Video: Ben Popken Investigates for CNBC's On The Money
Here's the clip from my piece and appearance on CNBC's On The Money on Friday night. I attended a Robert Allen Institute get rich in real estate seminar, interviewed some attendees, and gave tips on what to watch out for in "money-making opportunity" scams. Here are some red flags to beware:
- Promises of fast and easy money
- The person who brings you in gets a cut of your profits, and then you get a cut off new people you bring into the system
- Requires large upfront fees before you really understand what's going on
Buyer Beware [On The Money]
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If you click through for the video, the subtitle says "rotecting the consumer, with Ben Popken, Consumist.com and CNBC's Carmen Wong Ulrich."
You may wanna have them correct the site's name
@nicless: They did however have a P on the front of that sentence, copy and paste is too complicated for me, obviously.
SWEET!
Nice video.
One thing I don't get is how these scams even make money... if these secrets will make them so much money, why are they telling people?
Either way, it was a great little segment and hopefully will stop people from ripping them selves off.
No hidden video? Cmon.
@undefined: Hey Ben--glad to see you're on "On the Money." I accidentally discovered Caren and her show while flipping around when the stock market first started really tanking a month or two ago. She has a gift for making we non-economic majors understand concepts that previously seemed foreign. She is providing a necessary service and I love her show. I have tried to email her website on CNBC to say just that, however, they have it on a vicious cycle with a mandatory website email form that has you fill in your info (did it) then emails you that if you want to send the email you need to fill in the following info (that you already did on the form)...and the cycle never ends, so the emails never get there. In addition her show is always getting bumped, AND for quite some time, Directv's channel guide has shown "On the Money" an hour before its scheduled time, so if you try to record it on the dvr, you never get it (haven't checked in the past couple of weeks). It almost seems like someone is TRYING to make her show fail, and that is upsetting, because I think she is great. Anyway, please pass on the info, because they have made it so there is no way for us to... Thanks.
expose the crooks. You rock. I think next time I see 1 of those ads for his meetings I might show up with a sign. Or might even go in and stand up in the middle of the speel and denounce it.
That is a good video, wish I had saw that over 4 years ago when I got suckered into Quixtar.
I fell hook line & sinker for it with my hopes being teased infront of me, if I hadn't listened to it I would be near $2000.00 richer or better now.
Awesome job, Ben! Way to take the education to the masses!
You should have a spot on every financial, investing, business, daily news, daytime drama, cooking, and Dora the Explorer show on air today. The more we know, the better off we are, and it's clear from this video that you're the man to teach it.
Kudos Ben!
CNBC misspelled "Consumerist" on their page... Argh!
Quixtar?
*Face Palm*! NBC, how COULD you? *sniff*
Ben, you looked like you were going to cry during the Q&A part with Carmen. But other than that, you did a really nice job.
"As one interviewee told me, anyone who's got a killer investing strategy is out there doing it, they're not giving free seminars about it."
When my father used to take me to the race track, there were always guys standing out front selling "tip sheets." I always wondered if they knew what horses would win, why weren't they inside betting on them?
You could ask the same question about investment firms. Wouldn't they make more money in the stock market than off of the fees on retirement accounts? Oh, wait...
I'm happy that major media networks are playing notice to media blogs. I always get the impression that the networks look at blogs like they're just a bunch of young whippersnappers and say "Get off my lawn!" Grats, Ben!
16 years ago, 2 co-workers went to a seminar and spend $800.00 for a "get rich in real estate course". They never used it. After I made fun of them for about 6 months, they gave the course to me. I read the entire thing a few times. 95% of the stuff was too hard or nearly impossible to do with no or little money down. But, I did get some ideas from the course that are possible. I used those ideas to buy 7 investment properties that I eventually sold and put the proceeds into 3 different 1031 exchanges. Those three 1031 deals pay me $9,600.00 per month in positive cash flow. I lost track of those 2 guys that gave me the real estate course. But, I want to say thank you.
Thanks for covering this. While I always figured it was a scam, I've always been curious about what these seminars are really about. It seems like if you don't mind being an opportunistic jerk and bilking someone somewhere - either the property owners or your downline - then you can probably make money at it. It doesn't sound legal or ethical or doable by most people though, it seems. At least, I hope not...
Great job Ben.
very nice piece, you did great!
Awesome job! :)
Feh. The CNBC site locks up the video after 9 seconds of the opening ad plays--and that's all I get. Happens with the other videos from there as well.
Anyplace else I can see this thing?
Well done Mr. Popken!
Hopefully this will reach the masses of people who really need to see this video, I think we all know a few people who could be taken due to the promise of being able to make money or saving it.
Very good. Maybe I am too smug for my mug, but I think these scams are very very obvious. Plus, I really don't believe in easy money.
You know, from all the interviews Ben has done, I would say this has been the most professional one. Ben seemed almost like an actual investigative reporter, just seems so much different than his normal appearances.
@Flynn:
If they bet they would get kick out or ban from the track. This also works with Nascar also.
I already believe it's a scam so this piece seems to really be for the already converted. The only way to get at something substantive would have been for someone to pony up the money to get behind the "closed doors." In other words, if I was determined to hand over my money to these crooks, your video didn't offer anything strong enough to dissuade me.
Congrats on a great piece, Ben.
-Increase your wages significantly
-Encouragement to donate once you're an alumni
-Pay huge tuition bills before each semester
Sounds like these places called "collage" are quite the scam!
The bi9ggest red flag should be "Watch out for people who claim to want you to make money".
@Outrun1986: It's a shame, because the condition of the infomercial "subjects" should be a clue. Do you really expect me to believe that someone pulling in $20,000/mo from investment properties can't be bothered to go to anyone other than Bubbles at Supercuts along with a home bleaching kit?
Just how do they cast these infomercials? Are the producers purposefully frying the "actors'" hair and supplying Bill Cosby sweaters to appeal to the Joe The Plumber demographic?
@TMurphy: Biggest scam at my college - when they raised the fee for engineering classes and didn't tell us until after our tuition was due. We still have yet to see the benefits of that increase, as they promised we would.
@TMurphy: The biggest scams at my college were
1. They charged you a fee if you didn't attend the graduation ceremony. The fee was for no other reason than if you didn't attend.
2. Final exams and midterms were often held on Saturday's and the fact that they absolutely refused to work with student's travel arrangements during holidays and holiday breaks meaning that you either lost money on the tickets that your parents booked to send you home or you missed an exam meaning that you practically failed a course. This was a few years ago so given the travel situation in our country right now I hope its still not like that, try getting a ticket on thanksgiving weekend to get home these days. The college required students to either leave or go to a hotel for certain holidays like thanksgiving.
3. The food, terribly expensive, everything was fried and the fact that if you lived there you had to pay for a meal plan even if you were not going to use it (and with the quality of the food there, I know many students did not use it much). Thankfully I was a commuter student, but I feel for those living there who had to eat the food. I think ramen would have been more nutritious in this case! Did I mention the food also tasted terrible and made many students sick?
Bob Allen is the real deal. I made a lot of money using his system. But like any training course, only 5 percent of the people who attend will actually do the work, and only 2 percent will stay with it long-term. The rest will cry that it's a scam.
Even Bob warns it's not get rich quick. But it is get rich smart. Bob loves teaching and sharing his system. And I have spent time with him in person. He's a deeply religious man, and a true gentleman.
What I love is the inevitable commenters who pop up whenever these articles are posted on Consumerist; they don't even bother to post comments on a few other threads or even pick a few friends to follow, and they want you to take them at face value that these scams are the real deal.
OrvinMonet how much did Bob Allen pay you to say that? i think the best way to make money with Bob Allen is to buy into all of his scams then sue him for false advertising. You mihgt make a better profit there.
I am going out on a limb and say anyone out there who claims to want to help you make money is a scam. So 100%. If someone says "I want to help you SAVE money" like Suze Orman, or "Here is a way to make smart decisions in the stock market and not get anally raped" like Jim Cramer then I say they are looking out for your interests. Those 2 people sell books, not push worthless courses for thousands of dollars. I used to believe, I bought the books and tapes and CD's, I went to a couple of seminars. Funny thing is that the gurus never attend them, you always get some shilljob talking out of his ass. But I did find a 95% guaranteed method of making decent money: Go to school and work your ass off.
I am in college, going for my Masters in Nursing, just starting off I can make over $100K a year. And i will always have a job, recession or not.
@Outrun1986: "Final exams and midterms were often held on Saturday's and the fact that they absolutely refused to work with student's travel arrangements during holidays and holiday breaks meaning that you either lost money on the tickets that your parents booked to send you home or you missed an exam meaning that you practically failed a course."
Given that exam schedules are available months in advance, why did YOU not schedule around THEM?
This can be the new direction for Consumerist. As this site gets bigger, you can do big things like this. Not just taking user submissions, but going out there and fighting for us by true reporting. This was impressive and I want to see more like it. Next is Amway!!!!
Nice job, Ben.