How big of a scam is Dean Graziosi

February 19, 2013 5:32 PM

How big of a scam is Dean Graziosi?

My neighbors want to go to a seminar by this guy's company, and I'm pretty sure I want to talk them out of it. What concrete stuff can I show them that this (either the guy himself or the type of operation he's running) is either a good or a bad idea?

I'm skeptical because it's already shouting "FREE MONEY!!!" at people, but then on his site it wants you to join his club to make more free money, buy his books, etc, etc.

posted by Evilspork to Work & Money (6 answers total)

Best answer: I googled Dean+Graziosi+scam.

The results were plentiful -- beyond the ads Dean Graziosi has directing back to his sites.
posted by jerseygirl at 5:44 PM on February 19, 2013 [2 favorites]

Best answer: well here's what one guy had to say:

"when I was Googling Graziosi's name and the word "scam". You know what Graziosi did? His company used search engine optimization to be at the stop of search results when the words "Graziosi" and "scam" were searched! He then created some ** web pages about real estate scams so the web pages like this one, informing you about his scam, would show up further down in the results! What does that tell you when a company has to do that?"

so i think your instinct is correct, OP.
posted by zdravo at 5:46 PM on February 19, 2013 [1 favorite]

Mod note: Folks, scammers can sort of be dicks, it's helpful if you don't link to people when asking "how horrible are these people. Thank you.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 5:50 PM on February 19, 2013

Response by poster: Sorry, was just trying to help. :)
posted by Evilspork at 5:51 PM on February 19, 2013

Best answer: I have personal experience with Dean Graziosi. Through repeated harassing phone calls they convinced my sister to pay $5,000 in advance for a series of video real estate courses and telephone support sessions. They did this before she had completed watching a single one of their tapes. They encouraged her dream of financial independence through real estate and explained it would be a better deal if she bought the whole thing up front.

At the time she was living on government disability payments, confined to a wheelchair from advanced progressive multiple sclerosis, and undergoing chemotherapy for stage 4 ovarian cancer.

Needless to say, she never did finish watching any of the tapes. Memail me if your friends want them. I'll be cleaning out her house in a couple of weeks, and I expect they're still there, in the original packaging.
posted by alms at 7:16 PM on February 19, 2013 [18 favorites]

Best answer: I posted about a blog awhile back, The Salty Droid, that's dedicated to investigating "get rich quick" fraudsters like these. There's a whole category on Graziosi; he's part and parcel of a seedy "syndicate" of similar fraudsters, using telemarketing "boiler rooms" in laissez-faire Utah and manipulative tactics to push naive and/or financially desperate people into paying hundreds (or thousands) for a lot of empty promises.
posted by Rhaomi at 5:36 PM on February 20, 2013 [1 favorite]