Categories: personal

RCI Financial Title–Timeshare ripoff details

I’m posting these details for the greater good.  This should be indexed on Google within 24 hours.

My mother just got an offer from RCI Financial Title.  They said they have a ‘corporate buyer’ for her three timeshares. The e-mail contained a poorly formatted, pseudo-contract offering $50,000 for her timeshare. They request a “Doc stamp fee” of $3500.

The kicker is, the properties are only worth $15,000 and this is “too good to be true”.

NOTE – RCI Financial Title is NOT associated with RCI (rci.com), the timeshare exchange company.  My mother called to confirm.

Details about the scam:

E-mail came from a Hotmail address – phillharrisrcifinancialtitle@hotmail.com

Address used in the document (below) appears to be a UPS box (I love Google Maps!).  There is no company with the name “RCI Financial Title” that shows up at the address in the e-mail.  I did some research and have the real company address below (based on 2010 business tax records).

It’s also odd that the name in the document (Jack Phillips) is different from the e-mail address (Phillip Harris) doesn’t match the name within the e-mail (Jack Phillips).

Financial/Title Office:  8815 Conroy-Windermere Rd. Suite 113, Orlando, Fl 32835  (407)243-7512   Jack Phillips

The company web site (www.rcifinancialtitle.com) is a cheesy, basic web site.  There is no e-mail associated with the domain, and the phone number for the company doesn’t match the phone number in the e-mail. 

http://www.octaxcol.com/Download/LocalBusinessTaxData2010/lbtnbl20101002-08.pdf

RCI FINANCIAL TITLE

RCIJB WORLDWIDE ENTERPRISE LLC 10/04/2010
5934 BALBOA DR
ORLANDO FL 32808
ADVERTISING
407-879-7687

The company was incorporated June 2010, and the only ‘real’ name I found associated with the company is LISA GRANSKIE

Paul Begley

View Comments

  • Well they did sell my timeshare and i was every please. so they are a good company.

  • I assume the comment above was posted by someone from RCI Financial Title.

    The name and e-mail address are fake - I tried to send a reply to "angie lopez" at Yahoo! and it bounced.

    Also, the IP address they used to post the comment is from Melbourne, FL. This is about 10 miles from Orlando where (wait for it...) - RCI Financial Title is located.

    Well, "angie" aside from the fact that you ignore punctuation and grammar rules, you’re an obvious fraud.

    If anyone has anything good or bad to say about RCI Financial Title, document your experience and send it to me at nospam (at) paulbegley (dot) com and I will post it.

  • Well, I fell for it! When we got the call from a "Robert Bishop" [either (407) 244-6254 or (407) 418-8609], the offer was reasonable & the website was actually up - although just as minimal as you observed. (Wish I'd had the presence-of-mind to get a screen-shot of the home page!) Now, of course, the url for the site goes to a "Your domain is pointing to Yola! Now you just need to publish your site and you're done!" screen. Anyway, we executed a contract ( e-mailed from "Alex Whitman", rcititleco@yahoo.com) & overnighted it with a cashiers check for nearly $ 2,000.00 that I know I'll have to write-off. Although the phone numbers no longer work, we do have a USPS Certified Mail receipt & I have a saved voice mail on my cel phone from "Robert Bishp" stating that he received the mailing. I'm going to contact a private investigator here in Pasadena, TX, as well as a recommended firm in Orlando. I'll also be looking online to see who (Federal, State, etc.) will accept a report of this fraud. Thank you for your posts. If only I'd found anything negative about them when first I Googled them!

  • We are making progress. E-Mail below from the FL Attorney General's office:

    Sent: Wed, March 23, 2011 6:01:10 PM
    Subject: From Attorney General Pam Bondi

    Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi received your email regarding the sale
    of your mother's timeshare by RCIJB Worldwide Enterprise, doing business
    as RCI Title & Marketing. Attorney General Bondi asked that I respond.

    The Attorney General's Office has made timeshare resales one of our top
    consumer priorities, and we are actively investigating multiple businesses
    pursuant to Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, Chapter
    501, Part II, Florida Statutes. We use complaints such as yours to
    identify patterns of questionable business activity which may indicate the
    need for formal investigation or action by our office to protect the broad
    public interest. I am retaining your correspondence in our consumer files
    for future reference.

    I invite you to visit the Attorney General's comprehensive website about
    the timeshare resales industry in Florida. This website provides
    information on the Attorney General's investigations of particular
    businesses, along with the consumer tips about resolving timeshare resale
    issues:

    http://www.myfloridalegal.com/timeshares

    The Attorney General and Federal Trade Commission have also issued
    important consumer alerts about so-called "recovery rooms," and
    "reloading," scams which target consumers who previously fell prey to
    telemarketing and other schemes:

    http://myfloridalegal.com/pages.nsf/main/c6bb5f8d20910af785256cc9005e72d3!OpenDocument

    http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/telemarketing/tel09.shtm (posted
    March 2011)
    http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/telemarketing/tel10.shtm

    Our office does not generally mediate individual complaints. If you are
    seeking mediation of your individual complaint, please contact the Florida
    Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Division of Consumer
    Services (DACS). The DACS serves as the state clearinghouse for consumer
    complaints and has a voluntary mediation program to assist individual
    consumers. The contact information is:

    Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services
    Division of Consumer Services
    2005 Apalachee Parkway
    Tallahassee, Florida 32399
    Telephone: (850) 488-2221
    Toll-free within Florida: (800) 435-7352
    Website: http://www.800helpfla.com/

    In addition to the Better Business Bureau, you may wish to contact the
    following consumer agency for further assistance:

    Orange County Consumer Fraud Unit
    Post Office Box 1673
    Orlando, Florida 32802
    Telephone: (407) 836-2490
    Email: fraudhelp@sao9.org
    Websites: http://www.orangecountyfl.net/
    http://www.orangecountyfl.net/YourLocalGovernment/CountyDepartments/CountyAdministration/OfficeofPublicEngagementandCitizenAdvocacy/ConsumerFraudUnit/tabid/370/Default.aspx

    Printable complaint form:
    http://www.orangecountyfl.net/Portals/0/Resources/Internet/DEPARTMENTS/Consumer%20Fraud/docs/ComplaintForm.pdf

    Finally, Florida's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act provides
    individuals with a private remedy to bring an action for damages,
    attorney's fees and court costs. Please consult a private attorney if you
    need legal advice. An attorney can provide the legal guidance which we
    are not at liberty to provide to individual timeshare owners. The Florida
    Bar offers a Lawyer Referral Service toll-free at (800) 342-8060.

    Thank you for contacting Attorney General Bondi's Office. I hope this
    proves helpful.

    Sincerely,

    Carmen James
    Office of Citizen Services

  • I gave RCI Financial Title $1,850.oo to sell my Timeshare on 2/14/11 and now I cannot get in touch with them. They gave me a Contract saying they had sold my timeshare and would give me the closing date between March 20th and March 30th. Is there any recouse I can take?

  • RCI Financial indicated that had a buyer for my timeshare in Mexico and that the buyer had agreed to the sell price of $24,850.00. The buyer was NIVEA Corporation.I was instructed to send a cashiers check on March 14, 2011, in the amount of $2,450.00 via USPS Express Mail and RCI would then send out the documents for me to sign to complete the sale. I received a call that the check was received on March 16, 2011 and the documents would be sent out in three days. When I completed the documents and returned them, I was assured that I would receive a check in the amount of $27,300. When the documents failed to arrive, I began calling them to let them know. I have called RCI Financial Title numerous times and have not received a return call from anyone at RCI.

  • We were contacted by Sara Welch who claimed she is with Vacation Ownership International (302 449 9326). She said that she had buyers for our time share. She took our price demand and returned to tell us that she had prequalified buyers who would pay our price and that they were serious (they would put 20% down). After some repeated attempts to secure documentation for the transaction, we were told that we would have to advance the closing costs. This seemed very odd to me so I pushed to find out more. We were eventually told that the company doing the work is RCI Title, 4630 S. Kirkman Road, Suite 103, Orlando Florida, 32811, 321-721-3559.

  • I guess I'm not as smart as I thought. If it's too good to be true, it usually is. We were also contacted by a Sarah Welch (302) 449-9326 and the story is the same. When she called us she had all the information about our timeshare at Summer Bay Resort in Florida (and seemed to know more about it than we did!). Sadly, we used electronic checking so we are now in the process of changing our account numbers, etc. We are interested in pursuing any avenue for retribution. These are the people that have changed the course of humanity and should be punished. Is there anything we can do at this point?

  • Looks like they are now operating under the name of Itt Professionals LLC. If you look up the company at Sunbiz.com, guess who the agent is? Good ol LISA GRANSKIE

Share
Published by
Paul Begley
Tags: fraudhoax

Recent Posts

Home computer security recommendations

I recommend you keep your Windows OS patched and be sure to update all the…

1 year ago

Internet speed tests

With more people streaming and general Internet use increasing, I get questions about measuring home…

1 year ago

Windows endpoint security recommendations

Friends and family have asked about antivirus and security recommendations. This is a quick summary…

1 year ago

Home network update – Meraki to Netgate

I avoid frequent changes to my home network. My stated goal is to design and…

2 years ago

PiHole update – certificate error

Attempting to update PiHole from the command line, I received the error below: [i] Downloading…

2 years ago

Obituary – Maureen Begley

Maureen A. Begley (nee Burchill), age 91, of Chillicothe, Ohio, formerly Moorestown and Mount Laurel,…

3 years ago