Obviously it has been always a scam. At best, timeshares take the best period of the year that has monetary value for themselves and sell the rest of year which is hard to monetize to simple folks and they get to pay for utilities, taxes and renovation and upkeep... And they can never sell it because a the real estate business that profits from this type of operation will build newer ones and the old ones become undesirable.
The biggest issue is that the timeshare company may have to approve the transfer, and the new owner generally must agree to assume the ongoing maintenance fees and other obligations.
So the owner should refuse payment and that would automatically transfer the ownership back to some entity who knows what... and who knows what happens after that.
Somehow timeshares are criticised as scams but the same exact thing about planes - fractional ownership - isn't. Apparently people just have no compassion for rich people.
Well stocks are fractional ownership too. They don't have upkeep costs and someone doesnt get a better seat in the plane. But some stocks and plane fractional ownership could also be a scam when the debt exceeds the gains to be made by investment. The zillionaires may be sharing the plane and upkeep costs but what if one guy gets the priority to use it before anybody else or that shares were sold to other buyers at higher prices.
With fractional ownership, it is not a lifetime commitment. Also, purchasers are not making their decisions under high-pressure deadlines. It doesn’t have anything to do with rich people.