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Showing results for tags 'scam fraud rip-off'.
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Although not new, Online Trading Academy based out of Irvine, Ca pretends to offer investment/trading education across multiple asset categories like stocks, options, futures, commodities, forex and real estate. The cost is salty beginning at $5,000 for their basic course and up to $10,000 per mentoring class and $65,000 for their passport programs. They have been running informercials on late night tv much like the now defunct Teach Me To Trade. More recently they are using apparently bogus testimonials on the internet posted by apparently paid shills and OTA employees. They even have their own website which implies that it is a 3rd party review site. An obvious clue is the raving five star reviews which all look like they were written by the same person and that other accurate, but not so positive reviews are blocked and deleted. OTA will lure you to their facility to attend a Power Trading Workshop, ostensibly a 1/2 day workshop which really only lasts about 3 hours, time for lunch and registration included. Calling it a workshop is quite a stretch. It is a blatant sales pitch much worse than any time share presentation. The course includes primarily basic t/a which can be found in any inexpensive book or even free on the internet. They claim to offer a one time $2,000 schlorship discount for that day only. This is a lie. They also promise lifetime retakes. But their class room only seats about 20 people and they are constantly pushing for more clients. Where will they put everyone? FACT: Most clients quit in frustration and even though classes and workshops are listed as "sold out", there are more often less than half full and cancelled. And they also promise tuition reimbursement. (Don't you love the way they throw around those educational terms to make them sound like a real school?) Here again, read the fine print and really check them out. You know what they say about when things sound too good to be true. On some websites where complaints have not been deleted, supposed company officials post rebuttals and challenge anyone to contact them at their corporate offices in California. The number is a toll number, not toll free and those who have called find it links to a voice mail and after leaving multiple messages, no one returns the calls. So much for help from corporate. OTA also seems very upset about the increasing number of complaints appearing about them on the internet and are now charging complaintants as being people who work for the competition, frustrated, lazy students who wouldn't take the time to follow their courses, deadbeat clients who defaulted on their loans (18% interest, t hey may be right on this one!) people whose credit cards were denied and disgruntled former employees. Before it was called Online Trading Academy, it was called bloc securties, then momentum securities, then Newport Beach securities. In Orlando, the local office ownership has changed hands five times in a few years and has had massive employee turnover. Many of OTA's offices are located in right to work states which means that employees were probably treated unfairly so there probably are a lot of unhappy ex employees out there for sure. However, one thing that Online Trading Academy doesn't want to admit is that they have a lot of unhappy clients and whatever is showing on the internet pales compared to what goes on in the local offices where clients are many times screaming at Online Trading Academy staff for their wrong doings and high pressure sales tactics. Stay away from these guys
