Funding Of OTE’s Enforcement Project To Increase By 30%

The Organisation for Timeshare in Europe (OTE) spent £100,000 on its Enforcement Project in Spain in 2007 and has plans to increase this spending by 30% in 2008. This project has logged a series of key successes over the past year, including the closure by the police (working closely with OTE) of seven fraudulent re-sale companies and four bogus law firms.

This work is part of OTE’s remit to reduce fraudulent practices affecting timeshare owners and other holiday makers. In recent months OTE has intensified measures in the Canary Islands – primarily in Tenerife – where fraud has been more prevalent. These measures include the identification of sales decks for Discount Travel Membership Clubs (DTMCs) which leads to heavy on-street sales activities.

The OFT estimates that 400,000 Britons lose £1.2 billion each year to bogus DTMCs. These figures compare starkly with complaints about timeshare, which have been reducing steadily year on year with OTE member complaints alone falling by a third between 2004 and 2007.

Alberto Garcia, OTE’s Enforcement Officer (and an ex-police officer), has recently reported the detection of eight DTMC sales decks and expects to uncover more imminently. He also found that in each of the main tourist areas in Tenerife, the activities of Off-Site Personal Canvassers (OPCs) were intense. The vast majority were engaged in peddling DTMCs.

Alberto Garcia commented “OTE is allocating more resources this year to the Enforcement Project, which will help us to continue the work that we do to protect consumers, especially from the dangers represented by DTMCs.”

In a recent meeting with senior police officers, Garcia stressed the damage caused by DTMCs and fraudulent re-sale companies to the tourism industry in general and legitimate timeshare operations in particular. Both parties agreed the whole issue of DTMCs should be addressed on a legal basis by the Audiencia Nacional (Central Courts in Madrid).