Nik

Feb 2, 2025

Dodgy - STEER WELL CLEAR

I've been in property/construction since my Uni days, so normally I smell this type of BS Get Rich Quick property schemes a mile off, also as I'm quite cynical. Still, I decided to have an open mind & attend one of the free Abi Hookway/Touchstone Education live webinars after seeing one their gazillion marketing ads on Insta & decided to give it a go. I initially attended a live webinar run by Abi Hookway, which was supposed to be 1h. After 1.5h & counting, I logged off as by then I was totally bored with what turned out to be a hard-sales exercise. The webinar had some interesting parts to it but was effectively a hook for the promotion of a "limited" number (147) of spaces on another 2-day £99 webinar (heavily discounted from £495, of course!!!) that was CPD certified, as they repeated time & time again. I signed up for this 2-day £99 webinar, also given she mentioned they gave a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee - if after the first day an attendee didn't want to continue with the second day, TE would refund the £99 cost, no questions asked. I was curious & still unsure whether this was a property scam or a genuine chance to learn something new in property, so I paid the £99 & attended the first webinar day - the invite was for 9.15-18.30, so two very long days. She co-hosts the webinar with a guy who apparently really does live in Dubai/Marbella, as he told the 400-odd attendees repeatedly, Gordon Dutfield. The owners of Touchstone Education, Paul Smith & Aniko Smith, are based in Liechtenstein or similar - another interesting detail. Lots of photos of the four of them in private jets/etc. At 08:19 on the first day of the course, I get a Whatsapp from an unknown number - it turned out to be some chap calling himself a "Success Executive", who couldn't wait to see me online at 09:15 & said that so he could serve me in the best possible way, what was I looking to get out of the course. This chap would message while the webinar was going on, which was pretty distracting - & would also message during comfort/lunch breaks. It felt honestly like being stalked, as during that day you didn't seem to get a break at all from the TE team. It felt like being brainwashed. It's quite an eye-opening experience also to read the Touchstone Education reviews on Trustpilot, Glassdoor & Reddit. They have a 4.6/5 scoring on Trustpilot, which at first glance is reassuring and initially gave me confidence that this was not your usual scam property course business. But if you dig just a tiny bit & read the 1/2/3 star reviews on Trustpilot in detail, look at the way the Touchstone social media team respond to negative reviews (very patronising and condescending), you'll find gold nuggets in there pretty quickly - various reviewers accuse Touchstone of fabricating the positive reviews (with some apparently literally copied/pasted & identical). All in all, the 2-day webinar was again a hard marketing sell opportunity to hook attendees onto yet another (£15,000!!) "Wealth Academy" course which would of course shower you in gold if you took action & decided to become one of the 1% of the population who are "exceptional" rather than continue being one of the 99% of "normal" people. Essentially, a pyramid scheme. One attendee asked Abi Hookway via the chat system - which was the only way for attendees to communicate with the presenters - how she managed to go from being a 31-year old single mum in £24K debt to being a £Millionaire 8 years later. The attendee pressed & asked her how she financed the course if she was in so much debt & had two children & a full-time job as a call centre manager. She finally responded that her brother loaned her half of the course cost, which back then was £20K, & she put the other half on a credit card. So essentially, Abi Hookway was encouraging people to get into even more debt to pay for the Wealth Academy £15K course, "as you have to take risks & actions to stop being one of the 99%". Quite a few attendees had already been so brainwashed that they were even apologizing on the chat for not being able to afford the course, as if they'd let her down. Psychological, emotional, manipulative blackmail at its very finest. By 16.00 on the first day, I'd had enough so I asked the "Success Executive" how to arrange a refund, who directed me to an e-mail address to request it & also asked if I didn't mind telling him what the issue was with the event. I ignored the question, given the 100% Satisfaction Guarantee they'd given mentioned there would be No Questions Asked, which wasn't actually true as they did ask questions. It took 9 calendar days for the £99K to be refunded. I've given them 2 stars because among the constant marketing/sales, there were some interesting bits. Steer well well clear - unreal that this type of manipulative marketing scam is not banned by regulations.