Scam Type
Online Purchase Scam
Date Reported
2022-11-20 00:00:00
Victim Postal Code
27409
Total Dollars Lost
0
Scam Description
I am reporting MyTechBestFriend upon the discovery of an unresponsive, unregulated, unsanctioned business, run as a tech services boot camp. After the discovery of lack of accreditation, and several attempts to get a refund, the business went unresponsive.
Inquired about the legitimacy of the business through appropriate channels such as the TWC to verify the business was approved by the state and confirmed the business is unregulated. Also, the state of Texas prohibits contracts by unregulated career schools, academies, or courses. When inquired there was no response.
Boot camp participants filed several FTC complaints due to unresponsiveness, lack of fulfillment of the services and goods as promised, and legitimacy concerns. The website shows the business owner as having experience in several areas offered in the program, but companies have confirmed the experience is not true.
I and many others are requesting that the FTC investigate the bootcamp for its facilitation of copyright infringement, fraud, and for broader harms that the company may already be upholding. Based on the Texas Workforce Commission, the bootcamp does not make available their outcomes reports and when asked there is no response. They may be failing to conduct even basic oversight of its hundreds of cohorts, putting students at risk and necessitating immediate action from the Federal Trade Commission, the Better Business Bureau, and the Texas Workforce Commission.
As boot camp participants and students, we received an educational product that fell far short of what was marketed, with advertised jobs and mentorships—let alone six-figure salaries—proving illusory. I was unaware and defrauded by this unregulated program that also pulled content from major companies and added surcharges.
And by the time I could realize the depth of this fraud, lies by omission and little embellishments, the school/program is partially finished and now involved in several news articles and all over Twitter and TikTok for scams and fraud.
The program’s predatory nature leans on the fact that students may be unaware of industry boot camp programs and the contract relies on the lack of experience of boot camp agreements by industry boot camps. It specifically targeted its program toward economically vulnerable students.
The program has already leveraged the smokescreen of positive rhetoric and novelty surrounding a “6 figure career” to lock students into predatory contracts. The “boot camp” is nothing more than a predatory scheme to trap hundreds of students into lofty but false promises of high-paying jobs in the tech sector.
