Bamboozled by someone who may not exist.

I got bamboozled and wasted $47.

My inner critic says I "should have known better," as it feels embarrassing, but perhaps hearing the story might help someone avoid it. 

I was scrolling through Instagram and saw an ad for a comprehensive guide to gathering people together and creating a soul-level experience. This intrigued me because it's a topic I'm passionate about, and I desire to become masterful in it. The sales page described a psychology-backed method by a female with a doctorate in clinical psychology. There were interesting bonuses and solid testimonial quotes. I figured there are always things to learn.

I clicked. I bought.

What I got was a "course" with no videos, only modules of text. It took me about two minutes to realize the entire thing had been copied directly from ChatGPT. Same emojis, same formatting. They didn't even bother to edit it. The content was generic, lacking depth, and not worth a fraction of the price.

I sat there feeling equal parts foolish and furious.

I can see the mistakes I made now. UGH. That said, researching this afterward showed me I'm relatively lucky. I did receive something, and it was under $50. It could have been much worse.

I also found a refund policy buried in the terms and conditions and sent a request. Twice. I didn't hear back. I will try one more time to find a way to direct message on Instagram, but I'm not holding my breath. I'll then consider reporting it to the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov.

I’m in a popular club, by the way. According to Reuters, which cited leaked Meta documents from late 2024, an estimated 15 billion "high-risk" scam ads run on Instagram and Facebook every single day. Worse: if you click on a scam ad, the algorithm shows you more of them. The FTC reports that 1 in 4 people has lost money to social media fraud, with a whopping $2.7 billion in total losses. It’s more likely to be much bigger, since most fraud goes unreported.

So, besides never buying straight from a social media ad, what can you do? Here's a checklist (ya’ll know I love a checklist) of  what I wish I'd done:

1. Google the creator. Had I done this, I would have found red flags immediately. I'm still not 100% sure this woman is even real.
2. Check their LinkedIn. My "Clinical Psychology Doc" had no LinkedIn presence I could find. Telling.
3. Look at the ad comments. Are they disabled? Sparse? Generic? Click on commenter profiles to check if they're real people. Did the seller respond to any questions? 
4. Check whether the offer appears anywhere besides the ad. Legitimate creators promote across all their channels. Ad-only offers deserve skepticism.
5. Find the refund policy before you buy. Is it clear? Hidden? Nonexistent?
6. Search Trustpilot and Reddit. Real reviews from real people are hard to fake at scale.

Had I done any of these things, I would have noticed some of the red flags.

Now that you have the list, I hope you’ll use it and save yourself some money and angst. If you have any more ideas to add to the list, let me know. 

If you are an entrepreneur like me, this is a reminder that building relationships with your community will remain important. People will need to build some trust with you before they buy.