Traveling Auction Scam in Houston

I hope this helps at least one person not get scammed by these seasoned con artists if they return to Houston.

October of last year, I saw a sign that got my attention for an auction.

An automated message replied with the info and location of the auction disclosed, it was being held on a Sunday at the Courtyard Marriott Houston Galleria hotel & since I had no plans, I decided to check it out.

The Lamborghini that was mentioned on the sign being “auctioned” off was parked right in front of the valet, on display for everyone.

When I walked into the ballroom area there were a bunch of people already waiting & soon enough they started ushering everyone in through their check in process. They required an ID & gave their waiver on their “auction” rules.

There was no auction number, anywhere, and the auctioneer never announced his license number, which is illegal in the state of Texas and makes this whole set up an scam from the get go.

The ballroom itself was filled with large rugs, paintings, & jewelry.

They are masters at scamming and made this feel completely real. I don’t know how many people were paid actors, but the auction itself was full with about 50 or so people. I don’t know how many others fell victim, but I imagine at least a few others, just in the one that I went to because I saw people handing their CC’s for tens of thousands of dollars of purchases.

Their main scam seems to be the Persian rugs. In this now deleted post that I will link to the archive, this person masterfully details the same experience I had, except his purchase was a fake rug.

The user also had a YouTube video up at one point returning to the same scam auction in another city & videoed themselves telling everyone there it was a scam & in the video it was the SAME people at my auction.

Here is the link to the archived post:

Part 1

http://web.archive.org/web/20211118190206/https://www.reddit.com/r/legaladvice/comments/q4n12g/the_craziest_auction_fraud_story_and_how_bank_of/

Part 2

http://web.archive.org/web/20220828020917/https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/comments/vhgo0h/traveling_luxury_auction_scam_strikes_again_in/

I have since been dealing with my credit card company (Chase), that like every other victim I have talked to, refuses to refund me.

For my dispute evidence, I got a jeweler / appraiser in Texas that has worked with the FBI & is considered an expert in the field of counterfeits, to take a look at the watch I purchased and had validated I was scammed for $13k, and that the appraisal that accompanied my watch was full of sh*t.

He wrote me a letter for my dispute, only to have the merchant; Heritage Estate Solutions come back saying that the person I used is a direct competitor & that the charge is valid because they had the same appraiser who wrote the original BS appraisal, write that it is not a counterfeit & that the gold is real etc. etc. WTF.

I asked Chase if they even validated this appraiser or if they are just taking their word on it because I have tried getting in touch with this appraiser to no avail. They could not answer that question if they had in fact validated any of this, which is absolutely insane to me.

The other reasons listed for the overturned dispute, is that I have not returned the item or made no attempt. This is not true and I’ve attempted every possible way to contact Heritage Estate Solutions & their other business aliases. I would happily return the item if possible. I sent phone records and emails of me trying to contact them starting the day after the fraudulent auction.

When I submitted the paperwork initially with the letter confirming it was a worthless counterfeit Rolex watch, Chase told me this is exactly what I needed and I had strong evidence for my case, only to overturn the dispute in their favor.

They book the hotel ballrooms on only a couple days notice and they notify the hotel they are hosting an auction. The fact that the Marriott allows a fraudulent auction with no verification whatsoever, to be held on their property is absolutely negligent. They are not in the dark, there are tons of complaints to the Marriott that they are turning a blind eye to.

I feel like an absolute idiot for falling victim to this scam, but it has become a very expensive lesson that I can only hope me telling my story can make others aware of this happening and prevent it from happening to someone else.

Have you heard of this type of scam before? Were you there on October 9th in Houston? Let me know in the comments!

Known Aliases:

• Heritage Estate Solutions / Heritage Auction Solutions
• Heritage 1 USA
• Surplus Auctions
• The Elite Group
• Global Auctions
• Marathon Auctions
• The Collection Group

** The signs were also spotted recently in Dallas with an auction occuring on January 29th, so I am posting this as a heads up if you see these signs popping back up around Houston in the near future.

PPS: There is a great investigative podcast on this traveling auction scam called – Sold: A Scam Story, on Spotify if you want to listen to how they trick people, with actual audio from the auctions.