If it isn’t the Spanish court or tax offices, it is the Portuguese one they use for cold calling lately. Lisboa Tribunais, the Portuguese Supreme Court cold calling Timeshare consumers who were defrauded by dubious companies.
Can you believe that?
Well this is what is happening. An English person claiming to be working at the Portuguese Courts cold calls Timeshare consumers. This person knows all about previous dealings with dubious companies from the Timeshare owner, and the good news is that these companies have been closed down.
But as they moved to Portugal, the police intervention took place there and also the seized assets such as bank accounts are in Portugal.
In order to claim back the money that was lost in the fraud, the Timeshare consumer will have to pay a tax charge and notary fees to Lisboa Tribunais. An amount of £900 is requested and needs to be paid by Western Union (!) in the name of an individual.
Please note that this is NOT TRUE! Do NOT PAY them a penny!
There is no such thing as people calling from the Lisboa Tribunais, companies moved to Portugal and raided there, or money waiting in Portuguese bank accounts!
Contact details for this Lisboa Tribunais are the following:
Aníbal Cavaco Silva, Presidente do Supremo Tribunal de Justiça, Praça do Comércio, 1149-012 Lisboa, Portugal.
Email: lisbon.tc@tribunaispt.org
If you have been contacted by anybody telling you that they are calling on behalf of Notaries, court Houses or Supreme Courts, in Spain or Portugal, then please do let us know.
You can email us at customercare@mindtimeshare.com or place a comment on this blog
Mindtimeshare 
I have been contacted today by someone called Annabel from Lisboa Tribunais. She told me the same as you have reported, that my dealings with HC Mediators have resulted in success in Portugal. She came back with a second phone call today to say that she had deleted my address details and would I tell her them, which I did. But I became suspicious and started checking which took me to your website. She has arranged to call me again on Tuesday, so I will be able to avoid fraud now. I see she has sent me this email….
Subject : A acusação de fraude foi trazido para o Supremo Tribunal de Lisboa
—
Dear Sir
The documentation regarding your account from the Supreme Tribunal in
Lisbon is attached herewith.
You will be aware that you have outstanding obligations to the
Government
of Portugal in respect of your account. You have been allocated a
bilingual
representative to assist you in the settlement of the outstanding notary
account that you are personally liable for.
Should you require any further assistance or advise please contact your
allocated representative in the first instance.
Kindest regards
Aníbal Cavaco Silva
Presidente do Supremo Tribunal de Justiça
Praça do Comércio, 1149-012 Lisboa
http://www.stj.pt/
Mail: lisbon.tc@tribunaispt.org
We were approached by Karen Robinson from Universal Consultants by phone and were told that the they were part of an Investment company and that Timeshare resale’s were not their core business and they had a customer that wanted to purchase our points.
They knew a lot about our CLC membership, that we didn’t use CLC much and the number of points we held. When questioned they said this was available from a Register in the Isle of Man that Investment companies have access to.
We were told we would get £24K for our points – but we would need to pay for Liability Insurance of £1600 by credit card up front. They said the fact we paid by credit card meant we were protected.
I did some research on the company could find absolutely nothing on them and was unable to verify their existence – We asked for information in writing they emailed using a GMAIL account – The letter looked as if it had just been made up on the computer and the same telephone number on the letter printed at the top and bottom of the letter were slightly different by one number. Google Street mapping the address didn’t give us any positive indication that the company existed.
The Letter
Av. Espana 27
29680 Estepona
Andalusia
Spain
TEL – 0034 95120352 Email – universal.2001.sl@gmail.com
Dear Mr & Mrs W************e
Further to your conversation earlier today with my colleague Karen Robinson, I have pleasure in confirming that we have a total offer of £24,012 for the sale of your Club la Costa Vacation Club, 2001 Points.
The liability insurance needed is £1,600 which can be paid by credit card. This will be refunded upon completion and completion time will be 4 / 6 weeks from the date your liability insurance has been received.
The purchaser will be leaving a 35% Non Refundable deposit against your Club la Costa Vacation Club, 2001 Points
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us.
Yours sincerely,
Tracey Cook
Administration,
Universal Consultants
Telephone : 0034 951203525
So I pushed them for Parent Company information such as Name, VAT, Co registration no, Country registered in, Directors names, contact details, who would the Liability insurance be managed through and a copy of the terms and conditions. This was so I could make some Validation checks on the relevant Companies House and Graydon’s report.
I agreed to take a phone call from them prior to requesting the validation information. Needless to say that call never happened.
I emailed explaining that I was waiting for the call and we should probably wait until they had fulfilled all my data requests. We subsequently received a phone call to say they had found another vendor because we asked for too much additional information.
We really hope that this experience will help others to also apply due diligence and not be blinded by large ££££ signs