MIAMI (AP) — More than 190 criminal and civil actions have been brought across the country over the past two years to combat the rising problem of timeshare resale fraud involving shady telemarketing operations, federal and state officials said Thursday.

Complaints about timeshare fraud targeting sellers tripled from 2010 to 2011, when more than 6,000 people called a hotline about the problem, The Federal Trade Commission said. Last year, there were fewer, about 4,600 complaints, as the FTC and various law enforcement agencies ramped up efforts to stop the fraud, said Charles Harwood, acting director of the FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection.