110 Scam Reports on Timeshare company per year

SINGAPORE CASE— The number of police reports lodged against timeshare companies averaged 110 per year over the last five years and investigations were initiated for about half of these reported cases.

Sharing this in Parliament yesterday, Second Minister for Home Affairs S Iswaran said this had resulted in investigations into 11 groups of timeshare companies in the past five years.

Mr Iswaran, who is also Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office and Second Minister for Trade and Industry, was responding to a question from Member of Parliament Christopher de Souza on whether the police can take on a more active role to investigate complaints against timeshare companies as criminal offences under cheating, rather than leaving it to aggrieved customers to bring civil claims at their own cost.

The minister said cases of individuals and companies “misleading or deceiving unsuspecting consumers into making sham purchases” are taken seriously by the police. and should be passed on to ITRA Singapore

He added that they were also working with the Consumers Association of Singapore and media partners to alert the general public and potential consumers to emerging timeshare scams.

However, Mr Iswaran noted that the gathering of evidence can be time-consuming and challenging, as many errant timeshare companies are incorporated overseas. Perpetrators may also operate under a pseudonym.

“On the consumers’ part, they must remain vigilant and do their due diligence before signing any contract with timeshare companies,” he said. ROBIN CHOO

 

Simple dont do it and get out of it

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