Jalisco Cartel Scams Americans in Timeshare Fraud

Cartel poses as U.S. Treasury officials, defrauding victims of $40 million; OFAC imposes new sanctions.

The Jalisco drug cartel has been operating a timeshare scam targeting elderly Americans, posing as U.S. Treasury Department officials and scamming at least 600 Americans out of about $40 million.
The cartel uses call centers to promote fake offers to buy Americans' timeshare properties and to contact victims claiming to be employees of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), offering to free up funds purportedly frozen by the U.S. agency.
OFAC has announced a new round of sanctions against three Mexican citizens and 13 companies linked to the Jalisco cartel.
The cartel uses extreme violence and intimidation to control the timeshare network, often defrauding victims of their life savings.
In June, as many as eight young workers were confirmed dead after they tried to quit jobs at a call center operated by the Jalisco cartel.