I remember encountering a Youtube video ad that was titled "Here in My Garage." My inner alarms screamed when it started off with a man says he just bought a Lamborghini, only to be prouder of the seven shelves of books behind him. And, ironically, that was because of something we ended up observing in our class to see the value proposition of it. When it shifted over to another link of a two-hour video for his pitch, It didn't take long for my professor to regret that decision.

Fast forward to a year later where that man, Tai Lopez, has not got a base of over 150,000 members for his "67 Steps" Program. And he even had growing memberships for other programs he's setting up. After seeing these numbers, I felt the need to some background research on him to determine whether he was one of many self-help scammers or the real deal:

1. How he sells his program

Part of his common tactic is to introduce the reward first, run around in circles with seemingly related points with his message to establish himself and then offer his reward (with the purchase of his program). His initial two-hr video, as pointed by Lucrative Online, employs tactics from Dr. Robert B. Cialdini’s, “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion." In spite of the difficulty of convincing people through a long video, it's a testament to his skills as a sales marketer.

2. How he earned his initial fortune

In his videos, he stated that he was sleeping on the trailer of someone's couch in the "middle of nowhere" with $47 in his wallet . Supposedly that wasn't too long ago, but he's made contradictory statements such as working with financial clients for over 10 years. Most of the information on where you can find this is on his LinkedIn profile, though it appears that he didn't mention a rather important detail. The fact that he actually owns Elite Global Dating LLC, a company that owns a quite a few dating sites:

• elitemeeting.com
• modelmeet.com
• mythailove.com
• ifyouresingle.com
• eliteglobaldating.com
• millionairemagnetsystem.com
• meetingmillionaires.com
• findadate.com
• datetallmen.com
• elitemeet.com
• justmillionaires.com

The sites are fairly notorious for the myriad complaints of fraud and scamming. Here are some examples:

"After cancelling my subscription they still took payments from me! I then deleted my profile and advised my bank about their fraud but they still keep going!! My bank says they have to pay money out but refund me the cost. I wonder do I have to keep paying them forever! Countless emails to their costumer service without reply. Its not only scam but real FRAUD!"
-allyka Complaintsboard.com 2014

"I bought an information product from this company and did not sign up to become a member. After checking my VISA statement, I noticed that they had charged me over $200 for a monthly membership fee that I had not authorized. I have contacted my bank and they have cancelled that VISA card. Beware to anybody who has any dealings with Elite Global Dating."
-Ken consumeraffairs.com 2013

"Too bad that Tai Lopez is a thief, liar and commits fraud. Other than that, sure, great person to listen to. Be aware, Tai Lopez is a bad person who only wants your money."
-Carrie EpicLaunch.com 2012

3. The 67 Steps Program

The program has been mixed for various reasons. While people have stated that information given by the program is indeed insightful, this can be found in other sources. For instance, Jack Canfield's The Success Principals seem to cover content that is not only similar to the program, but cheaper as well ($15). Not only that, Tai has a host of free content on Youtube is considered just as valuable as his program. Your better off taking advantage of something that is more cost effective.

4. What we can conclude

Tai Lopez does have a shady background with his company and is known for using aggressive marketing tactics. Beyond that, he provides insightful information to people, however, it's information that can easily be found and implemented on their own time, without the need of paying $67 every month.

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H. (2015, May 17). Tai Lopez. A Fraud? Scam Artist? Let's See... - Lucrative Online. Retrieved from http://lucrativeonline.com/tai-lopez-fraud-and-sca.

Bertrand, T. (2015, July 22). Who Is Tai Lopez, and Is His Self-help Program a Scam? Retrieved from http://socialnewsdaily.com/55573/who-is-tai-lopez-...

Some Final Words: Are You an Insight Junkie? A History of Tai Lopez. (2015, February 6). Retrieved from http://somefinalwords.blogspot.com/2015/02/insight...