Timeshare scams take two forms: a resale offer with a buyer already found, and an exit service claiming you cannot leave your contract without paying it. Both charge fees in advance. The Justice Department indicted a senior cartel member in September 2025 over Mexican call centres running the resale version, which cost about 6,000 US victims roughly $350 million between 2019 and 2024.
Two scams pointed at the same person, and the person is usually in their seventies.
The resale version. A US-based broker calls with a buyer or a tenant already lined up for your timeshare in Mexico. All that stands in the way is the closing costs, or a transfer tax, or a government fee — payable now, recoverable from the sale.
The exit version. A company tells you that you cannot get out of your contract without them, and charges thousands of dollars for a release.
Both take money before anything happens. Both target people who already regret a purchase and are carrying a maintenance bill they no longer want.
What separates them is who is behind them. The exit version is largely a domestic US industry, and the FTC’s largest case ended in a $140 million judgment in April 2026. The resale version, according to the Justice Department, is run from Mexican call centres by a cartel the State Department has designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
And there is a single test that ends both: in a real sale, the seller does not wire money out before money comes in.
Owner details are obtained from complicit insiders at the resorts — the Treasury says so directly. The caller knows which unit you own, what you paid and when.
A broker or lawyer, US-based, with a purchaser or tenant ready. The call centres are in Mexico and the telemarketers are fluent in English.
The exit version’s central claim, and the one the FTC’s April 2026 case turned on — that release from the contract is impossible except through this company’s service.
Closing costs. A transfer tax. A government charge. Always before the money you have been promised.
Where it could have stopped
In a genuine sale, closing costs and transfer taxes come out of the proceeds. The seller does not wire money to a stranger in advance. If money has to leave before money arrives, the transaction has already been described to you incorrectly — and no amount of paperwork afterwards changes that.
The Treasury’s description is “complex and often yearslong”. Reported losses average roughly $58,000 per victim, which is not one payment.
Wires to Mexican accounts and entities. The Treasury has sanctioned construction and real estate companies alongside the accountants who allegedly moved the money.
Frequently from the same operation, sometimes claiming to be a lawyer or a government office. It knows real details of your earlier loss, because the same people took it.
The problem is real. Timeshares are genuinely difficult to sell, maintenance fees genuinely continue, and owners genuinely worry the obligation will pass to their children. This is not a manufactured need.
The caller knows things only a real broker should. Your unit, your purchase price, your year. That is the single most persuasive element, and it comes from a bought list.
The fee is small against the prize. A few thousand dollars in closing costs, against a sale that recovers tens of thousands. Framed that way it is not a purchase; it is a step.
Regret makes people compliant. The victim has already made one expensive decision they wish they could undo, and is highly motivated to accept a chance to correct it.
“You cannot leave without us” cannot be checked. It is a claim about contract law, made to a non-lawyer, about a document they signed decades ago in another country.
And they come back. Re-victimisation is the defining feature. Each new call arrives with knowledge of the last one, which reads as continuity rather than as evidence.
The two versions have genuinely different origins, and conflating them makes both harder to see.
The exit industry is domestic and licensed-adjacent. Square One Group and its related entities — Consumer Law Protection, Premier Reservations Group, Resort Transfer Group, Timeshare Help Source — were US companies selling a US service. The FTC’s allegations are about deceptive claims, refunds not honoured, and non-cancelable contracts in violation of the Cooling-Off Rule, and the court granted summary judgment.
The Mexican resale version is organised crime. The US government’s position, across three agencies:
The Justice Department describes timeshare fraud as one of the cartel’s revenue streams alongside drug trafficking and fuel theft. All of the criminal allegations are unproven, and sanctions are executive actions rather than convictions.
The scale: approximately 6,000 US victims reporting approximately $350 million between 2019 and 2024, with nearly 900 complaints and over $50 million in 2024 alone. The Treasury adds that the figure likely underestimates total losses.
A federal court granted summary judgment in April 2026 against Christopher Carroll, president and CEO of Square One Group, ordering $140 million and permanently banning him from timeshare exit services. The FTC alleged the scheme defrauded consumers — mostly older adults — of more than $90 million by claiming they could not exit their timeshares without paying its fees.
The Justice Department indicted a senior member of the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion in September 2025 over an advance fee scheme, run from call centres in Mexico since about 2012, that charged Americans fees and taxes to sell or rent timeshares they owned. About 6,000 US victims reported roughly $350 million in losses between 2019 and 2024. The charges are allegations.
On 16 July 2024 the Treasury sanctioned three Mexican accountants and four Mexican companies over CJNG timeshare fraud, and FinCEN issued a notice — jointly with OFAC and the FBI — telling US banks how to spot the money. It records roughly 6,000 US victims and nearly $300 million lost between 2019 and 2023, and says plainly that the figure likely understates the total.
Before you pay anything. Ask one question and insist on a straight answer: why does money have to leave before money arrives? There is no legitimate version.
Then go around the caller entirely. Contact the resort directly, on a number you look up, and ask about a deed-back or voluntary surrender programme — many resorts have one and it costs nothing like a few thousand dollars. If you want legal advice, find a lawyer yourself, in your own jurisdiction, and check the licence with the state bar.
Never pay by international wire. If someone insists, that alone is the answer.
If you have paid.
If you are helping an older relative. Ask specifically about calls concerning a property abroad, and about any wire transfer to Mexico. The pattern here is repeated payments over months or years, which means there is usually still something to stop.
International wires from US bank accounts to Mexican accounts and companies. That is why FinCEN, OFAC and the FBI issued a joint notice to banks rather than only prosecuting individuals — the pattern is visible to a financial institution long before it is visible to a victim.
The Treasury’s designations show the structure. Three accountants sanctioned in July 2024, not callers. Four Mexican companies alongside them, including construction and real estate entities. Seventeen more companies and a resort in February 2026.
Construction and real estate are the destination because they absorb large amounts, generate plausible documentation, and produce assets that stay in place. This is the point at which a fraud page becomes a money laundering page.
The other half of this story
Our sibling site Clean on Paper explains the companies the fees are wired into — and why construction and real estate are where fraud proceeds most often come to rest.
No agency publishes a line item for most of the schemes on this site, so these charts show the official categories that contain this scheme. Each series is labelled with the agency's own category name. See how the mapping works.
Yes, and it applies to both versions. In a genuine sale the seller does not wire money out before money comes in. Closing costs and transfer taxes come out of the proceeds; they are not paid up front by the person selling. If money has to leave first, the transaction has been described to you incorrectly.
That is documented and it is not reassuring. The Treasury's own notice says call centres obtain victim information from complicit insiders at timeshare resorts. Knowing your details means somebody sold your details, not that the caller is who they say.
Sometimes, and it depends entirely on the contract, the resort and the jurisdiction. What is not true is that exit is impossible without a particular company's fee — the FTC's April 2026 case turned on exactly that claim. Start with the resort's own deed-back or surrender programme and with a lawyer you find yourself.
Because it is not one payment. The Treasury describes the Mexican schemes as complex and often yearslong, with the same victim approached repeatedly through exit, re-rent and investment offers. Reported losses average roughly $58,000 per victim — one of the highest figures on this site.
Treat that as part of the same operation until proven otherwise. Re-victimisation is a documented feature here, and the recovery caller will know real details of your earlier loss because the same people took it. See our page on recovery scams.
For the Mexican resale version, that is the US government's position. CJNG was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization in February 2025, a senior member was indicted over timeshare fraud in September 2025 on material support charges, and the Treasury has sanctioned accountants, companies and a resort. Those are allegations and executive designations, not convictions.
Report it
Reporting is what produces the enforcement data on this page. Find the right agency and phone number for your country on the report page. If money moved in the last few hours, call your bank first.