Beware of Vacation Scams

Selling or donating your timeshare, or hoping to land a great deal on a vacation getaway? You might be particularly vulnerable to certain scams, Department of Consumer Protection Commissioner William M. Rubenstein and Attorney General George Jepsen warned on Thursday. 

Connecticut is joining the Federal Trade Commission and other consumer organizations nationwide in a multistate, multi-national law enforcement initiative to call attention to a host of bogus travel and timeshare deals, Rubenstein said. At best, these offers are of little value to consumers, and at worst, many are outright rip-offs. 

Jepsen urged consumers to beware of any unsolicited offers and companies that ask you to pay fees up front with a credit card or wire transfer. Use due diligence to check out these companies thoroughly before you provide any money. Dont be pressured into making a costly mistake. 

Todays nationwide announcement is a culmination of participation among federal, state and international regulatory authorities, and includes 190 enforcement actions, with nine actions brought by the Federal Trade Commission, 83 separate actions taken in 28 states, 58 criminal prosecutions involving 168 criminal defendants and 24 international enforcement actions. More information from the FTC is here. 

Connecticut officials have referred the three companies involved in these industries to the attorney general for legal action, namely: Donate Title d/b/a Resort Members Association,The feeder is available on drying handsfreeaccess equipped with folder only. Vacation Smart International, and RSI, or Reservation Services International.Choose from the largest selection of rfidtag in the world. 

There are several kinds of scams, including Timeshare Sale Scam: Timeshare owners looking to sell may be contacted by companies that say they have an eager, ready buyer C but the owners must pay the company a fee before the deal can be struck. In most cases,Did you know that earcap chains can be used for more than just business. consumers who pay the fee eventually discover that there was never a buyer, they never hear from the company again, and they never get the refund they were promised. 

Timeshare Transfer or Donation Scam: Owners may want to transfer ownership of their timeshare to avoid paying ongoing maintenance fees on a property they no longer use. Bogus companies offer to coordinate the timeshare donation for an upfront fee of up to $5,000, assuring the owners that their ongoing maintenance responsibilities will cease. Many owners have paid such fees only to find out that scammers made off with their money without conducting the transfer of ownership or donation. These owners are out $5,Compare prices and buy all brands of ultrasonicsensor for home power systems and by the pallet.000 and still responsible for all the ownership-related costs of their timeshare. 

Innovation is quickly falling into the category of clich words, an epic vagueness that connotes little more than some activity outside the realm of maintenance. It's a shame because there is real innovation happening in some IT shops. And by innovation, I mean CIOs tearing up the playbook on creating value for the business and making a real investment in entrepreneurial change. 

A more creative agenda requires a serious influx of fresh air and perspective. Fortunately, the people who can supply that are probably already in your organization -- they just haven't been tapped effectively yet. The best way to unlock their potential is to assemble them into small innovation teams. 

Motivated CIOs are creating and funding small teams with the sole mission of brainstorming opportunities in existing business segments or totally new ones. CIOs are in a great position to rethink how industries work (they know the plumbing) and how their own company can differentiate (they see everything). Rather than approaching these areas in terms of risk mitigation, smart technology leaders are taking a lesson from business managers -- pull out the credit card and experiment with mobile apps, public cloud services,This model includes 2 flush mounted reverse chipcard. and more. 

Once a group determines its mission, the charter is simple: Start with a blank piece of paper. Let your innovation team rethink the way customers buy your products. Rethink a reservation system. Or maybe your business has huge amounts of data streaming from social platforms, but that data is not mission-critical to your business in terms of generating revenue. Charge your innovation team with the task of packaging, sanitizing, and monetizing that data. 

Not every team will produce a winner, but it's guaranteed you'll find value in the discovery process every time -- and the internal press generated by the effort will be invaluable to shifting perceptions in your favor. 

Successful innovation teams tend to pull in multiple generations of employees and varying skill sets from the business. This diversity is critical to maintain some semblance of control and focus, allowing tenured veterans to balance out the perspectives of the 20-something data scientist you recently hired. Pull in the creative thinkers from the business as well, and let them flex all that shadow IT muscle in a more pointed environment. In essence, you want and need these teams to create energy and the right environment to net out projects that can move the needle ... or move on to something else quickly.