Prosper Learning review: Fraud 29

The same thing happened to me. I have filed with BBB in Utah and the Consumer Protection in Utah. I am also refusing to pay my credit card company and filed a dispute with them as well.

Any luck?

I just learned my son also purchased this "educational tool" and is unable to pay. Did you have any results from Better Business Bureau?

Furious Mom

My wife and I too were taken to the tune of about $18, 000 dollars. We have recieved no help since completing the course and have not made a dime! The Utah BBB and consumer protection will not be very helpful that is why these companies are locating there!

I to have just learned my son also purchased this "educational tool" and is unable to pay. I have read all of the above complaints and the pattern seems to be the same, misleading statements and fraud. Has anyone had any help fromthe Utah AG or BBB?
The state that he lives in has stated that it can't do anything. Please send me any information that anyone has..

Please review -It relates to To Dean

We had just gotten married and had several expenses adding up on cards. My husband got the Transforming Debt to Wealth, hoping we could learn the secrets of new IN-come sources.
Soon we were paying hundreds of dollars for the whole package of Books, DVDs & online system to see what our worth was and how to pay of debt in a short time.
Then came the pitch with the very well psychological set up to get the 1 on 1 coaching. After having you agree you did want to be debt free and you are looking for the answers, etc….and they only pick those truly ready & committed to learning all the secrets… to the TUNE OF $10, 000.00. And the “LONG PAGE” warrantee agreement was never made available to us again. Just sign… I should have yelled “NO” right then & there!
We got in to the retirement & investment coaching and they wanted me to liquidate my guaranteed IRA s I could pay off all debt, INCLUDING the $10, 000.00 owed to prosper learning. It would cost me additional early withdrawal taxes also.
By the end of the year 2008 & the full blown recession staring at us, I said I was feeling very angry about having NO safety net.
Then we got into the e commerce coaching. Every Wed. night I hated the lesson because it was gonna cost me money to join, post, start up, upgrade & sell things on E bay, or get a web site or what ever. We never made a penny & we hardly knew what to do with out the coaches’ help. We were not even getting debt free. We picked up a few pointers but we had our record keeping going & plan in affect before they sold us the full time on line school. I did no want to spend the rest of my life sitting in front of the computer reading their prosper training guides.
Then a company hounded us to pay thousands more to become an LLC.
My suspicions were True! And Now I do not want to pay this bogus debt I want all our money back! Anyone have the insight on HOW to? I’d appreciate your experience.
A & S
quantumintl07@yahoo.com

How the scam works:

Prosper obtains contracts from various vendors (Real Estate Investing, E-Commerce, Stock Market Investing, Entrepreneurship & Personal Finance) for the right to sell their educational products. They also let the vendors know that they will be contacting buyers and present them with their own coaching program.

After you purchase the vendors information, Prosper contacts you, not as Prosper Learning, but as that vendor's success team. They then state that they are looking for a few select motivated individuals to obtain success stories. The wording is stated in such a way that it infers that the program will be free.

When you talk to them, they will constantly refer back to the vendor and implying that they will coach you on the methods you have just purchased.

If you are impressed with the vendors information, it is a simple matter of just continuing to let you know that they are an educational provider for that vendor. That infers that they will be teaching you that program.

At this point, your guard is down. The promises are made and the transaction takes place.

After agreeing to thousands of dollars and going through the so-called mentoring program, you find out that it did not even cover one-tenth of the information contained in the vendor's product that probably cost less than $100.

The coaches/mentors are merely trainers that stick to the pitiful training manual supplied to you and will not go off topic. They are only interested in how well you understood the basic information that comes from the training manual.
They will not give you any advice or review any of your work.

This type of sales tactic is fraudulent and is covered under Section 5 of the FTC Act – "Unfair or Deceptive Acts or Practices". The FTC's legal branch has the authority to rescind a contract.

We will all need to file a complaint for the FTC to take action. Please pass this information on to as many websites as possible.

https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/

Everything said is true, plus more. They truly don't have any desire to help anyone make money -- they're in it for whatever money they can make. I've not completed my first year, and according to the guarantee if I don't make money equal to my investment, I get another year of their resources. Woohoo! This has been my big frustration for 2009! I really had hope that it would work out. The people at Prosper don't know the meaning of Christian love and compassion.

well this is what happened to my husband: he signed up and after 2 days tried to cancel because we had a family emergency come up and wanted out of the commitment to pay. the account manager we spoke to at the time said our account could be canceled with no cost to us because it was within a 30 day period (from date of purchase). we never even received our books or used even one 'coaching session'. that was 4 years ago. we never heard anything more about it... until about 6 months ago when we get a call from a debt collector saying we owe prosper over $4000. when we explained the situation, we were told we needed to have a receipt in order to cancel out the debt. we explained that we never received a receipt and that we also have never received a bill or had a payment charged to our credit card over the last 4 years. we are now fighting the debt collector and possibly facing a lawsuit if we refuse to pay the settlement offer from them of $1500. Any advice?

Kitandaxi,

I would suggest that you talk to a manager and explain the situation. When collection agencies purchase delinquent accounts, Prosper is supposed to supply them a washed list meaning that they take out these types of issues and the collection agency purchases them at a discount.
If they want to play hardball - request a copy of the contract stating where a receipt is required and any proof they have that you even owe this bill.
Check the limitation on this - some states only allow 4 years. More information can be found at
http://www.creditinfocenter.com/rebuild/statuteLimitations.shtml
http://www.ucan.org/print/book/export/html/340

I was approached by phone from a representative at Prosper Learning. I reviewed the information I was sent and then was re-contacted to further discuss. I was intrigued and questioned him about the cost. All he wanted to talk about was OPM (Other People's Money). I repeatedly stated I was not interested in going into debt. I would pay for the service if I decided it was worth the investment. He didn't know how to handle this and kept going down the OPM route. I finally said using debt is not going to happen, so what is the cost so I can decide if this program is worth my time and money. That shut him down. He basically said I wasn't "serious" about my business and to call him back when I was. There are serious issues with this organization...Stay far, far away!

Totally agree with everything written here. I believe the coaches are duped into believing they are doing something good. When you do not get one cent back of the money you invested, it is a major crime. Prosper has to be stopped, some way, somehow. !

same thing happened to my husband and me. not only did we spend 13k on this program, but our coach encouraged us to buy this second property that we had ne business buying. Granted, i am willing to say he did not hold me down and make me sign the papers, but i felt somewhat obligated in order to show my dedicaqtion to prospering and stepping outside the box to do so. In the last three years this property has cost me almost 30k in expenses with no return income because i cannot get rid of it. i also have nearly 30k in credit card debt because of the 13k from the program and the encouragement to use my card for the down payment. Now, i know, commoc sense should have prevailed. However, when you are paying that much money for a system supposedly supported by David Bach, whose books I've read and loved, I imagined that they somehow knew more than I do. I was wrong, and I have the debt to prove it. I also have revolving debt to prove it. The revolving debt costs me nearly $700 a month on top of my credit card bill. I have three small children. My husband works 40+ hours a week and i work 12- 18 hours days as well. I hope the jerks at Prosper and David Bach as well can sleep at night, on their nice beds in their nice homes they bought using Other Peoples Money, or MY MONEY! I did learn a valuable lesson though. Using OPM is no way to earn an income. It is hurtful and harmful. I would rather be poor the rest of my life than make other people struggle the way i do in order to have the things i want or need. This program is a disgrace to our nation yet somehow represents what it is coming to. Sad.

I am still in the Prosper program, not by choice though. When they got me to sign up for their coaching program the person I talked to (Cody Sprecken) assured me, when I told him that there was no way that I could pay the bills on this debt, that within two or three weeks I would easily be making enough money to more than cover it. I also asked him specifically if there was anything else that I needed to pay for to get a website up, and running ( including product). He said no that everything that I would need was included, I didn't find out until much later from my coach that nothing was paid for except the coaching, and the use of their learning center, I called their student care number, and filed a complaint. Two or three days later I got an email from one of their employees saying that they were sorry for the delay but the tapes from my initial call were very lengthy, and it would take a while to review them, another couple of days passed, and they called me all happy to tell me that they had decided to give me a $2, 000 refund. I said that I guess it was better than nothing, but not even enough, that their coaching wasn't worth $10, 000 dollars. He told me that the conversations that I had with them initially had either not been recorded or had been deleted. I thought that was convenient, since they just spent several days reviewing them. I've tried to get them to refund more of my money, telling them to even keep half of it, and Ill just quit the program. I thought that was a pretty good offer for one months work, but they were total [censor] about it. They know my situation, I've sold everything that I can sell just to pay the bills that this created, I am going to be in big financial trouble in another month, and yes I should have known better, but this kind of thing should not be allowed to happen. How this company got a good ranking with the BBB I'll never know. I've done everything they've asked me to, and I have worked my tail off with absolutely no results. I don't know what I'm going to do, but I do know this, DON'T BELIEVE A WORD PROSPER TELLS YOU!

As you all can see, this company needs to be stopped, and right now! I signed up for their program in 2005, after repeatedly asking them if they understood my type of business. You all know the answers they gave me, it was a resounding yes, and that they would help me accomplish all sorts of things. My coaching began with a very nice young man that absolutely would not listen to my telling him that he was not helping me, that he did not understand my type of business, and that I wanted the promised refund of $8000. I'm afraid he had been sold a bill of goods, just like all of us. Finally, I just gave up and quit working with them, since what they were teaching was a total waste of time. Now comes the interesting part. After a couple of years I began getting collection calls from Monterey Collections, telling me I still owed $300. I politely told them they were not getting it, that Prosper owed e $8000. Finally they had someone from Prosper call me. I explained to him that not only was I not going to pay them anything more, I still wanted the promised refund. He told me he would contact Monterey and have the charges cleared. I have now begun receiving collection calls from Monterey again, after two years. I explained the whole thing to them all over again. They suggested that I begin calling Prosper every day until they do something about it, but in the meantime they are reporting me to the credit bureaus. This is a scam circus, and Prosper's name needs to be rubbed in the mud, not just once, but often. Add to that the "names" that put their reputations behind this thing. Let's let people know just who and what this bunch of scam artists are all about! Simply put, they appear to be a bunch of crooks. Mr. Abraham was the one that touted their program to me. He is reputed to be a real genius for helping businesses, but now we all know that is just another story.

Thanks to Dean!

Our daughter got her money back from these yanks!

Prosper Learning, is just a bad coaching company! I know because I coached there in the Real Estate dept. Prosper Inc. does not treat their Real Estate Coaches or Internet coaches any better than they treat the coaching students that come through their program. When they are in a pinch they SEARCH for any possible reason to fire an employee and terminate them instead of laying them off. All to avoid unemployment.
In fairness to the other coaches, most of them do the very best they can to help their coaching students succeed.
Sadly reading all of these posts only brings back the pain. I loved working at Prosper Inc. at first. When I first started working at Prosper they had the students best interest in mind and I really believe that. The Real Estate and Internet Coaching departments had a high moral. After the sale dept started selling pipe dreams and offering promises we could no way deliver on the moral went down quickly.
Over the two years that I worked there things went down hill quickly. Prosper Learning "tuitions" went up dramatically and they started offering the HSBC financing. This is a great for the students right? Prosper coaches you while you have no payments for tuition. You build a site or sell a Real Estate deal and then use that to pay off the debt. I worked very hard for my students and I maybe saw 5% of them make their money back. I think that I had less than a handful of students make their money back in the first 6 months.
I am really glad to see that some of you got your money back from Prosper. I had some students that I went to bat for a refund and they were not as lucky. One of them even had a mental handicap and Prosper Learning did not give him his $7500.00 back.
People this is the norm with the coaching industry. There are very few companies that are worth the "investment".
Luckily, I am no longer in coaching.

For you fans of Shade Clothing, don't buy it and don't wear it even if it is a gift. One of the owners of Prosper also benefits from the sales of Shade. Shade is owned and operated by the taller of the two owners wifes.

Seriously criminal tacitions with no morals! I was conned too, similar to you poor folks.
let the law come down on them. What a pack of scam artists! They sell fools gold.

Hi Guys

I'm from New Zealand, these guys have been spread all over the world. I don't know how to stop these guys. It is just not David Bach, it's Rober t G Allen program as well. Please please don't invest in these guys.. I have been stuck in the program. I agree with all the above comments but prosper people are very clear they make u sign digital document, which u r legally obligated to pay there fees. I feel sorry for myself and for all of you. I HAVE LEANED VERY EXPENSE LESSON IN MY LIFE. All they have done till now is give coaching over the telephone for 1/2 hr for 8 weeks. I don't think it costs $7750 USD to get this kind of coaching.
cheers
nz2003

Dean (nz2003),

I've read your website. You said that the company provided you a refund a long time ago. They agreed with your complaint and did the right thing by providing the refund according to what you wrote in your website. Why are you still trying to disparage their name? You are not stuck in the program as you said above, are you? I understand that you feel that you've been wronged in the past, but they have made it right. Don't be dishonest with your words.

I too was suckered, my fault, into joining Prosper. I have not made any money and still do not have a website up and running. It is partially my fault because I have lost interest in trying because everytime I turn around I need to spend more money to get things up and running. I feel like I have let my family down and have nowhere to turn. My dream has been to have my own business, as I am sure you all have had that same dream, and I really felt this was it. The sales team made me feel like I was going to get all the help I needed and that it was only going to cost me the very large tuition bill. I have to give my coach props, he calls me every week and sends me e-mails with the exact steps to complete it, however, it does not say that it will cost me an arm and a leg to complete all steps. I am losing everything because of my monthly payment.

If I could get out from under this, I am not getting myself into anything else. Perhaps if I had unlimited funding, this would not be a problem. However, I have no extra money and am living off of nothing. I guess I really fooled myself into thinking this was the answer to my prayers, that this is what I was meant to do because I let myself believe they were really going to help me get that website up and running so I could at least get the bill paid for. I believe that this is why this type of company is so wealthy, because they prey on people that have a true desire to have their own business. I was never under the impression that this was a get rich quick scheme, that is why I joined. The sales rep made that perfectly clear during my interview. (Which by the way makes you feel that you have what it takes because they "only choose those with the right attitude" to join.) You mean the right sucker. No offense to anyone because I was duped as well.

I feel bad for everyone that has engaged in this company, but I have to blame myself for believing the bs that came out of my sales reps mouth. That is on me. However, the constant fees and no making money is on them. And quite frankly, they should be ashamed of themselves.

I talk myself into signing with prosper by telling myself that if it turns sour I will just not pay my credit card bill I never really use credit anyways. Will its turning sour I managed to get my LLC for $200.00 plus a $800.00 annual fee from the california franchise tax board .
A magellan web sight for 39.99 a month, a godaddy domain name for $7.00 a year, and of course $8000.00 put on my credit card & $2000.00 finainced by monterey and they charge my credit card 195.00 a month on top of that about $100.00 in finiance charges a month. Oh yea $850.00 to wholesalematch for a lifetime membership to find dropshippers and wholesale companies, you can add up my yearly bills and my monthly bills.
Hey I got a websight and my ecommerce coach just finished his 11 session with me but I can email him for help .
You People feel better good I got more, I learn a lot on my own like this is what it cost to get a websight in california legally now there are free websight host but you need to know HTML code.

I ask the prosper salesman how much more will I need to invest on top of the $10.000.00 he juggled some words at me, will we know what it cost me and I could probably have done it cheaper if I shopped around more.
I asked my coach on his last day with me, what coach am I going to have now he said somebody will call.
Hey people am I committed, I got a couple of wholesaler accounts and dropshipper acounts, product listed on my websight now I need a merchant acount to accept credit cards payments.
I am still being polite to prosper school cause it will effect the way they treat me if I am not .To get my page listed is the trick to getting people to come to my websight there are so many resources even without prosper its overwhelming I am stll trying to understand the different strategies I mean one strategy.I have not used prosper resource center very much.will see if they can help me get listed.
I work a day job Welder, Fitter its the only resource keeping me afloat.
I will post more with updates, let me know if your interested in reading more I skipped around a lot there a lot I left out.PROSPER BETTER START LEARNING THAT WHAT THEY DO TO OTHERS THEY ALSO DO UNTO THEMSELFS.When you constantly lie how is it that you DON'T LIE TO YOURSELF.

I too paid a large sum, $6600 which I now see from reading here is quite low. When I started out they had me wasting my time with an ebay store and had me sign up for Doba. What a joke! Half the time that I made a sale and went to Doba to order, the item was either sold out or discontinued. I ended up losing money most of the time. So after 2 months of that I asked for a refund on the Doba account and got back 3/4 of my money. As for Prosper itself, after about 4 months I realized that I was getting nothing from these guy's and asked for a refund. They offered me $2000 plus I could still access the course. I just got the check today. The reason why I realized I was getting nothing from them is that I have gone to other training sites like NPC at only $67/month and learned more there in 1 week than I did in 4 months at Prosper. The only thing I like about their course is the online coaching for e-commerce. The guys there are great and really go out of their way to help you out with anything you might need for a website or whatever. If you are thinking about starting a home based business stay well clear of these people. There are much better ways to go so do a lot of research.

yes, unfortunately I was burned with them too. I ordered a program "More money more life" from Nightingale Conant. it was an audio book. after a week or so someone from prosper inc. called me and after many calls she finally signed me up for an E commerce program for $3600 which I can have only 3 session with a coach (one o one) and unlimited access to their site and resource line. I don't know how they got my number at the first place and I don't know why I felt so easily for them and believed them . I let them simply sell my own dream to me by just playing with my emotion. any how long story short it didn't take long that I found that program was not for me and already investing another $5000 in building a website and getting LLC (kind of business). I asked for refund they gave me $1200 back after two weeks. but still I am paying interest on the debts I made for myself by not doing my homework before singing up with those thieves. I feel robbed and mislead. I feel stupid by trusting them. I am sure that name "prosper' is just to make them prosper and make others poor.
I am sure they will pay all those money back by paying medical bills for themselves or their loved ones, although they may not even have a clue why those bad things are happening to them. And in the long run, down the road they are the real losers. no doubt about it. they wont last long.

F.M

Dear folks --
I also have been taken in by Prosper. My gut reaction to all of this is that we not only need to report to the FCC, BUT to also contact the people (the company/person that Prosper was representing themselves as). These people/companies are the ones that we do believe in and that are truly doing good things in the world -- let them know that Prosper is using their good and positive energy to take advantage of people in a very destructive way. And ask them to sincerely consider untangling themselves from Prosper or at minimum, to place a warning on their website about being contacted by salespeople that are not part of their company.

I fought prosper and won here is what I did. I called up my credit card company and told them it was a fraudulent charge they then did a charge back. Then I recieved notice that I owed 2, 000 out of 10, 000 to Monterey. I did not pay they attached my credit report in 06 and every year was redating it which is a violation of the FRCA. I recently sent them a letter certified to them to prove I owe this debt which they cannot. The FRCA said they have to remove it from my credit report or I can sue them. I am anxiously awaiting there next response it is important to never talk to them on the phone it will hurt your case. The only conversations you should have with them is with certified letters. (SEE BELOW FRCA VIOLATION.

“Pursuant to the Fair Credit
Reporting Act, this is a request for a full accounting of this account’s billing including all
debits, credits and interest charges original paperwork with my signature as well as a record of where each statement was mailed. If you cannot comply with this request within 30 days, then you must remove this information
from the credit reporting agencies where you are reporting it.”
. Pursuant to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, Section 623(a)(8) Ability of
Consumer to Dispute Information Directly with Furnisher, please provide me with the
requested information or have the incorrect listing on my credit report deleted within the next
30 days. Reporting incorrect information could make you liable for non-compliance and
violation of the FCRA.

You are on the right track. go to debtorboards.com those guys will help you as you go along.

Let me know if you still plan to pursue them. I would like to help.

I was scammed by Prosper as well in 2008. Had a couple useless coaching sessions before I realized what a scam it was. Tried hard to talk to someone and get refund with no success. Still paying off credit card debt: most of which is a result of this scam.