Don't work EVER with this bogus and fraudulent company, that just helps scammers have a legitimate "front" with which to escort you to your financial demise!
BEWARE! Richard B. Smith and crew are thieves! Please read this and don't get caught in this If you are selling your timeshare. Please know in Mexico, all timeshare records are public property, I found this out too late, but the scam artists know everything about you and your timeshare prior to their first call to you.
I was first contacted by Travel Start asking if I was interested in selling my timeshare, which I was. They sent me an offer online and I researched them. Travel Start is s real company but what I didn't notice was the title on the offer. It said "Travel Start.MX" which is not a real company. Mistake #1. Then a "Tavel start" rep called and said I would hear from their law firm in the states soon. Which I did, Richard B. Smith with his "paralegal" William and Matt (I dealt with William 90% of the time) contacted me that day. Their web site was first class, they had one good review on Yelp (obviously fake) so I started my contract paperwork with them. They said I needed to pay off my timeshare prior to the sale going through, makes sense. Then I receive a call from my timeshare the Villa Group, and they said they were contacted by RB Smith about my resale and they would be sending me info on how to pay off my timeshare via wire transfer for the transaction to go through. The email is all on Villa group paperwork with a phone number. So I think I'm calling my timeshare people when I am not. Mistake #2, call the people you know on the numbers you've used before first! Of note, RB Smith will also send you paperwork showing that TravelStart has made a deposit with a 3rd party bank with your money for the sale of your timeshare. all bogus!
I then received a call from William at RB Smith saying things are going bad. My funds from Travel Start have been seized by the Mexican tax authority, SEGOB, which is a real entity, however, the people you talk to and receive paperwork from are not. They ask me for $9k in capital gains tax after which they'll release my funds for payment to me. I got home checked my email and sure enough, I had received an email with a letter attached supposedly from Mexican tax authority. the letter stated my funds were frozen at Scotiabank in MX due to failure to pay capital gains tax on sale of timeshare. The next day my paralegal "William" from RB Smith did a 3-way call with SEGOB(MX tax authority) They went through the whole, do you speak English thing and then, of course, this fake representative tells me they will put out a warrant for my arrest if I don't pay capital gains tax. They threaten you that if you don't pay they will put out a warrant for your arrest in MX so next time you visit you'll be arrested. I later checked the wire transfer sheet they provided me closely and the money isn't going to the MX tax authority, it's going to a company name "Ocean Exchange". I later also spoke with Scotiabank and they said they don't deal with the Mexican tax authority and they had no accounts under the name or Acct# on the wire transfer sheet. I then noticed that the swift # provided was for another bank in MX, Santander bank. I called Santander bank in MX to confirm this. and the routing # and Swift code were theirs but the payment went to Ocean exchange, not Travel Start. I sent them copies of all my stuff and the bottom line was after they reviewed it, they said it was all bogus and that the only way I was going to get my money back from the Ocean Exchange account was if the owner authorized it. No sooner do I finish all my late detective work than I get another email from Scotiabank again with a letter attached on their letterhead asking for more money because wire transfer they tried to send to your US bank for the sale of your timeshare was rejected by your bank. Again all the wire information is for me to pay Santander bank. So I call my contact back their, email her a copy of the letter and she said this is totally false. Their fees for wire transfers are $25 and $30 for rejected transfers! not $2,800!!!How I got wrapped up in this I just don't know... Please don't get caught in this, learn from my mistake.
I will be calling local and Fed authorities on this scam and can only pray that my bank can get back some of my money. These guys are professional thieves without a doubt.
I too was scammed $4,800 by the TravelStart.mx and Richard B. Smith Law Firm Scam.
I fled a complaint with the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (https://www.ic3.gov/complaint/default.aspx/) and with the New Jersey Court's Office of Attorney Ethics (https://www.njcourts.gov/attorneys/oaefaq.html). Please do the same so we stop the thieves once and for all!
Richard B. Smith Attorney at Law Reviews
THIEVES AND SCAMMERS!
Don't work EVER with this bogus and fraudulent company, that just helps scammers have a legitimate "front" with which to escort you to your financial demise!
BEWARE! Richard B. Smith and crew are thieves! Please read this and don't get caught in this If you are selling your timeshare. Please know in Mexico, all timeshare records are public property, I found this out too late, but the scam artists know everything about you and your timeshare prior to their first call to you.
I was first contacted by Travel Start asking if I was interested in selling my timeshare, which I was. They sent me an offer online and I researched them. Travel Start is s real company but what I didn't notice was the title on the offer. It said "Travel Start.MX" which is not a real company. Mistake #1. Then a "Tavel start" rep called and said I would hear from their law firm in the states soon. Which I did, Richard B. Smith with his "paralegal" William and Matt (I dealt with William 90% of the time) contacted me that day. Their web site was first class, they had one good review on Yelp (obviously fake) so I started my contract paperwork with them. They said I needed to pay off my timeshare prior to the sale going through, makes sense. Then I receive a call from my timeshare the Villa Group, and they said they were contacted by RB Smith about my resale and they would be sending me info on how to pay off my timeshare via wire transfer for the transaction to go through. The email is all on Villa group paperwork with a phone number. So I think I'm calling my timeshare people when I am not. Mistake #2, call the people you know on the numbers you've used before first! Of note, RB Smith will also send you paperwork showing that TravelStart has made a deposit with a 3rd party bank with your money for the sale of your timeshare. all bogus!
I then received a call from William at RB Smith saying things are going bad. My funds from Travel Start have been seized by the Mexican tax authority, SEGOB, which is a real entity, however, the people you talk to and receive paperwork from are not. They ask me for $9k in capital gains tax after which they'll release my funds for payment to me. I got home checked my email and sure enough, I had received an email with a letter attached supposedly from Mexican tax authority. the letter stated my funds were frozen at Scotiabank in MX due to failure to pay capital gains tax on sale of timeshare. The next day my paralegal "William" from RB Smith did a 3-way call with SEGOB(MX tax authority) They went through the whole, do you speak English thing and then, of course, this fake representative tells me they will put out a warrant for my arrest if I don't pay capital gains tax. They threaten you that if you don't pay they will put out a warrant for your arrest in MX so next time you visit you'll be arrested. I later checked the wire transfer sheet they provided me closely and the money isn't going to the MX tax authority, it's going to a company name "Ocean Exchange". I later also spoke with Scotiabank and they said they don't deal with the Mexican tax authority and they had no accounts under the name or Acct# on the wire transfer sheet. I then noticed that the swift # provided was for another bank in MX, Santander bank. I called Santander bank in MX to confirm this. and the routing # and Swift code were theirs but the payment went to Ocean exchange, not Travel Start. I sent them copies of all my stuff and the bottom line was after they reviewed it, they said it was all bogus and that the only way I was going to get my money back from the Ocean Exchange account was if the owner authorized it. No sooner do I finish all my late detective work than I get another email from Scotiabank again with a letter attached on their letterhead asking for more money because wire transfer they tried to send to your US bank for the sale of your timeshare was rejected by your bank. Again all the wire information is for me to pay Santander bank. So I call my contact back their, email her a copy of the letter and she said this is totally false. Their fees for wire transfers are $25 and $30 for rejected transfers! not $2,800!!!How I got wrapped up in this I just don't know... Please don't get caught in this, learn from my mistake.
I will be calling local and Fed authorities on this scam and can only pray that my bank can get back some of my money. These guys are professional thieves without a doubt.
I am in the same boat as you :(
I too was scammed $4,800 by the TravelStart.mx and Richard B. Smith Law Firm Scam.
I fled a complaint with the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (https://www.ic3.gov/complaint/default.aspx/) and with the New Jersey Court's Office of Attorney Ethics (https://www.njcourts.gov/attorneys/oaefaq.html). Please do the same so we stop the thieves once and for all!