Lost Money to a Timeshare Resale Scam? What to Do Next

Can you get money back after a timeshare resale scam?

Your best chance is the payment channel you used, and speed matters. Ask your card issuer, bank, or wire or app company to reverse the payment as fraud, file a written billing dispute if you paid by credit card, and report the scam to the FTC, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center and your state attorney general. Do not pay anyone who calls offering to recover the money for a fee: federal agencies describe that pitch as a second scam aimed at people who already lost money.

Disclosure: Candid Timeshare works with Vacation Ownership Consultants, a timeshare exit firm, and may be paid when readers hire it.

Candid Timeshare does not suggest paying any company to recover scam losses, including any exit firm, Vacation Ownership Consultants (VOC) among them. This page sticks to the routes federal agencies describe, then turns to the separate question of the timeshare you still own.

What should you do first, based on how you paid?

The FTC’s advice is that “No matter how you paid, it’s always worth asking the company you used to send the money if there’s a way to get it back.” Its steps, by payment type:

How you paid	Who to contact	What to ask
Credit card	The card issuer	Report a fraudulent charge, ask for a reversal, and send a written billing-error notice (see below)
Debit card	The bank that issued it	Report the charge as fraud and ask for the money back
Wire through your bank	Your bank	Report a fraudulent wire and ask it to reverse the transfer
Wire through Western Union, MoneyGram or Ria	The wire company (MoneyGram 1-800-926-9400; Western Union 1-800-448-1492)	Report a fraudulent transfer and ask for a reversal
Payment app	The app company, plus your card issuer or bank if the app was linked to a card	Report the fraudulent payment and ask for a reversal
Gift card	The company that issued the card	Report that it was used in a scam; keep the card and receipt
Cryptocurrency	The exchange or service you used	Ask for a reversal if possible; the FTC warns these payments typically can’t be reversed
Cash by U.S. mail	U.S. Postal Inspection Service, 877-876-2455	Ask it to intercept the package

Call first, then put it in writing. Keep a log of every call: date, name, reference number, and what you were told.

How does a credit card billing dispute work?

The Fair Credit Billing Act gives you a formal route. Send written notice to the address your card issuer lists for billing errors, so that it arrives within 60 days after the issuer sent the statement showing the charge. The notice must identify you and your account, say you believe the statement contains a billing error and for how much, and explain why. Charges for services “not delivered to the obligor… in accordance with the agreement made at the time of a transaction” count as a billing error under the statute, which fits a reseller that promised a buyer and produced none.

The issuer must acknowledge your notice within 30 days unless it resolves it sooner, and must either correct the account or explain in writing why it thinks the charge is right within two complete billing cycles, and in no case later than 90 days. If you paid by debit card, wire or check, this statute doesn’t apply, so the bank’s own fraud process is your route.

Where should you report a timeshare resale scam?

Report to each of these, since they keep separate records.

• FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. The FTC lists it first for timeshare scams, and its refund-scam guidance adds your state attorney general.
• FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov. The FBI asks timeshare scam victims to include email addresses, phone numbers, website domains, company names, transaction details “even if no funds were lost,” and how the contact happened.
• Your state attorney general, and the attorney general in the state where the timeshare is located, which the FTC names for timeshare complaints. The complaint guide covers how to write one.
• The Better Business Bureau, also on the FTC’s timeshare list, which creates a record others can check.

If the person who lost money is an older relative, Treasury’s July 2024 joint notice with the FBI urges banks to report suspected elder financial exploitation to Adult Protective Services, a social service program every state authorizes to investigate such reports. You can contact your local APS office yourself. The elderly parent guide covers the timeshare side.

How big is the problem?

The numbers come from federal reporting. In 2022, the FBI’s complaint center received more than 600 complaints, with losses of about $39.6 million, from victims contacted about timeshares in Mexico. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, writing with the Office of Foreign Assets Control and the FBI in July 2024, said reports from roughly 6,000 people in the U.S. put Mexico timeshare fraud losses from 2019 to 2023 at nearly $300 million, and that the FBI believes about 80 percent of victims never report. The same notice says that since at least 2012 the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and other Mexico-based criminal groups have increasingly targeted U.S. owners of timeshares in Mexico. The Mexican timeshare guide covers that market.

U.S.-based schemes follow the same script. In a Houston federal case, prosecutors said the Jariv Companies took about $6.9 million from roughly 1,000 owners in the U.S. and Canada between February 2011 and January 2012. Telemarketers claimed to have corporate buyers, told owners the fees were “fully refundable at closing,” then reported that the buyer had pulled out and pitched another buyer for more money. “Closings were not scheduled, sales did not occur and no payments were made to timeshare owners,” the release said.

Why is a “recovery” offer usually the next scam?

The FTC is blunt about it: refund and recovery scams are “the worst of the worst,” aimed at people who have already been cheated. It says scammers buy and trade lists of past victims, with names, contact details, the scam that worked and how much each person paid, and then call claiming they can get the money back. They may pose as a government agency, a consumer group or a law firm, or even as the company that took your money, and then ask for a “retainer fee,” “processing fee” or “tax,” or for your bank account number to deposit a refund.

For timeshare owners specifically:

• The FBI’s 2023 alert says victims of timeshare sales scams are later contacted by a fraudulent “timeshare fraud recovery company” that may demand an upfront fee, and that scammers sometimes pose as a government entity collecting fees tied to the sale.
• Treasury and the FBI’s 2024 notice describes “re-victimization” schemes in which scammers pose as U.S. law firms that know about the first fraud, say the scammers were charged or sued and that victims are owed restitution, then demand legal or court fees before paying out. Some go on to impersonate U.S. or Mexican government officials.
• The FBI’s August 2025 alert on fake law firms, written about cryptocurrency scam victims, lists warning signs that match: knowing the exact amounts and dates of your earlier transfers, claiming you are on a government list of victims, claiming to be an official partner of a government agency, and asking for payment in crypto or gift cards. It states that “There are no law firms which are officially authorized partners of US Government agencies” and that the government does not charge for law enforcement services.

What does the law say about paying for recovery help?

The FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule makes it an abusive practice for a seller or telemarketer to ask for or take any fee for recovering money you lost in an earlier transaction until seven business days after the money is delivered to you. The rule exempts services from a licensed attorney. So if someone who called you claims to be a lawyer, look the person up yourself with the state bar before saying anything else; the attorney guide shows how.

The FTC’s plain-language version: “Never pay upfront for a refund or help with a refund,” and government agencies and legitimate organizations “will never ask for money to help you get a refund.”

What documents should you pull together?

Item	Where it helps
Card statements, bank records, wire receipts, app payment history	Payment disputes and reversal requests
The resale or exit contract, invoices and any “closing” paperwork	Shows what was promised and what you were billed for
Emails, texts, call logs, caller numbers and website addresses	IC3 and FTC reports, which ask for exactly these
Names the callers used and any company registrations they cited	Attorney general complaints and later fraud checks
Your timeshare deed, contract and latest maintenance fee bill	Confirming with the resort that you still own it

What happens to the timeshare itself?

It is almost certainly still yours, with its loan and its fees. Call the resort or management company directly, using the number on your statement, to confirm the account is current and that no transfer was recorded. Keep paying while you decide what to do; missed payments can lead to collections and foreclosure.

The loss changes nothing about the safe order of steps:

1. Inside your cancellation window? If you bought recently, cancel in writing; see the rescission guide.
2. Inherited it and haven’t accepted it? Ask an estate attorney about disclaiming; see the inherited timeshare guide.
3. Contact the resort and check real resale prices. The FTC says that before you pay anyone to sell your timeshare, contact the developer or the resort’s management company and ask about your options, and that it is better to work with a reseller that “takes fees after the timeshare is sold.” The selling guide explains how. VOC’s process opens with the same instruction: “Contact your resort and check the resale market.” If the call or an owner update meeting turns into an upgrade pitch, sign nothing; the upgrade guide explains why.
4. Resort said no, and nobody will buy the week? That is the point for a free consultation and file review with an exit firm, and only after the resort has answered. VOC’s sequence is an upload of your papers through its eligibility form, its decision on whether you qualify, a file review at no charge, and last, your choice about enrolling at its one-time flat fee. VOC’s home page says it won’t “discuss billing until we’ve made sure you qualify.” That work concerns the timeshare contract. It is not a way to get back what the scammer took, and no one should promise you that.

After one scam, check the next company harder. The red flags guide lists what regulators found in the biggest exit-scam cases and what to ask before you pay.

Disclosure: Candid Timeshare works with Vacation Ownership Consultants, a timeshare exit firm, and may be paid when readers hire it. This page’s author, Kira Fairbank, is a manager at Vacation Ownership Consultants. We cite its published case data on this page where marked.

This is general information, not legal advice. Dispute deadlines are strict and depend on how you paid, so contact your card issuer or bank right away, and ask an attorney licensed in your state whether you have a claim against the people who took your money.