PSA: That 'passive income' course I bought was actually teaching MLM tactics

I signed up for this online course last spring about generating passive income through affiliate marketing. Spent $200 on it. The first few modules seemed fine, but around week 3 they started pushing this system where you had to recruit other people to sell the same course to make real money. Basically a pyramid scheme dressed up with fancy spreadsheets. What finally tipped me off was when the instructor said "your downline is your real asset" in a Q&A session. Has anyone else run into courses that start out legit and then turn into recruitment pitches?

3 comments

3 Comments

jamesf4117h ago

I read something similar on Reddit where the whole course was just recruiting.

elizabeths5113h ago

Heard about that same Reddit post. It talked about a data analytics course that was basically a funnel for a consulting company. They spent half the time pitching their paid services instead of teaching actual skills. Makes you wonder how many of those bootcamps are really about education vs. just finding cheap leads. Always worth checking if the instructors actually work in the field first.

lucasschmidt13h ago

@elizabeths51 I wonder if some of these "educators" are just using the courses to build detailed lead lists to sell later...