel has come up with a new fraud scheme in which criminals posing as real estate agents contact timeshare owners with an offer to buy out their shares for attractive amounts. Then the scammers demand an advance payment for various services: from advertising to paying fines to the government. After convincing victims to transfer large sums of money to Mexico, sometimes reaching hundreds of thousands of dollars, the scammers disappear.
Over the past 10 years, the scam has brought the cartel hundreds of millions of dollars through dozens of call centers in Mexico. It is reported that the cartel even bribes employees of Mexican resorts to disclose information about guests and residents. The victims of the scam are mostly elderly people from the United States and Canada who want to leave as much money as possible to their families by selling their assets.
Despite the fact that American law firms cannot file civil lawsuits in Mexico without the involvement of a licensed Mexican lawyer, in the last 5 years, American timeshare owners have lost $288 million due to various types of fraud, including cartel scams. According to lawyers, Mexican banks are also responsible for what is happening, as they often do not check the legitimacy of the cartel's accounts and addresses.
The consequences of such scams are devastating not only for the financial well-being of victims, but also for their emotional state, making them think about the need to look for part-time work in old age. The US authorities, despite sanctions against Mexican companies and individuals associated with timeshare fraud, recognize that the fight against such scams is difficult, and urge citizens to be vigilant.
The Jalisco New Generation cartel, founded about 15 years ago, has grown into one of the most powerful cartels in Mexico. In recent years, it has spread to legal sectors of the economy, including the sale of avocados in the United States. In Michoacan, Mexico, which was the only Mexican state licensed to export avocados to the United States, cartels cut down protected forests, forcing the population to abandon the land and plant their own gardens. The criminals then began to extort money from small producers. The criminal group even threatened a U.S. inspector when he rejected a shipment of avocados issued by the cartel under the guise of products from Michoacan, which led to a brief US ban on Mexican avocados, the first in the history of long-term avocado trade between the countries.
A Mexican criminal gang formerly known for drug trafficking, avocado trafficking, real estate and construction has now turned its sights on elderly timeshare owners.
Timeshare — or timesharing) is a form of ownership or use of real estate in which multiple buyers acquire rights to use the property for a certain amount of time each year. Most often, timeshare is associated with holidays and resort apartments, where the buyer, in fact, purchases the time spent in a certain place, and not the property itself.
The Jalisco New Generation cartel has come up with a new fraud scheme in which criminals posing as real estate agents contact timeshare owners with an offer to buy out their shares for attractive amounts. Then the scammers demand an advance payment for various services: from advertising to paying fines to the government. After convincing victims to transfer large sums of money to Mexico, sometimes reaching hundreds of thousands of dollars, the scammers disappear.
Over the past 10 years, the scam has brought the cartel hundreds of millions of dollars through dozens of call centers in Mexico. It is reported that the cartel even bribes employees of Mexican resorts to disclose information about guests and residents. The victims of the scam are mostly elderly people from the United States and Canada who want to leave as much money as possible to their families by selling their assets.
Despite the fact that American law firms cannot file civil lawsuits in Mexico without the involvement of a licensed Mexican lawyer, in the last 5 years, American timeshare owners have lost $288 million due to various types of fraud, including cartel scams. According to lawyers, Mexican banks are also responsible for what is happening, as they often do not check the legitimacy of the cartel's accounts and addresses.
The consequences of such scams are devastating not only for the financial well-being of victims, but also for their emotional state, making them think about the need to look for part-time work in old age. The US authorities, despite sanctions against Mexican companies and individuals associated with timeshare fraud, recognize that the fight against such scams is difficult, and urge citizens to be vigilant.
The Jalisco New Generation cartel, founded about 15 years ago, has grown into one of the most powerful cartels in Mexico. In recent years, it has spread to legal sectors of the economy, including the sale of avocados in the United States. In Michoacan, Mexico, which was the only Mexican state licensed to export avocados to the United States, cartels cut down protected forests, forcing the population to abandon the land and plant their own gardens. The criminals then began to extort money from small producers. The criminal group even threatened a U.S. inspector when he rejected a shipment of avocados issued by the cartel under the guise of products from Michoacan, which led to a brief US ban on Mexican avocados, the first in the history of long-term avocado trade between the countries.
