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Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Donald Trump University is Accused of Many of These Scams

Accusations by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman that Trump University was a scam all along is no surprise to me. I'm 22 year seminar industry veteran and Past President of the National Capital Professional Speakers Association.

For years in hotel seminar rooms and arenas all over the country millions of dollars are being lost to unscrupulous and sociopathic seminar promoters and speakers every single day. The same techniques are used over and over to misrepresent, overhype and out and out lie about the benefits of advanced coaching.

For the last two years I've been the number one whistleblower exposing the dirty tricks used at seminars to separate attendees from their cash with little or nothing to show for it. My article “The Top 20 Seminar Scams” (now up to 25) has been downloaded thousands of times. This article shows the exact techniques used both before and after seminars to rob money right under the nose of law enforcement.

I've never been to a Trump event, but I've been to hundreds like it and have been involved for the past two years in exposing these techniques.

One of the biggest complaints is that Trump misrepresented his offerings. The Attorney General said Trump led students to believe they would meet him and then seminar organizers only let them have a picture next to a cardboard cutout of him. Trump wasn't even there.

The Attorney General also said Trump claimed to handpick the instructors but never handpicked any of them.

Trump is fighting back calling the AG names and claiming he had a 98 percent approval rating at the University. I've been doing media interviews explaining how such a claim could be made whether true or not.

I'm really happy to see this suit being filed and again I might add that I do not know for sure the merits of the case and for all I know Trump is squeaky clean. I just know that I tweet all kinds of scams 20 times a day @scambrigade and it never ceases to amaze me the law enforcement time and effort used to capture a bad check writer who’s stolen maybe $1000.00 while a seminar promoter/speaker can take $35,000.00 or more (I've seen it up to $100,000.00) each off 1000's of people and never even worry about getting caught.

I don't know about the politics of this because I hate politics. I'm just glad someone in power is finally seeing and bringing to light what I've been exposing for the last two years... the dirt in the speaking and seminar industry.

If you'd like to volunteer for "Antion's Army" against scams of all types visit http://www.ScamBrigade.com/aa

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am not a supporter of Trump, nor do I have any expereince with his seminars. I don't have a clue if they present usefull business information worth the price of registration or not. But your article falls flat on its face as soon as you said "I've never been to a Trump event, but I've been to hundreds like it and have been involved for the past two years in exposing these techniques."

If you haven't been to his seminars you can not attest that it is just like hundreds of other scams you've identified and exposed. This negates any vailidity to your "exposing" of fraudulant techniques.

Again, this is not in defense of Trump, I couldn't care a less, he has plenty of money to defend himself, right or wrong. It is more about further claims that aren't rooted in facts. I also haven't read your article about the 20 techniques used by scammers, but I can almost bet one has to do with not telling the truth based on facts.

Tom Antion said...

Blogger Tom Antion said...
No I haven't been to a Trump seminar. That is true. But when you've seen the same overhyped ads and outrageous claims hundreds of times and the same complaints from participants that you've seen hundreds of times and the Attorney General of the State of New York making the exact same types of claims against Trump that I've been reporting for two years .... well then it's the old act's like a duck routine.

Unknown said...

The main topic of any Trump seminars should be. "If you run into financial troubles then declare bankruptcy", I have done it many, many times it is what we call robbing the small people.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

"If you run into financial troubles then declare bankruptcy" Like Henry Ford did, twice, before he got it right. How about Abraham Lincoln, Walt Disney, Milton Hershey, Burt Reynolds, H.J. Heinz, and P.T. Barnum they ALL declared bankruptcy. It's not "robbing" anyone.

Tom Antion said...

It is robbing people if it is part of your business plan from the start, i.e., I'll start a business, run up enormous debt and perks because of my reputation and go bankrupt if things aren't going well so I don't have to pay things back. I'm not saying Trump does this, but it's not that far fetched of an idea.

Bottom line you would be using poor unsuspecting hardworking people to finance your playtime.

Unknown said...

I both like, and reposted this article. I too have been to one of these seminars.

Anonymous said...

The donald is a scam artist like we have seen before.. ripping off hundreds who can't afford to be ripped off.

Anonymous said...

why do people allow themselves to be ripped off? i would,nt even watch donald trumps show ,,let alone give him thousands of dollars , i hope he says HELLO to MADOFF

Unknown said...

i like donald trump as a business guy. businea snot so much.
you only allow yourself to be rippedoff if he did.. use the moments of clarity do the things you love, passion .. does it work
i dunno yet

AndyTheGameInventor said...

"Anonymous"' comment is right on. While Trump's seminar may or may not be a scam, it's wholly unfair to write about it if you have not experienced it. I once saw a "poor" rating on a restaurant review site from someone who wrote that they had made a reservation, then saw all the negative reviews, and so cancelled their reservation. This writer saw nothing wrong with "rating" the restaurant as "poor" based on his "experience".

AndyTheGameInventor said...

"Anonymous"' comment is right on. While Trump's seminar may or may not be a scam, it's wholly unfair to write about it if you have not experienced it. I once saw a "poor" rating on a restaurant review site from someone who wrote that they had made a reservation, then saw all the negative reviews, and so cancelled their reservation. This writer saw nothing wrong with "rating" the restaurant as "poor" based on his "experience".

Tom Antion said...

Andy, I'm commenting as probably the number one expert on seminar scams in the country.

I've been on stage with these characters for 20 years. I'm a clearing house for complaints, my evidence files are being prepared to present to congress.

There are class action suits against trump and hundreds of complaints that are exactly in line with my article "Top 20 Seminar Scams". If anybody has a right to comment on Trump's actions it's me. Again, I'm not saying he's guilty. I'm just saying from my 20 years experience, that from the information available to the public it looks that way.