The buyers of these programs rarely make a dime.
People fall for these creative real estate con artists for the same reason people get burned by Nigerian phishing scams or any criminal confidence game. Desperate people need money quick and that is what these Internet scammers promise, but of course, never deliver.
I read with great interest and humor this analysis by Cracked.com of the "Five Retarded Get Rich Quick Scams" that people STILL fall for. And this is the point. All my warnings on this website, the warnings of the Federal Trade Commission, and virtually every other consumer protection organization, and just plain common sense cannot save someone from their own greed.
The target market for these get-rich-quick con artists are lower middle class people without any experience in real estate, so-called "newbies" in the trade. The single mother with two kids working at Wal-Mart because her ex-husband is not paying child support is willing to pay $495 for a home study course on flipping properties or short sales because she has no other way out of her predicament. She's willing to spend a week's wages on a chance at financial security because some real estate "millionaire investor" is willing to share "the secrets" of building instant wealth through rental properties.
But buyers of these courses and seminars quickly learn that the moment they open their new purchase there are no magic secrets inside. All they will get from their new real estate millionaire mentors is a series of sales pitches to buy more and newer courses.
It is called "upselling" in the trade. And if you buy from these gurus they place you on a "sucker's list" and share your name so other gurus can also pluck you like a chicken.
Go to any of the seminars where these products are sold and you will see the sheep being led to slaughter, lining up with false enthusiasm to buy a ticket to Financial Paradise. It's sad, pathetic, but all too understandable.
The Cracked.com analysis of RETARDED get rich quick schemes has it perfectly right. John Beck, currently being sued by the FTC for $90 million is just one example of many of these gurus that knows the buyers of these programs are losers the moment they reach for their VISA cards.
But notice which Get Rich Quick scam Cracked.com regarded as being the most retarded, Number One on the scale of dumb to dumber.
Robert J. Abalos, Esq.
