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Disney Vacation Club has announced that sales for the newest resort are now open exclusively for Disney Vacation Club members until April 15 2019. After this date, sales will be open to the general public. Disney’s Riviera Resort is the 15th Disney vacation Club property.

The Riviera Resort is said to be one of Disney’s finest to date, with Luxurious accommodation offering around 300 family friendly vacation homes. Disney’s Riviera Resort will include deluxe studios. One and two bedroom villas, grand villas, that sleep up to 12 guests each and ‘Tower Studios’ to add a unique twist for guests. … Read more

Some of the UK’s biggest banks have agreed to pay compensation to victims of bank transfer scams.

Until this new compensation scheme was announced this week, banks have refused to pay Reparation if neither they nor the customer were to blame.

Victims of bank transfer scams have been left with nowhere to turn, when banks have refused their requests for refunds. And figures released in 2018, showed that consumers lost £92.9 million because of this type of fraud.

But now a group of bank’s including Barclays, HSBC. Lloyds and RBS, has agreed to contribute to a fund to ensure victims … Read more

The Competition and Markets Authority has warned travel companies to stop mistreating unfortunate customers who have to cancel their holidays due to unforeseen circumstances.

A lack of awareness over how much can be retained when a traveller cancels a booking is extensive, according to the Competition and Markets Authority. A company cannot automatically keep a large deposit if the customer cancels owing to unforeseen circumstances. Such a contract may be unfair, even if written into terms and conditions.

This means that if a holidaymaker has to cancel a booking due to illness or a family tragedy, and the travel company … Read more

The Information Commissioner’s Office has fined Vote Leave Limited £40,000 for sending out thousands of unsolicited text messages during the 2016 EU referendum. Following an investigation by the ICO, discovered that the Vote Leave campaign sent 196,154 text messages promoting the Leave Campaign. The text messages contained a link to its website.

The ICO found that the Leave campaign claimed they had received people’s details Lawfully, but had actually deleted the evidence of consent after the referendum. They also deleted details of the phone numbers the messages were sent from, the number of messages sent, and the number of messages … Read more

Fraudulent investments are being advertised on social media and Action Fraud, the reporting watchdog, says a shocking £3,168,464 was lost to scammers between October 2018 and February 2019. On average, each victim lost a total of £8,900 per person.

Action Fraud want to warn the public about investments being used on social media, especially Instagram. They say young people, aged between 20 and 30 are most likely to be targeted and fall victim. Fraudsters are advertising ‘Get Rich Quick’ investment schemes, promising a high return within 24 hours. They have been asking victims for a initial £600 investment, which they … Read more

The State of Tennessee, U.S. has warned residents to be on alert if they own a timeshare. The Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance say’s there is a big problem with people being scammed in their State and timeshares ranked amongst its highest complaint category.

While most victims are owners trying to sell their timeshares, the department also receives high numbers of complaints from buyers. They say these include high pressure sales tactics and Distortions about their contracts.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government, its principal mission is the promotion of … Read more

The Australian government is looking into whether timeshare companies should be allowed to continue paying sales agents’ commissions on their sales.

The government want to review the quality of advice given to consumers during timeshare presentations. They also want to eliminate bad practice in the timeshare industry, including lengthy, poor value contracts, high pressure sales tactics which end in consumers taking out unaffordable loans.

The Australian Financial Complaints Authority receives over 170 complaints a year from timeshare owners. They say complaints are centred around the mis-selling of timeshare, where sales staff have failed to disclose cooling off rights, failure to … Read more

Cybersecurity experts have revealed a list of the 12 most common subject lines in phishing emails targeting businesses.

No email security solution is 100% effective. Hackers put a lot of effort into developing attacks that circumvent email protection and end up in users’ inboxes. Cybersecurity company Barracuda conducted an investigation over a three month period and analysed 360,000 phishing emails. They found that, in many cases, the language contained in the subject line of the email mimicked popular terms in the workplace. This makes the recipient think that the email is urgent and requires an immediate response. It is assumed … Read more

Five fraudsters have been jailed for a total of 17 years and nine months, for conning susceptible victims out of nearly £1 million.

The five men were facing charges of conspiracy to defraud and money laundering. The court heard how, between 2013 and 2015, the group of men conned more than 50 victims into a fraud and money laundering scam. The men would cold-call elderly and vulnerable people, introduce themselves under fake names and claim they were brokers with proficiency in fine wine.

They operated from an industrial estate based in Great Dunmow, and claimed to work for three companies, … Read more

A 68 year old retired couple from Arizona, U.S. paid more than $63,000 for a timeshare condominium in Mexico. The couple were planning on spending a couple of weeks there every year, however, the couple learned the resort was never built.

It all started in 2004, when the couple invested $30,000 in a two bedroom timeshare condo in the Grand Mayan resort in Mexico. The developers told the couple the timeshare would be ready in a couple of years, the wait turned into 13 years and the couple were forced to continue paying maintenance fees, which had reached $900 a … Read more