Mexico Timeshare Scam Calls: Where Your Information Really Goes (Part 2)

By Wayne C. Robinson — 25 years in timeshare sales and cancellations, including time working directly for a Mexico-based timeshare company

Part 2 of a 3-part series. If you haven’t read Part 1 yet — [What I Saw From the Inside] — start there for the full picture of how this information gets collected in the first place.

If you own a Mexico timeshare, there’s a decent chance your contract includes language allowing the resort to share your personal information with affiliated companies and subsidiaries, nationally and internationally. I walked through the actual document language for that in Part 1 of this series, along with what I personally witnessed happen to client information while working inside a Mexico timeshare company.

This article picks up from there and answers the next question: once that information leaves the sales office, where does it actually go?

Where that information can end up

Based on what a clause like this actually permits, and on what I’ve seen happen in practice, here’s a realistic picture of where an owner’s information can travel:

• U.S.-based collection agencies, when there’s an unpaid maintenance fee or loan balance to pursue.
• Timeshare resale and “exit” companies, who buy and sell owner lead lists as part of how they generate business — this is a general industry pattern, not something I can trace back to any one specific contract clause.
• International affiliates and subsidiaries — this part I can trace directly to real contract language. The document I quoted in Part 1 explicitly permits sharing with affiliate companies and subsidiaries “nationally and internationally,” which means recipients aren’t limited to companies operating inside the U.S. or even inside Mexico. Most owners never anticipate that when they sign.
• Vaguely defined “service providers,” some of whom, as I described in Part 1, aren’t even employees of the timeshare company itself — meaning there’s no direct accountability chain if something goes wrong.
• Bad actors who obtain the same kind of information through less legitimate channels entirely, with no relationship to any resort at all.

Proof this isn’t hypothetical

Here’s something that happens to me personally, on a regular basis, right now: I get emails from people offering to sell me lists of timeshare owners’ personal information. Not once. Ongoing.

I want you to sit with that for a second, because it answers a question a lot of owners never think to ask. If people are actively offering to sell lists like this — today, in my own inbox — that means there’s a real, functioning market for exactly this kind of data, run by people who have no relationship to any resort whatsoever.

So here’s the obvious question, and it’s really the question this whole series is built around: how did they get that information in the first place?

The honest answer traces back to exactly what I laid out in Part 1 — contract clauses that permit broad sharing, sensitive paperwork handled by people outside the timeshare company’s own accountability chain, and information that, in at least one case I witnessed personally, crossed a border without the owner’s knowledge at all. Somewhere along that chain, for enough owners that a resale market exists for it, information gets loose.

Fraudsters are known to target timeshare owners specifically

This isn’t just my own observation — it’s a documented pattern, and a serious one.

In June 2024, the FBI issued a warning that Mexican cartels — specifically the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, the Gulf Cartel, and the Sinaloa Cartel — have been running timeshare fraud schemes for more than a decade, with reported losses exceeding $300 million over five years. According to the FBI, fraudsters “conduct extensive research on victims, accessing timeshare industry databases to obtain property and owner details” before impersonating legitimate companies and forging documents to appear credible. One assistant special agent quoted in the FBI’s report put it plainly: timeshare fraud has “low overhead costs and minimal reinvestment” while providing “easy cash flow.”

The FBI describes the scam typically running in three phases: first, someone posing as a broker or buyer asks for an upfront fee. Later, a supposed “lawyer” contacts the same victim claiming they can recover the money lost in phase one — for another fee. Finally, a caller impersonating a government official threatens prosecution or dangles a settlement, pushing for yet another payment.

The FTC has issued similar warnings specifically about timeshare resale scams: watch for a “promise of lots of money quickly and a request for an upfront fee.” That combination — a guaranteed buyer, urgency, and a fee before anything happens — is the FTC’s own shorthand for spotting the pattern.

If you recognize this pattern from a call you’ve gotten, the FBI recommends reporting it to the Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov, ideally within 12 hours of when it happened.

What the scam call usually sounds like

Owners who’ve been targeted describe a fairly consistent script:

• A buyer who’s supposedly already lined up and ready to close.
• Urgency — a deadline, a “limited window,” pressure to decide today.
• A request for an upfront “processing” or “tax” fee before anything can move forward.
• A request to “verify the file” by confirming personal or financial details you didn’t offer up first.

If you get a call like this, here’s a short checklist of red flags worth keeping in mind: unsolicited contact, any upfront payment demand, pressure to decide immediately, refusal to put anything in writing, and no verifiable business address you can independently check.

Continue reading

What I Saw From the Inside — Part 3 Haven’t read it yet? This is where the clause and my own insider account come from — the foundation for everything in this article.

You Own a Mexico Timeshare — Here’s What To Do About the Information Risk — Part 3 Now that you know where this information goes and how it’s used against owners, here’s exactly what to do about it, starting today.

Official warnings, straight from the source:

• FBI: Mexican Cartels Targeting Americans in Timeshare Fraud Scams
• FBI: Timeshare Fraud — Victim Resources
• FTC: Be on the lookout for timeshare resale phonies

PROFECO, Mexico’s federal consumer protection agency.

• Recommendations on Contracting Timeshares — PROFECO’s own guidance on timeshare contracts
• The Timeshare Sector — their sector guide
• File a Complaint — the official online complaint portal
• Concilianet — their free online conciliation service between consumers and companies

Request a Free Timeshare Contract Review Want to know exactly what your own contract says about information sharing, and where you actually stand? I’ll review it personally, at no cost. No pressure, no obligation.