Relationship Advice Group Scam

Post Reply New Topic

I'm going to be as generic as possible seeing how easily WP threads come up in Google searches.

There was a meetup group that I attended for a year and a half that turned out to be a scam. It really sucks it took me that long to figure it out, but better late than never. Plus, right now that's just accusation, but almost everyone I've talked to seems to agree that it is a scam.

This was a mens group that discussed relationship strategies, whether it meant getting into a relationship or receiving advice on your current relationship if you were in one. It was originally advertised as a PUA group, and it may have really been that at one time. Still, this was a "family" that I was a part of that I hung out with every week and on some other days, unaware of the fact that I was being manipulated by the leader of the group.

A typical meeting went like this: Everyone would get a chance to discuss how their week went since the last meeting. Then we'd get into the main discussion, which involved discussing an article about relationships or have a guest speaker come in. At the very end of the meeting, we would write down our goals for the week and be held accountable for them at the following meeting. Sounds good on paper, but this is poorly executed. The meetings are on average three hours long, but most of that time is cannibalized by the weekend reviews. Guest speakers are very rare and the main discussion usually just involves reading a couple pages out loud like in grade school from a book everyone was supposedly supposed to have read on their own time and can read for free online. We don't even discuss it in detail; we just read it and that's it. We spend no more than 10 minutes during most meetings on this "main" segment. That means I'm spending more listening to the same BS stories from other members that I pretend to care about but don't, and most of the members tell the same story they've been telling every meeting for over a year. There's one guy in the group who I don't understand why he's in the group other than for an apparent ego boost; he comes in just to brag and flaunt how he gets all these hot girls to fall for him because he looks like Justin Timberlake, and he makes it sound like that's a "problem". Good Lord.

Unprofessional is too nice of a word to describe this group. These are all adults who are 30+, bust most of them, especially the group leader, act like 12 year olds by constantly spouting toilet humor, bullying others, and thinking having fun at the expense of others is somehow necessary to run an effective relationship advice group. Egomaniac doesn't even begin to describe the guy who runs the group as well as some of the other members. If you go on a date and botch it up or you get into a bad fight with your wife/girlfriend, you'll be mocked and berated in the group as a means of "correction".

The absolute worst part is the fee. The group meets once every week, and the group leader charges $10 per meeting (and I hear some newer members pay $20 per meeting now). First off, it costs little to nothing to run the group. There's no room fee, etc. Sure, it may cost money to advertise on meetup and to get supplies, but all of that combined only costs about $50/year. That means that the group can run without a cover fee. Second, the money doesn't go towards the group to pay for anything special; the group leader just pockets the money and uses it to go on vacation five times a year. The icing on the cake is he claims it's a consulting fee and that it's to pay for his time. Well there's just one problem - HE'S NOT A RELATIONSHIP EXPERT!! !! If he was in the business of giving relationship advice, that would be understandable, but the truth is he is no more qualified (if not less qualified) than anyone attending the group to be giving advice. He has only been married for a little over a year, has very little relationship experince before his marriage, and his relationship with his wife is far from perfect. In fact, he only talks up to 30% of the time and allows others to give their feedback/advice to other members, yet he's the one that collects all the money and uses it to his discretion. If that's not a scam, I don't know what is, and I'm appalled that there are people dumb enough to still pay him. Then again, I was the fool for a year and a half. The thing is, being a professional marketing consultant, he's very good at manipulation tactics. In fact, I bet he could sell a packet of sugar for five bucks. He pretended to be my friend and guilt tripped me whenever I had to miss a meeting, but it turned out all this time the only reason why he wanted to be friends with me is because I was just another revenue stream for him.

So I just wanted to write that to make everyone aware of what's out there and to be careful what you get yourself into.