This is how CNG scams operate via call center

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Between March and April, OFAC sanctioned more than 20 companies linked to the Nueva GeneraciĆ³n Cartel, which were dedicated to defrauding Americans.

The disappearance, in Zapopan, of seven young people who worked in a call center, led to the topic of timeshare fraud carried out by one of the criminal organizations with the greatest presence in the country: the New Generation Cartel (CNG).

Jalisco authorities searched a couple of properties in the La Estancia and Jardines Vallarta neighborhoods. In those addresses they found documents with a list of names of foreign people, drugs, departmental cards, ā€œnotations of memberships or timeshares and economic goals to be achieved.ā€

This is part of the first indications to locate the brothers Itzel Abigail and Carlos David, as well as Carlos BenjamĆ­n, Arturo, JesĆŗs Alfedo, Mayra Karina and Jorge Miguel, whose whereabouts are unknown so far.

Luis JoaquĆ­n MĆ©ndez Ruiz, attorney general of Jalisco, reported last Friday that it was a call center in which timeshares were offered to foreigners.

ā€œWe can talk about the issue of selling timeshares with hotel chains. With the information that the families give us in the complaints, they say that in some cases they were dedicated to collecting overdue mortgage loans, but it is a line that we are working on,ā€ he indicated.

The CNG business

Timeshare is an alternative to market real estate intended to accommodate tourists or foreigners during vacation periods. However, it can also be used as a scam, in which the scammer offers to rent an address in exchange for an advance payment.

However, once said payment has been made, the sale or rental of the property does not take place, so the scammer disappears with the affected person’s money.

At the beginning of March, the United States Department of the Treasury sanctioned eight Mexican companies linked to the CNG, which were dedicated to defrauding tourists and foreign residents in Puerto Vallarta and Guadalajara.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) detailed that the companies involved had a modus operandi very similar to the lodging alternative known as ā€œtimeshares.ā€

To carry out this fraud, timeshare owners receive purchase offers through emails or calls from third parties who claim to have buyers ready.

If the offers are accepted, the owners are requested to pay in advance to supposedly expedite the sale. After the payments are made, the victims realize that the offers were fictitious.

On that occasion, the companies linked to the CNG were identified as Servicios Administrativos Fordtwoo S.A. de C.V., IntegraciĆ³n Badeva S.A. de C.V., JM Providers Office S.A. de C.V., Promotora Vallarta One S.A. of C.V. and Recservi S.A. de C.V., located in Puerto Vallarta.

The rest of the companies that were also sanctioned, and whose headquarters are located in Guadalajara, were Corporativo Title I S.A. de C.V., Corporativo TS Business Inc S.A. of C.V. and TS Business Corporativo S.A. of C.V.

The Treasury Department warned that these scams can steal ā€œthe life savingsā€ of American citizens, in addition to the fact that the frauds represented an ā€œimportant source of incomeā€ for the criminal activities carried out by the CNG.

On April 27, OFAC sanctioned seven people and another 19 Mexican companies, as they were ā€œdirectly or indirectly linked to the timeshare fraud directedā€ by the four-letter cartel.

ā€œThe deep involvement of the CNG in the fraud of the timeshare use of tourist goods in the Puerto Vallarta area and in other places often affects elderly US citizens,ā€ detailed the Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Brian E. Nelson.

Among the people involved was Eduardo Pardo Espino, a CNG financial operator who worked at Fordtwo Administrative Services, a company that has made direct payments to members of said criminal organization.

The rest of the companies sanctioned by OFAC were identified as Bestthings, S. A. de C.V. (travel agency), Produzioni Peca, S. de R.L. of C.V. (wholesale trade), RH Litman, S. de R.L. of C.V. (business support), Dantwoo Administrative Services, S.A. of C.V. (business support), and Sociedad Spa Peninsula, S. de R.L. of C.V. (beauty salon).

Like AKA Integral Services, S. de R.L. of C.V. (construction), Envigh, S. de R.L. of C.V. (real estate), Suncan MĆ©xico, S. de R.L. of C.V. (real estate), and Trados Comercio, S. de R.L. of C.V. (construction), Constructores B2, S.A. of C.V. (business support). Corporate Bussines Mx Insider S.A. of C.V. (real estate), Asesores y Promotores ACG, S.A. of C.V. (business support), Resguardo de Valores y Servicios Integrales RSVI, S.A. of C.V. (travel agency), Corporativo T Service Inc S.A. de C.V., Corporate Support Legal Recovery S.A. de C.V., NT Insurance Corporativo S.A. of C.V. and T Service Bussines Inc S.A. of C.V.

Source: El Informador