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Hello and welcome to the Ex the excerpt I'm Dana Taylor.

Today is Wednesday March 13th 2024 and this is a special episode of the excerpt. When you think about Mexican cartels, the things that are likely to come to mind

are drug trafficking, gun battles, and assassinations.

But add this one to your list, time shares.

Over the past decade, thousands of Americans have fallen prey to complex real estate scheme

involving one of the most violent organizations in Mexico.

Cartels it seems have branched out.

Why and how can you spot their scam?

Here to talk more about this, lucrative new business venture is investigative reporter

Steve Fisher Specialty USA Today.

Steve, thanks for joining me.

Thanks for having me, Dana.

First, tell me a little bit about this new money-making scheme involving

timeshares. How does it work? This scam basically works in which the cartel, the Halisko

cartel as it's known in Mexico,

has a number of call centers with telemarketers who call American citizens.

And these American citizens, of course, own timeshares in popular destinations like Puerto Vallarta,

Ken Kuhn, Hakapulco, they tell them that they have a buyer for their timeshare.

And often the price the buyer is willing to pay is greater than what these

individuals have paid for their time share so this is an exciting possibility for them.

...