In Orlando Florida a man, Daniel Martin Boyar, who is also known as ‘Wolf’, has pleaded guilty for the part he played in a telemarketing scheme. Over 1000 victims were targeted by Wolf, with many of them being elderly. The Acting US attorney Steven W. Myhre for the district of Nevada states that more than 3.3 million dollars were defrauded from the many victims.
Wolf gave a plea of guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud; two counts of mail fraud; and two counts of wire fraud.
The Judge, C. Mahan accepted the perpetrator’s guilty plea and he is due to be sentenced on May 22nd, 2018. The penalty for the crime he has committed can be up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. He could also face having to return the amount defrauded from the victims not to exceed 3.5 million dollars.
Boyar was the leader of the scam and in cahoots, with his co-conspirators, they created and were actively involved in a telemarketing scheme that was specifically designed to swindle timeshare owners out of their hard-earned cash by promising to sell their timeshare. All the owners had to do was partially contribute towards the closing costs associated with the ‘sale’ of the timeshare. However, and this may be no surprise, they’re actually any buyers for the timeshare. Nothing was ever arranged and nothing ever actually happened. This scheme is known as the ‘buyer’s pitch’ and it’s an advance fee criminal scheme.
There were various different business names that this particular travesty operated under; some of these included, Holiday Advertising, Redline Funding LLC, Equity Financial Services LLC, Professional Concepts LLC, Teleton Corporation, Great West Funding Inc and First Capital Financial Services Corporation. Boyar and his associates moved their business around to different states and approximately every 90 days changed the name of their business. Along with this, they had the expertise to create websites that had incorrect and ambiguous information which re-assured and ‘sold’ their business to their customers. They were able to fabricate customer testimonials, press releases and company officers, all of which were a fallacy. The criminal group used wire communications and a mail carrier service to help carry out their scheme, therefore this case is being investigated by the U.S Postal Inspection Service and the FBI.
Consumers looking to sell their timeshare need to be very aware of contact from businesses out of the blue. If you want to sell your timeshare do it on your own terms and research legitimate companies who can help you achieve an honest sale. If someone asks you for money ‘up-front’ or they know lots of private information about you, alarm bells should be ringing. It is so easy now, with the help of the internet, for people to create false sites, false testimonials and a false sense of security. If you are looking for help selling your timeshare and are working with a legitimate company they will have a transparent process for conducting business and one that you should be able to interrogate prior to handing over any cash!
For more information regarding this article or assistance in any other timeshare related issues please contact the TCA on 01908 881058 or email: info@TimeshareConsumerAssociation.org.uk