There are many financial "scammers" out there, people who will say and do anything to part you from your money. Lots of them run financial seminars for property, stocks and shares, wealth building, etc. Lots of people want to get rich quick, so the fake financial gurus will happily set up shop to cater for this need.
One of the most memorable was the American property finance guru, Tom Vu. He doesn't do seminars anymore, but he offered financial seminars, promising that anybody could become a millionaire by investing in real estate / houses. In his adverts, he showed himself in wealthy locations, with lots of scantily clad women, promising that all of this could be yours if you just signed up for his seminars. You can search for Tom Vu videos on YouTube. He made his money from the seminars, which were expensively priced, and other scam artists are doing the same thing in England right now. The scam works by offering a free introductory seminar, then selling more expensively priced educational courses.
The Bernard Madoff scandal showed just how difficult it is to tell who is a fraudster. Madoff was the biggest scammer of them all, and is a lesson for all of us to keep our wits about us and to not believe that there is a safe and easy way to make a lot of money. Madoff went out of his way, to scam billions, and he even conned many charities. In the book The Richest Man in Babylon, chapter five, the 5th law of gold is that: "Gold flees the man, who would force it to impossible earnings or who follows the alluring advice of tricksters and schemers, or who trusts it to his own inexperience and romantic desires in investment". So this means you can't take shortcuts to wealth by following get rich quick schemes, but many have tried, and many will continue to try. A lot of good, financially successful, and prominent people were completely fooled by Madoff. They were blinded by a desire for easy money. If it can happen to them, it can happen to you. Don't trust these gurus and their "secret methods".
The words that a fraudster uses, and their evidence can be completely accurate, and logically correct. That is why it is more important to look at the real results of other people who have tried the same methods. What are the odds of yourself becoming rich by using a particular method? As an example, I could say that anybody can become rich, by choosing the correct 6 numbers for the UK National lottery. This is true, and logically correct, but the actual odds of doing so are obsolete.
Imagine a lottery winner saying they know the secret to wealth. They would have the winnings and the trappings of wealth to prove it, but the odds of you or them actually doing it again are miniscule. Fake financial gurus and scam artists love using fancy words and sentences, and putting in logically correct evidence to support their arguments, but they usually only make money from their seminars, books, courses, DVD's, personal appearances, etc.
I went to a few (free introductory) financial seminars a few years ago. They promised their methods would bring wealth, but on the way in to the hall, they made everyone sign a form which said stuff like "the results from this course are not guaranteed" and that "this company will not be held legally liable if you lose money". I remember one alleged guru at a finance seminar I went to, actually boasting that he was not registered with the FSA (Financial Standards Authority)! Anyone offering financial advice in the UK, has to be registered and regulated by the FSA, to ensure they are not criminals, and that their own finances are OK!
Wikipedia has an excellent section on get rich quick schemes. It includes schemes such as Forex Trading, and Success University in its description. I actually went to a Success University seminar a few years ago, and the speaker claimed it was not a pyramid scheme, then drew out a diagram of how the process worked, which looked exactly like a pyramid! I was invited to this seminar by 2 friends of mine, a banker and a lawyer. Both no longer participate in the organisation as they made no money whatsoever, and it shows that even professionals are easily sucked in by these seminars.
Nowadays, Tom Vu is a professional poker player, and he has won over 1 million dollars in tournaments around the world! This proves how excellent he is at reading people’s emotions, and exploiting that for his personal gain. I know a guy who spent around £30k on different finance seminars (he took out loans) about 7 years ago, and is still not successful. Scammers are very good at what they do. Don't even bother going to their seminars, as it's just a big waste of time and money. Anytime I see an advert for a finance seminar, the first things I think of, are Tom Vu and Bernard Madoff. You can get financial information for free on the Internet, or by buying books cheaply from stores such as Amazon. No need to line the pockets of scam artists.
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