Sonia McDonald recently was handed a publicity flyer for a free investment seminar that promised her a chance of financial freedom and wealth. The flyer said she could get rid of her debts and make money safely.

Since the seminar was free, Sonia thought there was no harm going along, especially as she had recently progressed from being waitress at a fast food place to chef, and the idea of a life free from grease and hot oil really appealed to her.

She booked a seat over the phone, and turned up at the venue, along with about 500 other people. By the time she signed up, gave her name and phone number and got to her seat, the presenter had already started.

The Hard Sell

The presenter told everyone the story of his life, of how he had created extraordinary wealth from practically nothing. He told everyone they could do it too - if only they had the right attitude. And to help get that attitude everyone had to join in shouting out key messages whenever urged to during the speaker's presentation.

He spent the rest of the seminar talking about the huge profits you could make from trading shares and investing in property without having to pay tax.

At this point, one lady got up and said she was not sure if the presenter was quite right about the tax issue. Quick as a flash, the presenter tore into her, saying that she obviously had the wrong attitude and she would end up on social security and never get rich. Sonia decided not to ask any questions because she did not want to be humiliated in this way.

Sonia had an older woman sitting on one side of her and a young man on the other. The older woman seemed really convinced by the presenter. The younger man was not so sure.

The Bottom Line

At the end, Sonia disovered that to find out how to follow their wealth creation strategy, she had to sign up for another seminar lasting several days, costing $8,000. On top of that, to do the share trading she then had to buy some computer software for more than $1,000.

'After three hours, I really hadn't found out anything. It all seemed like a warm-up session, so I would spend thousands on more seminars. And I felt I was being manipulated', Sonia said.

ASIC's Advice

In ASIC's experience, the worst kind of investment seminars promise a lot but deliver very little, except to whet your appetite with golden promises of financial freedom and enormous wealth. The presenter's job is to get the audience revved up, using high pressure sales techniques, so that they happily shell out more money to the seminar company. Sceptical questioners get rough treatment.

The best kind of investment seminars put information and education first, welcome questions and give you food for thought without pressure selling.

Save your money and don't sign up for more.

Original Article: Inside an investment seminar - a true story

For more information on investment seminars, please visit ASIC's website.

Readers are encouraged to visit http://fido.asic.gov.au/ for more information on how to protect yourself from dubious financial schemes.