People are always on the lookout for ways to get rich. This is why you see so many get-rich-quick schemes becoming so successful and the people behind them have no trouble getting money out of individuals who fall for the get rich quick dream.
Online trading is one of the ways people see as a way to make quick money and con artists are continuing to use this to their advantage. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has set its sights on Online Trading Academy (OTA) who claim to be an investing and trading education firm.
However, the FTC after doing its research has pulled up the company which is now being accused of selling useless training for absurdly high rates.
The FTC has formally accused the OTA of scamming over $370 million from its students for the past six years. This is in payment of the company’s various workshops and training for investing in currency and stocks.
The OTA bases its curriculum around online education. The firm is said to have 120 instructors that are teaching their students the ropes of online trading. However, the FTC says that the company is misrepresenting many of the things about its operations.
For one, the company presents its instructors as investment professionals, no matter what their background. Additionally, the firm over-promises by saying that it will teach students optimal investing opportunities and strategies that will work for all types of investment. It does not help that students are forced to pay $50,000 per class. OTA justified this by saying that its students would be able to generate income that will allow them to recoup the expense.
The FTC also pointed out several instances where the academy used misleading advertising to encourage people to sign up. Additional testimonials also purportedly had students claiming they succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. However, the FTC said all these claims were false or unsubstantiated.
Silencing Contracts
Besides that, when dissatisfied customers requested their money back, they were forced to sign contracts that said they were not supposed to file any negative reviews of the company to get the funds. They were also not supposed to notify law enforcement agencies about the company’s activities.
These practices is what forced the FTC to crack down on OTA. The crackdown is sends yet another warning to potential investors and students to do their research thoroughly and not fall prey to get rich quick schemes.
