ideas

A Fraudulent, Predatory Scam Masquerading as Financial Education

Benzinga.com is running what amounts to a bait-and-switch racket cloaked in financial jargon and false promises of wealth. I was lured in by their slick YouTube content and sales webinars, where so-called "experts" like Matt Maley, Nic Chahine, and Chris Capre hyped up fairy-tale trade returns of 100% to 2500%, with alleged win rates of 65% to 85%. They implied you could turn $250 trades into $9,500 in a year—all while flashing charts and using deceptive urgency tactics that would make used car salesmen blush.Hook, line, and sinker—I subscribed to what I was told was a $79/year options education program that included trade ideas. What I actually got was a broken, half-assed, glorified PowerPoint course with less educational value than a 10-minute free YouTube video. It was disorganized, directionless, and clearly designed to funnel users into higher-ticket upsells rather than teach anything useful.The moment I signed up, I was immediately ambushed with an “exclusive” $399 upsell for some other "incredible" service—one that turned out to be locked behind yet another paywall. To actually get the trades I was promised, I was told to pay another $29–$49/month, per service.When I realized I’d been conned, I reached out to their support via chat, phone, and email to request a refund under their so-called ‘money-back guarantee’—only to discover that this, too, was a lie. They don’t give refunds. What they offer instead is "credit" toward more of their worthless garbage. It's like asking for a refund at a restaurant after food poisoning, and being told you can only get more spoiled food.So I tried to salvage my loss by switching to a different service they offered. Big mistake. Their tech platform is comically broken, with non-functional tools, constant glitches, and system crashes—problems they've admitted were due to known hardware and software failures. They knowingly allowed paying customers to rely on a faulty trading system, all while ignoring support requests for months, only responding when threatened with complaints to the BBB and FTC.But the most outrageous part? Following their advice has cost me over $10,000 since March. Their trade alerts are pure garbage—low-quality, lagging, poorly timed, and often completely wrong. I've lost money not just because the trades were bad, but because their broken system wouldn’t even execute orders properly at times. They knew about these technical issues for over a month, yet continued charging subscribers full price with no transparency, no apology, and no accountability.After researching, I discovered I am far from alone. There are dozens—if not hundreds—of similar horror stories online. People losing thousands in subscription fees, then tens of thousands more following Benzinga's reckless trade ideas. It’s a predatory system designed not to educate or enrich the customer—but to bleed them dry, then sell them another course to "fix" the damage.Let me be crystal clear:Benzinga.com is running a scam.They are engaging in deceptive advertising, fraudulent upselling, and negligent service delivery.They are causing real financial harm to real people.This company should be heavily fined, investigated for fraud, and ideally shut down permanently. Every dime they've stolen from hard-working consumers through deception and dysfunction should be refunded in full, with damages.If you’re reading this and thinking about giving them a dollar—don’t. You’d be better off lighting your money on fire.

Date of experience: May 01, 2025