“You can make $100,000 in 90 days or your money back,” said one eCommerce influencer. People actually believed him and bought into his course for amounts anywhere from $5k-$25k. This seemed like a great deal, right? You are guaranteed your money back if it doesn’t work. There is no way you can’t lose.

Who should we trust online nowadays when we have all of these so-called “gurus” talking about these get-rich-quick methods and supposedly guaranteeing that if you aren’t satisfied you will get your money back?

Not All Influencers are Created Equal

On a platform with over 1.4MM accounts with over 15k followers, 39% of those are active influencers, according to Influencer DB. With over 500,000 active influencers on the platform, many of them selling a service or product, you are bound to find some that you can’t trust.

In the last few weeks, over one hundred people have come out to claim they have been scammed by various eCommerce programs all hosted by one influencer, @Jetsetfly. These people were often promised that should they not achieve the results they desired; they would get their money back.

It was quickly made apparent that people were making large investments in themselves (many over $1,000) in hopes of hopping on board this ecommerce train, which made it seem like making millions of dollars online was supposedly easy. Something to remember, “If it is too good to be true, it probably is”.

 

Don’t Take Everything for Face Value

This all started when one past client of @Jetsetfly or Josh king Madrid decided to speak up on their social media, despite the possible backlash. They were very vocal on their account of only 2,500 followers (now over 3,500), and shook up the entire e-commerce community.

Hundreds of people started sending him screenshots and testimonials of their similar experiences. Some people were past clients and some were even past business employees of Josh’s. Needless to say, he is currently in some serious legal trouble.

The light of these current complaints leaves us all thinking… What is real and what is fake? On Instagram, @Jetsetfly has 254k followers. His engagement on his accounts are surprisingly low in likes and comments. This alone is very misleading for people who have decided that he is worth investing their hard-earned money in, because of his supposed status on Instagram.

If you follow his account closely, you will see that every few weeks it seems like he has a new program or course that is supposed to help you make more money (or just help him scam more people). Why shouldn’t you trust a guy who has a GTR and Audi parked outside of his Newport Beach mansion? Well, not for long. He just had them towed away last week saying, “Well this is now my ex machine.. sometimes life gives you L’s. This is one of them for myself.” 

 

Ask Yourself These Questions

It is important that we protect ourselves and invest in courses very carefully. Here are a few questions to ask yourself before investing in a course online, especially e-commerce:

1.     Do I know this guru personally?
2.     Why do I want to invest with this coach?
3.     What do their reviews look like?
4.     What is my gut feeling about this person?
5.     What is the worst that could happen if this doesn’t work out?

Asking yourself that last question is very important. Should you get scammed or the services were not what you expected, what would you do? Could you still get by and pay your bills for the next 3-6 months? If you can’t see a clear path to recovery, then maybe you shouldn’t put this amount of money on the line right now.

 Listen to your gut. Sniffing out people who aren’t who they seem to be is a valuable ability. If it feels like it is too good to be true, it probably is. Although, when you purchase a course online, sometimes you don’t have this opportunity to get to know the coach on a personal level. You are taking a greater risk.

There are probably some great courses that get great results out there. Think about it this way: the person who created the course is technically incentivized to create something that produces results for their clients, because it gets them great reviews. Great reviews means they can make more courses. More courses means they make more money. On the flip side, if they create something that doesn’t produce results, now they may be faced with giving refunds (this is often an empty promise), and their brand is potentially tarnished.

What to do Next Time

The next time you see another ad on Instagram for a course telling you how you can make 6-7 figures online in 6 months, you should approach this with a high level of skepticism. That ad was easy to make, and Instagram didn’t check whether that so-called “guru” is going to do what they said they would.