July 31, 2010: DEAD SKUNK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD AWARD: Convicted timeshare fraudster Gary Leigh was killed around 9:00am July 24 when he was hit by a car in Marbella, Spain. Leigh, who conned thousands of people out of their fortunes, died on the spot of severe cardiac arrest while cycling on the A-7 in Marbella. In an ironic twist, Leigh managed to involuntarily create one last mess for vacationers: The accident caused a massive traffic jam with many day-trippers stuck in traffic until late in the afternoon when the highway was finally cleared. Read More…

July 24, 2010: DEAD SKUNK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD AWARD: Timeshare resale fraud. Does it never end? Apparently not, if recent headlines from all over the country are any indication. This has been a problem for years, but with the current economic conditions impelling a swelling (nice alliteration, yeah?) of the ranks of timeshare owners who want/need to sell, the skunks have come out in full force to stink the place up. Read More…

July 17, 2010: CHEEZ IT! IT’S THE COPS! Florida’s timeshare fuzz (aka investigators with the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services) made a surprise raid on an Ormond Beach timeshare resale call center on July 14, carrying off boxes of records and computers. The raid at Buy Owner Resort Marketing was apparently spurred by complaints filed with the State Attorney General’s Office from all over the country… Read More…

July 10, 2010: WHAT’S ON THE MENU THIS WEEK? CONSOLIDATED RESORTS BANKRUPTCY UPDATE: Making this short and sweet, the Consolidated Resorts bankruptcy is winding down and Artie Spector’s ASNY Company has been confirmed as the stalking horse bidder for the assets. Officially: “The Trustee and The ASNY Company, LLC (read Arthur Spector), a Delaware limited liability company have entered into an Asset Purchase Agreement… Read More…

July 3, 2010: WHAT’S ON THE MENU THIS WEEK? “THE TERM ‘SLOPPY JOE’ TAKES ON NEW MEANING ONCE YOUR TRIBE HAS DESCENDED INTO CANNIBALISM”: Remember the guy who is building a “network of underground shelters for the long-term survival of possible future catastrophes, in 2012, or decades beyond…”? Well, the always irreverent Stephen Colbert got wind of it and on June 29 he did a whole segment about it on The Colbert Report called Doomsday Bunkers… Read More…

(Published every Saturday) On the Menu This Week: OLD NEWS NEVER GOES AWAY: Never think you can outrun your past or negative news now that we have the Internets. Remember way back in 2005 when Las Vegas-based Braglia Marketing Group took it on the chin for for calling hundreds of thousands of names on the Do-Not-Call list to market timeshare vacations on behalf of Flagship Resort and Atlantic Palace in New Jersey? (Read more…)

(Published every Saturday) On the Menu This Week: HE SAID SHE SAID: Is the timeshare industry in Spain REALLY set to collapse? Well, it depends on who you talk to. A UK company called Claims Directive recently engaged in a brief skirmish of press releases about the subject with RDO (Resort Development Organisation). The subject? Whether or not timeshare companies in Spain and its territories violated the law by collecting deposits from new purchasers during the 10-day cooling off period mandated by the European Timeshare Directive of 1994… (Read more…)

Published every Saturday, with carcasses collected for the grill throughout the week. Got a slab you wanna toss? On the Menu This Week: THE HEADQUARTERS THAT ISN’T THERE: A bogus timeshare resale company named Property Experts Marketing got seriously busted recently by the St. Louis, MO Better Business Bureau in a way that would be funny if it weren’t so disgusting. Really, you can’t make this stuff up! The company listed the address for its headquarters as 509 Olive Street in downtown St. Louis. But there’s a problem with that…

Published every Saturday. On the Menu This Week: Who’s doing what to who, and where and when, and why should you care? Who’s getting BIGGER, who’s getting screwed, who’s in a money crunch, who’s been promoted or moved, and MORE! And most important, who won the Dead Skunk Award this week? Got some roadkill you’d like to toss on the grill? Send it on in…

Published every Saturday. On the Menu This Week: Who’s doing what to who, and where and when, and why should you care? Who’s getting BIGGER, who’s getting screwed, who’s in a money crunch, who’s been promoted or moved, and MORE! And most important, who won the Dead Skunk Award this week? Got some roadkill you’d like to toss on the grill? Send it on in…