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Trump University - a fraud according to students

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Exophase said:
The other issue is how willing credit card companies are to extend credit lines of $35k to people who can't afford to pay it back without relying on some shady business turnaround.
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WHAT!! People who pay off their credit card bills make them no money, people in too deep to do so are the money makers, fool.
 
WHAMPOM said:
WHAT!! People who pay off their credit card bills make them no money, people in too deep to do so are the money makers, fool.
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yeah they probably make internal calculations knowing full well that some debt won't be ever paid back in a useful timeframe, and then set the rates and terms accordingly.
 
Sonikku said:
As a businessman you could appreciate behavior like this to some extent; man smartly profits off of people who could have used better judgment. Although it is behavior harder to appreciate in a presidential candidate, one whom should be working to actively improve the lives of Americans. As opposed to profiting off of them. We don't need another Cheney.
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I disagree with this. "It's just business" is an excuse for being a thief. If you're an asshole in business, you're an asshole, period.
 
Trump is just preying on the weak. This is evolution at work. Society has decided to put limits on this kind of thing but some people feel there should be no limits to how much you can dupe the stupid.
 
JSt0rm said:
Trump is just preying on the weak. This is evolution at work. Society has decided to put limits on this kind of thing but some people feel there should be no limits to how much you can dupe the stupid.
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"a fool and his money are soon parted"

It's just a matter of whom parts with it. It is inevitable.
 
WHAMPOM said:
WHAT!! People who pay off their credit card bills make them no money, people in too deep to do so are the money makers, fool.
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And apparently you must have thought I was speaking on behalf of the credit card companies? That they benefit from it and are complicit in it doesn't make it okay for them to help ruin people's lives.
 
Chump University.

God dang how I'd laugh at stories like this if the role of POTUS didn't like, you know, have massive and widespread effects on the entire planet.
 
People who fall for these scams are typically people who want things with no effort. They want to become rich without having to put any effort at all. They thought that after paying 35k for this that they would learn secrets that will make them millionaires in a year or two.

This is why they charged it on the credit card.
 
Exophase said:
And apparently you must have thought I was speaking on behalf of the credit card companies? That they benefit from it and are complicit in it doesn't make it okay for them to help ruin people's lives.
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Example all those Credit Card Kiosks on the starting day of a college campus? That we do so little about. Some one is OK about it.
 
Hugo Drax said:
People who fall for these scams are typically people who want things with no effort. They want to become rich without having to put any effort at all. They thought that after paying 35k for this that they would learn secrets that will make them millionaires in a year or two.

This is why they charged it on the credit card.
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Does blame the victim make you feel superior?
 
The problem is most people don't want to work- period!

There is no secret to get rich, but you're going to have to make a ton of mistakes and it takes a lot of hard work.
 
nickqt said:
Kiss up, punch down.

It's their MO.
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Of course. Witness the post directly preceding your own.

Never mind that spoiled rich kid charlatans like Trump don't define work in terms the rest of us recognize as such. He's obviously one of the most successful scammers on the planet.
 
Mai72 said:
Donald was born with a silver spoon in his ass.

Why are people surprised?

LOL. What school did you go to? Harvard? Yale? No. I went to Trump University!!
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Trump attended The Wharton School of business. Do they teach sociopathy there?

Before plunking down a large sum of cash they might want to do a little checking up on who they are handing the cash over to. A fool and their money... indeed.

Trump admitted himself how he financed one of his first buildings. He bought an empty lot, hired some construction workers to drive bulldozers around in circles, then brought the bank execs over to the lot and told them he has already started construction on the building so they need to give him the loan before someone else does. They accepted. He had absolutely no way of financing that building if the bankers hadn't agreed to finance it.
 
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I know this is a dead thread, but it's still relevant, so...

From everything I've read about the claims from the few disgruntled Trump U. former students, it seems that the business may have paid on commission. This often leads to a few employees engaging in high pressure sales tactics - something many former students said they never encountered.

You also have to realize that real estate is a tough business. You either do it right or you lose - often big-time. If the school taught what it promised to teach and the students simply couldn't keep up or make the best of it, that's the students problem (unless the rate is absurdly high).

In a genuine college (which Trump U. most certainly was not) you don't get a refund for a class you fail.

Then the one lady who admitted that she kept pestering her assigned mentor for a refund never mentions if she ever even tried to attend class.

It's really important to try and remain objective - Trump didn't run the company, despite his name being on it. He doesn't run most of his companies - he delegates.

This whole problem really sounds like it comes down to just a couple of bad employees trying to make large commissions.
 
looncraz said:
I know this is a dead thread, but it's still relevant, so...

From everything I've read about the claims from the few disgruntled Trump U. former students, it seems that the business may have paid on commission. This often leads to a few employees engaging in high pressure sales tactics - something many former students said they never encountered.

You also have to realize that real estate is a tough business. You either do it right or you lose - often big-time. If the school taught what it promised to teach and the students simply couldn't keep up or make the best of it, that's the students problem (unless the rate is absurdly high).

In a genuine college (which Trump U. most certainly was not) you don't get a refund for a class you fail.

Then the one lady who admitted that she kept pestering her assigned mentor for a refund never mentions if she ever even tried to attend class.

It's really important to try and remain objective - Trump didn't run the company, despite his name being on it. He doesn't run most of his companies - he delegates.

This whole problem really sounds like it comes down to just a couple of bad employees trying to make large commissions.
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It is really important to remain objective. On what evidence are you basing your determination that this was just a few bad apples? On what evidence are you saying people failed the classes? On what evidence are you saying they didn't attend? I'm not aware of any of those things being established at all, certainly not for the thousands of people who are party to the various fraud suits going forward. We already have Trump on tape making materially false statements about the instruction at this 'university'. I imagine as more documents are released things are going to get worse as well. You don't just get sued for fraud by two separate states and thousands of people for nothing.

And honestly, if he didn't know what was going on isn't that damning in and of itself? I mean is his management style so incompetent that he didn't notice massive fraud happening?
 
By the way the complaint is pretty interesting to read. Basically it was a two part scam:

1. Have people attend a FREE SEMINAR where they would sell you on a three day class for $1,500 or so by promising you that the three day class would teach you everything you needed to know to get started.

2. At the three day class they would shift gears and say that the three day class was actually totally inadequate and what you really needed was a personal mentor that cost between $10,000 and $35,000. THAT person would get you the know how that you really needed.

Once you paid for the mentor not only did they not really know anything but they often disappeared shortly after you signed up, leaving you with nothing. The whole enterprise seems to have been a giant fraud. Hell, some of the released documents have printed talking points that encourage the attendees to commit fraud themselves.
 
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eskimospy said:
By the way the complaint is pretty interesting to read. Basically it was a two part scam:
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Yes, it sounds like a fairly common scheme. I had a girlfriend once that was into Tony Robbins shit. It's the same kind of bullshit preying on the weak minded and desperate. (Kind of like Trump's candidacy actually.) Every $X,000 seminar is also trying to sell you the next thing.

Hell, some of the released documents have printed talking points that encourage the attendees to commit fraud themselves.
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That actually surprises me, usually they're a little more cagey than that. Do you know where the docs are posted.
 
Blackjack200 said:
Yes, it sounds like a fairly common scheme. I had a girlfriend once that was into Tony Robbins shit. It's the same kind of bullshit preying on the weak minded and desperate. (Kind of like Trump's candidacy actually.) Every $X,000 seminar is also trying to sell you the next thing.

That actually surprises me, usually they're a little more cagey than that. Do you know where the docs are posted.
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The complaint is here:https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2648169/People-v-Trump-University-Affirmation.pdf

Page 52 of the complaint goes over how their materials encouraged students to falsify their income to credit card companies in order to increase their credit limit and then if asked to provide evidence of income claim that it was too much trouble to get the paperwork together.
 
I have to wonder if this will end up being Trumps downfall. That the school was a scam is a given, it was just like every other seminar offering "Powerful Information" and "Amazing Results".
It always surprises me that people still pay money for this crap. The "Secret System" used by "Millionaires" will get you money Fast! It's sad that they're so gullible, and criminal that others take advantage them.
 
This is going to be a particularly ugly campaign season. You've already got Trump going back 20 years to find things to use against Hillary and even holding her responsible or at least complicit in her husband's behavior.

That means that the HRC camp is also going to pull out all of the stops in terms of slinging mud at Trump. That, w/o a doubt, is going to include the Trump U scandal. And it really does seem to be a scandal.

Even if Trump had only a tangential relationship with the "school", the fact that he's defended it amounts to approval of their actions and I don't see that going over well even with Trump supporters.
 
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