UPDATE (22.5.09)
Tomorrow, Saturday, at 22.05 Antena 3 will – in a rare case of a television news station actually doing a bit of real journalism – broadcast a programme exposing the shysters we refer to below.
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A sign of Romania’s growing affluence?
The timeshare scam, one of the most notorious cons of modern times, but long thought dead after repeated exposure on consumer protection programmes, such as the UK’s Watchdog, and high-profile convictions, is in fact alive and well and living in Romania.
A week or so ago we got a call asking us for five minutes of our time to answer some questions about our holiday habits. Being nice people, we answered.
Today, the follow-up call… “You have won a holiday in the Canary Islands. All you have to do is come to a presentation on Saturday. Bring ID.”
It was the word ‘presentation’ that perked up our antennae. As well as the alarm bells that ‘bring ID’ set off. So we asked some questions.
Which company is behind this?
Answer? Atlantic Promotions Srl.
Google did the rest…
http://www.iturism.ro/forum/index.php?showtopic=1180
There are 59 pages of comment on these people: Options International and Atlantic Promotions.
The scammers are English by the sounds of it. Oh dear. We’re now tempted to go to the presentation simply to plead with any other people there not to part with their money.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Never mind
sorry parmalat, i dont understand your post. What do you mean exactly.
Very interesting material, this is a scam that we should learn and improve in order to performe it later. Who knows when it will bring us some money…
i dont think you should tar both companies. I sold timeshare for many years in spain and im not a Shyster. The product Atlantic promotions sell is very different to what Options sold and they are still trading, where Options are not, that tells you something.
I suggest bringing a good journalist along.