How to avoid costly timeshare fraud when you want out of your timeshare

SALT LAKE CITY — Timeshare fraud can be a major financial misadventure for owners who no longer have the time or interest in using their timeshare.

“I’ve been attempting to sell it, or give it back, or whatever,” Shirley England told me in July about her timeshare in Hawaii.

She was so desperate to get out of her Hawaiian timeshare that she paid more than $9,000 to a so-called “timeshare exit company” that promised to get her out of that timeshare with a 100% guarantee.

Two years later, England still owns that timeshare. Her demands to that exit company for a refund went nowhere.

“They’ve just totally ignored me – 100%,”

“It’s a difficult situation,” said Jason Gamel, president and CEO of ARDA, the trade association for the timeshare industry.

It’s an industry seemingly rife with f