The story of $1,000 trade in credit tool “Textbook Money” (aka “Book Arbitrage” aka “Book Profits”) gets even worse
Since speaking out about Textbook Money earlier this year, I have been deluged with emails from their former members. They describe being “scammed,” “cheated,” and “robbed,” and the creators of Textbook Money as “snakes,” “crooks,” and “unethical.”
Let’s do an update on Textbook Money, the enemies they’ve made, and their crumbling facade…
In this article:
- Brief recap of Textbook Money scandal.
- Textbook Money purges dissenters.
- Ex-TBM members report Textbook Money to state and federal authorities.
- New Facebook group for ex-Textbook Money members.
- Textbook Money using testimonials without permission?
- Textbook Money changes name to “Book Trades.biz” & “Book Arbitrage”
- Screenshots of over 50 ex-Textbook Money sharing their experiences.
Before we get into the latest drama…
You can see our original Book Arbitrage tool (the tool that Textbook Money copied) here:
10x better tools & training at less than 1/10 the price of “Textbook Money.”
If you’re new to this story…
Here’s the recap of this epic saga, from earlier this year:
- In 2016, the $1,000 + $97/mo “Textbook Money” trade-in credit mining tool gets released, along with a clone of my tool, Zen Arbitrage.
- Around this time, strange hack bots are detected infiltrating Zen Arbitrage.
- We feed them mountains of inaccurate, garbage data.
- We exposed the culprits as having the same IP address as Textbook Money, stealing our data.
- We prank them by feeding them mountains of garbage data on finding an FTC lawyer, how to not be terrible at hacking, etc.
- We publicly exposed them.
(It’s hard to do the magnitude of this story justice in bullet points, so if you want all the drama, read the full story or watch the videos at the end of this post)
Since then, I’ve received over 100 emails from angry ex-Textbook Money members
No surprise, when I went public with this story. I received tons of emails from ex-Textbook Money members, speaking out about their negative experiences.
Hearing about people in the Amazon seller space getting conned hits close to home. When I was just getting started I spent money I didn’t have on a couple of ebooks that were absolutely terrible. So bad, I doubt the authors even sold on Amazon. The $47 I spent on those ebooks still stings. I can’t imagine getting conned out of $1,000.
Update: Textbook Money changes name to “Book Trades.biz”
As this goes to print, word is out that Textbook Money has changed its name. Presumably to hide from the bad publicity, Textbook Money has rebranded as “”Book Trades.biz“, “Book Arbitrage,” and “Book Profits.”
Same cast of characters (Lambo Luke / Luke Sample). Same affiliates promoting. Same everything. New names.
Opinion: No Amazon trade-in credit tool is worth $1,000
As you read what follows, keep in mind one thing: It’s not that mining the internet for trade-in credit arbitrage opportunity does not work. It’s that I don’t believe any tool that helps you find it is worth $1,000 and $97 a month.
I’ve looked at the opportunity closely over the last year. Through the data we collect at Zen Arbitrage, I know (some of) the numbers. There’s money there, but I think $1,000 is a shameless rip off.
And you don’t have to take my word for it, let the users speak for themselves…
I’m dividing these up into five categories:
- Poor, elderly, and handicapped ex-Textbook Money members speak out.
- Textbook Money kicking out anyone who speaks out.
- Ex-Textbook Money members report them to state and federal agencies.
- One person claiming their name is being used in a testimonial without permission.
- 50+ additional email & text message screenshots.
Disclaimer: At no point did I seek out negative feedback about Textbook Money, or put out a call soliciting experiences from people who felt scammed or wronged by Textbook Money. Every one of these emails came to me unsolicited.
The screenshots in this article came to me via three different email addresses, one website contact form, and via text message.
Reports: Textbook Money Exploiting Handicapped, Elderly, More
I’m starting with the most disturbing of the emails I received. I’ll let these speak for themselves. The first email is extremely disturbing, from a single mother in Poland who lost half a year’s wages to Textbook Money:
“They treated me so horribly.”
“I’m complained and complained and eventually the suspended my account and kicked me out.”
“Insisted all customers get on board with Book Arbitrage even if they didn’t want to. They would shame opt-outs during the live session.”
“My son is 80% severely disabled and I’m since 9 years too [sic] and can’t work anymore after a car driving over me [sic]. We have $700 per month to live and I take all my saved money to get back to work.”
“Many of them shared their stories and how devastating the whole thing was. Several went many thousands in debt.”
“We had no idea what we were doing and trusted them.”
Reports: Textbook Money purging members who speak out
When people began to realize they did not receive what they paid for, they began to speak out. According to these emails (and others further down), Textbook Money responded by banishing the dissenters.
Reports: Ex-members going to the authorities
I can’t confirm if these complains were ever filed or what the results were, but here several ex-TBM users report going to the authorities over their experiences with Textbook Money.
“My next step is to report them to the BB and the FTC.”
“We went back and forth for months.I had the money held up at AmEx but Textbook Money called AmEx and eventually got them to release the money.”
“I am going through the State of Florida to get them.”
Report: Textbook Money using testimonials without permission?
This one is weird. To give this context: It was sent to me by someone who said he was considering joining Textbook Money, and tracked down people on Facebook whose names were being used as success stories in Textbook Money promotional material.
After reaching out to one woman being used in a testimonial, she sent him the following response:
Email screenshots from over 50 ex-members of Textbook Money
Here is the rest: A non-stop barrage of former Textbook Money members speaking out.
You’ll see many recurring themes here: Refusal to give refunds, TBM selling bogus “lists” of profitable books, constant upsells that were not worth the exorbitant costs, and general contempt for the both the creators of Textbook Money and the affiliates who promoted it.
“Will you allow refund if I’m not happy? Textbook Money doesn’t allow that.”
“They’re so arrogant. You can realize that from their webinars. Just by looking at their faces.”
“Sent tons of messages but no one responds.”
“I am with you to take them down.”
“Most of the info was vague at best.”
“I felt like I was stumbling around in the dark half the time.”
“I started to feel intuitively that much of what we were being told could not really be trusted.”
“Survivor of Textbook Money.”
“What a rip off.”
“He teams up with other marketers and does some really terrible things.”
“Scammed out of $500. I am keeping a file on him.”
“I think he should be in jail.”
They are truly scum and bottom feeders.”
“They would not allow the chat box to be seen by anyone but them… I now believe it was because they did not want anyone to see how many unhappy customers they had.”
“I am hoping someone starts a class action lawsuit. I would love to be a part of that.”
“I should have trusted my gut when I saw the recorded webinar with him standing in front of the Lamborghini….”
It’s enough to make you believe in Karma.”
Deep breath, that was a lot to process. I can say 100% that in my years selling on Amazon, I’ve never seen anything like this.
Now, some good news:
Speaking of Karma, it’s about to come back on them even harder.
One year ago, I had no interest in getting into the trade-in game. My business is in selling books for cash, and teaching others how to do the same.
But after the insane amount drama around Textbook Money, I decided a response was in order.
Remember: It’s not that trade-in credit arbitrage is inherently ineffective. It’s just not worth $1,000 and $97 a month.
So here’s the announcement…
How Textbook Money inspired us to duplicate their software and sell it for 1/20 the price
(Update: Our new trade-in tool is live. It’s called ZenTrade. See everything here.)
We have just released an add-on tool for Zen Arbtirage call ZenTrade: A trade in credit mining tool that blows Textbook Money away…. for a fraction of the price.
- Better than Textbook Money – more features, more data, real support from real booksellers.
- Priced to reflect what it is actually worth (not what we can scam you out of.)
Zen Arbitrage is still the main tool, but you can add Zen Trade for only $28 extra by clicking the “Start Trial” link here:
Get Zen Arbitrage + Zen Trade together
Let this be a poetic conclusion to a bizarre and unfortunate story.
-Peter Valley
PS: Have an experience with Luke Sample & Textbook Money aka Book Trades aka Book Arbitrage? Jump in the comments below.
PPS: If you’re in a Facebook group or other online forum where Textbook Money is promoted, consider sharing this article there.
PPPS: Over the next week (leading up to the launch of ZenTrade) I’ll be posting rapid-fire articles on a bunch of cool tricks related to Amazon trade-in credit. Among them:
- How To Use Trade In Credit Arbitrage To Get Quick Cash (and forget trade-in credit altogether)
- How To Profit Off Trade In Price Fluctuations: Exactly when trade in prices are highest, and lowest (I poured over the data, and I’ll give you the exclusive).
- How To Turn Trade Credit Into Cash: I’ll give a simple formula for Turning $100 in Amazon trade in credit into $500 (or $1,000). I know this sounds ridiculous, but I will deliver.
PPPPS: If you’re new to the Textbook Money story, you can watch the videos below or read the full article here.
![](<iframe src="//rcm-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/cm?o=1&p=42&l=ur1&category=amazonhomepage&f=ifr&linkID=581ff15955029b80d81e053ef046aa1e&t=fbamastery-20&tracking_id=fbamastery-20" width="234" height="60" scrolling="no" border="0" marginwidth="0" style="border:none;" frameborder="0"></iframe>)
Recipe: 1 part 60 Minutes investigative reporting, 1 part Amazon FBA, a dash of Wikileaks and a sprinkle of Satan. This story deserves an award. Presented to you by Bob W., of course.. When is the sequel where Caleb tried to knock off your software and you turned around and made yours even better, 10-fold? Well done, Peter.
Just wait. The “Copycat Caleb Roth” expose may not be far off…
Those poor people!
And wtf is “Keyword Rockstars”?
I believe that’s the name of their company.
Doesn’t seem to match what they sell (and super corny, besides!) I haven’t seen their sales pitch, maybe keywords figure into their scheme somehow, but I wonder if it’s left over from a previous business attempt?
One of the guys calls himself “Luke Lambo” and has soul patch facial hair despite it being the year 2017, so I don’t think “corny” is a concern of theirs.
Hi Peter
I too was daft enough to buy TM – more fool me!
Fortunatley I pursued a charge back refund via VISA and got a full refund within a couple of months so there is light at the end of the tunnel for those who feel they have lost the course fee.
Lisa, UK
Yes, I, too was daft enough to fall for the scheme of Luke. I paid $997 plus 6 months fees. Didn’t take long to figure out something was terribly wrong. I used PayPal as my payment venue. They only took a few days to refund my full $1597.00! Apparently, PayPal has heard from others about the TEXTBOOK MONEY scam,too. If you are trying to get a TM refund and you used PayPal, I don’t think you will have any problem getting a refund.
Hello FBA fans
I think the affiliates who promoted TBM are just as guilty. I am talking about reputable marketing gurus who never vetted TBM before promoting them. I fell for their hype in Oct. 2016, Typical charge for TBM course $997 + $97/mo. Standard online digital course video, Chrome plug in & weekly call in. I was using their system to locate books & didn’t get great deals on books. About $5 to $10 per book for Amazon flip. Long story short I got duped into joining their coaching program which was nothing more than new private Facebook group & videos from their best students. At the time the Book Arbitrage was in beta stage and they were promoting it for an additional $597. I quit around January 2017 when I found’s Peters website. Instead of giving TBM & coaching separate login access. They were all in the same account. I wanted to cancel the $97/mo & keep the coaching support access. Nope. They lock me out of everything. In December 2016 their famous ZA hack was offered as a “gift” to students. They duped people into paying $2K for list of books that they jack from ZA
PS For the curious Keyword Rockstars was some dumb push-button software Luke Lambo was pushing for people doing PPC campaigns (basically a keyword generator). $397 & $97/mo(see a pattern here?)
Wow man, this is fascinating insight. Thanks a lot for sharing this insider perspective.
I have a list of their affiliates and honestly I just fell asleep before I could add it to the article, but I’ll probably do that at a later date.
To add insult injury
I actually had login access to BA but they never told me or send me a login link until I requested access to BA private Facebook group. The admin person told me I never log on at all during the subscription period. My reply “You guys never send log in information! Duh!” Mr. admin than told me I cant login unless I pay for additional subscription fees. Thanks alot for nickel & dime-ing me & pocketing subscription fees that you didnt earn
I was about to fall for that too. But since it required such a huge investment, I had to turn to my mom (blush) to convince her to invest in that or lend me the money, and wise her (thank God for wise moms!), she told me, mmm, why don’t you research a little bit before, and that’s when I found you. Thank you Peter Valley, I’m enjoying your courses very much, it is definitely worth the money. The fake guys, their pitch is actually very good; I don’t consider myself someone to fall for anything that easily. I have already done my share of buying worthless training, but I was about to fall blindly for that. Lesson: Always research before you buy any training!
Hey Peter,
You know I’ve had my own scrapes with TBM, but life goes on, and finally here comes Karma! in the form of Zen Trade:)
I, too, bought into the TM program. I knew after the 3rd day of attempting to do research with their tools, that this program was not what I thought it should be. To even qualify for a refund you must follow their ridiculous requirements: you must wait 60 days, purchase 14 books each week during the 60 days, 14 books must be sent to Amazon FBA, you must perform 2 searches per day with a specific time period between searches, and document each search in a spreadsheet. But in the meantime, you are charged $197/month (not $97) for a program that isn’t working! Especially if it’s between seasonal periods. Luckily, I signed up with their multi-payment plan, so I’m only out $297 instead of $997!
Hi – I agree that the affiliates are def complicit. I seem to think I was targeted via Warrior plus affiliates? If so, they have a lot to answer for, and should be named and shamed.
Lisa, UK
Anyone been able to get their money back? They would not even send that purchase agreement to me. I have opened a dispute with my bank to try and get my money back because I just don’t want to do business with people who operate an unethical business.
I wonder if it would make a difference to join together and complain about these guys to the FTC. I have made a complaint in the past for a similar issue and won.
I agree that the affiliates are also to blame. I wrote to the affiliates who held a webinar on this with the information that I found. I respected these marketers for a dozen years but after no response from them, I now question their integrity and won’t be buying anything else that they sell or recommend in the future.
If anyone wants the Terms of Purchase that were outlined in TextbookMoney or BookArbitrage by these cronies Luke and Jon, I have a saved copy of the info directly from the sales purchase page of the respective sites.
Oy, still at it. Some Ricky Matata idiot is now promoting the fast talking Lambo Luke webinar as booktrades.biz – saw his ad on Facebook and thought, was it…? Yep.
David, I fell for their pitch on Thursday, gave first payment of 4. Can I please get a copy of the terms, I need to stop this now!
Hello, I was clearing out my spam folder today. Lo and behold its a video salesletter from Luke & Jon with subject heading “Come Back”. Basically sign in for $197/mo, $997/year or $4,995 one time coaching fee. its Sept 2018 and they are still at it
https://approved.clickfunnels.com/btb-replay-rds22747204
Anyone remember the scene in Frankenstein movie where the angry villagers march on Castle Frankenstein? Is there one where ex-TM customers march on Castle Lambo? LoL
CPV Rockstar is a former Program from these guys i also invested almost 3 years ago. Hummm…
Oct 30, 2018 — They are still at it!! I received a webinar invite and don’t know where it came from but the email in the invite said “franklin m hartman” – I don’t even know who that is. I thought it was some other webinar I signed up for but this one said the name of the webinar was changed and didn’t say to what. It had an email subject heading of Online Profit Methods. So I clicked on the webinar since it was live and I see none other than Lambo Luke talking about Amazon Trade-In stuff. Guys to stay far away from: Jon Shugart, Luke “Lambo Luke” Sample, Ricky Mataka, Jason Fladlien, Dax Aurand, and now whoever this Franklin M Hartman is.
Con artists Luke (Lambo) Sample and Jon (Little) Shugart course relies HEAVILY on trading in books that are marked as defective, with torn pages, covers, water stains, bad bindings, etc. All, and I mean ALL books that the Chrome extension finds for you are defective. As you can imagine, these are significantly lower than the Amazon Trade In value. Luke (the creator of the course) fails to mention this on the webinar video…..for obvious reasons.
Luke also states that you should “disregard” the Amazon book description conditions and trust him that the descriptions are “wrong”, even though it’s there, posted plain in black and white on Amazon. Let me think…..trust Amazon or shady ass Luke Lambo. That’s a tough one. 😉 Anyways, as you can imagine, this bit of information can be quite problematic.
Most of the books you receive will not be accepted into the Amazon Trade In as they have to be in near mint condition to be accepted. There “might” be a few that get accepted, but not worth the effort you put into it as the returns you’ll have to file for the original book seller will be vast!
You also get paid in Amazon gift card credits, which can be redeemed if you purchase other “tangible gift cards” like Walmart, CVS, and your local grocery store gift cards. An alternative is to purchase an item from Amazon and then resell on your own Amazon FBA account. Again, this there are a lot of hoops to jump through in order to get paid cash here.
There are a ton of other issues that arise with the troublesome method that simply do not warrant merit. The idea of this arbitrage method is certainly unique, but not valid in any way once you take a closer look at it. This will cause most to rack up an endless amount of returns for little to no ROI.
I´m wondering how you handle this issues with ZenTrade and your trainings.
I recently bought their booktrades product. As mentioned by others, it is a complete rip off and they overcharge for the product. I’ll contact the FTC and also my bank to dispute the charges as they did not deliver what was promised during the webinar.
Hello sad to hear so many hear has been taken by their misleading webinar. Its December 2018 they completely rename their system from textbook money to book trade(s) whatever, Just be warned its the SoS. Get the word out that there are cheaper ways to profit from textbooks than paying $997 plus $197 per month
They are awful people, no consideration for anybody or anything! Tremendous greed is driving these two guys. I have purchased this course a year ago for $497 and $97/mo. Just last week I stumbled up on this webinar not even knowing it was the same one. It was promoted, of all people (I”m shocked) by Less Brown.
Smooth talking Luke has a price for this course now $997 and $197/mo, claiming that others paid $2.997!!!
In my case, I had difficulties installing his software into my browser and after I finally got it working I checked
to see HOW does it work but: I HAVE NEVER made a purchase, never again used it. Since it looked like
I need to spend lots of time searching for those textbooks (working full time plus other time consuming responsibilities) I quickly asked for a refund. It was even before one month was up but – they refused!
I asked and pleated with then that I am not able to use it but the answer was still: NO!!!
We all, who purchased this course and can’t use it, should send complaints to FTC. ALL of us!
Lets get together and do it! They need to refund our monies!
I received a webinar invite from Greig Wells. $977 plus $197 per month for use of the software. Glad I did my research!
Guys they are at it again. Pitching a 8 week group coaching program for $1,997. If you get in your spam folder make sure you delete it.
It’s helpful to see dates on these posts so we know how current the scam is. So it’s now July of 2019 and I’ll be a monkey’s uncle, they are still at it. Good ol Luke and Jon. Thanks to a quick search while on hold after a webinar, with my credit card in my hand… Holy Mother of God. I desperately searched to validate my sheer terror of running into yet another scam, and came across this site. THANK YOU PETER, it literally SAVED ME from even more debt for all my stupid hope in all these pipe dreams that keep getting me into failure. I’m a struggling single mom (thanks to another scam artist that was my husband) and probably would’ve wanted to just die if I sank into this much more debt because of my own hopefulness. I wanted it to be my new job SO badly! I just want simple honest work at home to make enough to thrive a little bit! I don’t even care about riches! To say I’m disappointed would be an understatement, but I am thanking Peter Valley and his people for this incredible information. I’m loving the way karma appears to be handling this. If only a similar justice could be brought to that other scammer I gave $3500 to, I might sleep better. With ZA, I still have a little hope that something like this could make a living..? I need a day or two to recover from “what I almost did” that would have sent me and my kid reeling into a massive victimhood lifestyle, and even worse, proven my lying cheating ex right… All this is like some kind of “mini PTSD”… I swear to God I am so sick of EVERYTHING being a freakin scam, and sick of being a sucker so full of hope. I believe there is an after life, and there’s no getting around owning yourself and all the SH#t you’ve done eventually. If HELL is a state of existence, it will certainly get busier as these a-holes die off one day. Ok… I’m gonna just go and focus on gratitude that this site halted more darkness for me.
Luke Sample and Jon Shugart have one program after another that are either unethical, or scams. They’ve been doing this for years. They got me several years ago with Cobra Mailer. Luke is still promoting this but now via the umbrella of Clickbank, which is unfortunate that they would allow it. Latest webinar just happened today 7/26/19 Buyer Beware!! It is now called: Book Profits Program for $997
25th July 2019 – Book Profits webinar attended by me after an invite from Clickbank! I thought they tested their products and background of the promoters a bit better than this! The problem seems to be the state of the books submitted and therefore rejects to process back to where you bought them. No mention of this in the webinar. As well as all the shennanigans with hacking and copying. Afraid I haven’t read all the content above.
I was about to borrow money from my sister for this when my credit rating is naff because of other scams and thefts. Wasted a lot of time on this, but thankfully to you guys, no money.
Thanks for the heads up on these scammers if it sounds too good to be true it probably is! I got very suspicious of their presentation when they kept mentioning people making 6 figure incomes, reminded me of some MLM companies where .1% make that.
So it is 08/31/2019 and these scammers are still at it! THANK GOD I was not harmed because I did some online research after the webinar which came to me through a YouTube Channel that I was subscribed to. The Channel’s name is “Jake Ducey” and Jake is this young dude on Hawaii preaching Law of Attraction stuff and money mantras (haha!). I started receiving emails with spiritual content, him advertising/selling his hypnosis stuff and so on, which I consider totally cool as that’s what his channel is about and people wrote great reviews of the programs they received and purchased from him.
And one day – BAMM – I received an email from him advertising this fantastic side hustle that can make you up to 10k a month. I signed up for the webinar, watched Luke and listened to him waffling away and became curious but at the same time very suspicious after looking at the promises & costs, reading the terms mentioning “Rockstar Inc”…. I researched more and found rip off reports for Rockstar Inc, Textboox Money, the individuals involved, discovered this site and much more realizing their whole scam…. Reported this cooperation with Jake Ducey Enterprises (he has almost 480k YouTube followers!!!!!!!) to Peter. Trying to figure out if Jake is aware of whom he is dealing with and part of the whole scam or if he is a victim also cutting a marketing deal with them emailing his subscribers not really knowing what he is endorsing – his customer support people keep emailing me that they would never get involved in unethical practices that could harm clients etc. – and also trying to find ways to stop these scammers from screwing more innocent people. It pisses me off imagining single mums, elderly people, ill people needing more income, desperate people struggling financially being screwed by such disgusting specimen of humanity taking advantage of their victims and showing off living the good life! PEOPLE BE AWARE! DO NOT FALL FOR THIS CRAP!!! WHEN IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE IT SURELY IS!!!! Double Money Back Guarantee!?? LMAO.
9/16/2019
I was super shocked when I found this post. I felt stupid for trying to build a business off of a scam. Thank you for the information, and I was able to promptly contact ClickBank and confirmed a refund for the money I spent. Canceled the card I put on file, and shouldn’t be having payments made out to these a-holes anymore. I still dont understand why ClickBank would even promote them! That how i received an invite, via ClickBank.. Definitely learned my life lesson, “Always do your research”, “Will save you in the long run to question everything in the beginning and even along the way”. Ugh, I will never forget this! AGAIN, THANK YOU!
I ended up watching a video that came up in my feed and it sounded amazing. I was so excited and ended up setting up an on-line consultation yesterday and at the end they wanted to charge $3,500 for the first year and then $197 a month for the software after that. I realized they had not promoted their business name anywhere. I started researching and don’t see their names anywhere until I came across this site. I’m so glad I did my research and did not get scammed. $3,500 is a LOT OF MONEY to be scammed out of. Beware of these people!
I’m thankful I found this. Possibly stopped me from waisting precious time and money. I came across a video from a group called entrepreneur today. I was skeptical because neither the name of their business, or the website they have you go through was mentioned anywhere in the hour and a half long video. So after going to schedule-a-call.com and scrolling way past tons of stuff all the way to the bottom in super fine print almost not visible is their link to terms and conditions where rockstar inc is listed once and referred to as booktrades thereafter. It seemed kinda sketchy. As well as their conformation email. So I had to dig and glad I did.
Peter, thankfully I found you. I don’t know how old this expose is, but Lambo Luke is still going (scamming?) Strong as we are about to head into 2020. He’s promoting his biz through a few different FB pages which come across my timeline with testimonial videos quite often. Funny, he never mentions the name of his company in his webinar, presumably until you opt in through a website called schedule a call. So glad I found you before I fell for that crap. Besides, who else can’t stop staring at his perfectly sculpted eyebrows?
5 Jan 2020, I say a video upload to youtube which is webinar long teaches how to make 10k per month doing simple business and I sat the whole video and I got hype for it but I went to click the website and I was brought to Booktrades.biz, and the price is so expensive so I decide to do mu due diligence of researching before jumping. And here I am, So lucky that I found this, if not I will have dump $1497 and cannot get it back. Plus I realized they created multiples site selling this product. Very scammy if you ask me.
I have to admit that I fell for this slick sounding Luke Sample and I popped down $3500 for a year on Book Arbitrage. I don’t regret getting into the book selling business for I do like it and am making some pretty good money at it but Luke Sample is a real bad guy. I posted a somewhat negative comment about them on their Facebook Group page about giving a “Christmas gift” to their members of a discount on more software and mentor coaching. Being new in the business I was a bit deflated because I thought for the $3500 I was going to get everything I needed to become a success but when they wanted anther $5500 for more training and software I kind of lost it. On their Facebook group I said something about that and he jumped all over me and even blocked me from posting anything on the group for seven days. He has also sent me DMs cussing me out but of course that little coward won’t call me to say that to me personally no he posts his crude comments them turns off his Messenger. Well today someone else posted a somewhat negative comment about the same thing and of course I gave my two cents and now they kicked out of the group all together. I am now doing whatever I can to warn people to stay from Luke Sample and Book Arbitrage. With all of that said I do enjoy the book business and will keep buying and selling textbooks just not with Luke Sample who is a con man and real piece of $#!(* in my opinion.
2 Jan 2020,
I found a video on this webinar on YouTube and thought it is interesting but when I get to the order page. It was $1497 and I decide to do some research before purchasing and stumble upon this. Thank you for doing this review.
I also receive email from a “guru” in the IM industry on this as well and I realized that the webinar is basically a recording about 99.9% of the time. I wonder why would the person promote a spam to their follower just for money?
Even though the product is a scam. I wonder if the concept and methods, he talk about really work and work as well as he say it will?
Thank you! I got the invite to the webinar, and something seemed odd. I went to send them an email using the email address they included in the invitation AND replay email, and guess what? Email comes back with Address not found
I also clicked on reply to the email and got the same message.
Thank goodness I was thinking something was off, and tried to contact them. And thank you for all this information!
Wow, I am glad I came across this site almost by accident. I was trying to find a way into this believing it to be genuine.
How are they allowed to get away with this with well known affilaite marketers promoting it as well?
August 29, 2020
I recently received an email (newsletter) from a pretty well respected investor promoting this book trading business. I watched the webinar and I felt pretty convinced this was legit. Booktrades Biz is what they were calling it. It was “sleazy soul patch Lambo Luke” in the webinar trying to sell the subscription for $1497 (which they claim is like half of the regular price) with a recurring $197/mo. after that. I’m so glad I did a little bit of research before slapping that on a credit card. Such scammers should be publicly shamed. Thank you for all the valuable information!
Hey Steve,
I was recommended the same webinar by Max Wright of Success Counsel and apparently this special discount price of $1,497 was supposed to end a midnight (talk about psychological pressure). I thought Max was respectable as well or at least wise enough to do a simple google search before promoting this shameful company, thus risking his reputation. Perhaps he is being paid a pretty penny to promote and mislead? Otherwise it’s just plain negligence and I can’t continue to do business with him. I’m very happy to have found this article and the YouTube video…My intuition told me something wasn’t right!
I was also recommended it by Max Wright of Success Council! In several nagging emails, making it look like it’s something new, and that the doors are closing, because it’s too popular. He even talks for a few minutes in the introduction at the start of the webinar! While I’ve found the webinar interesting, several alarm bells rang, so I went straight to Google. And voila, so much info on the first page of results! How can any self-respecting individual or business promote this scam? Either terrible negligence, or getting paid a lot – but surely no amount of money should be worth destroying their reputation?…
Has anyone successfully gotten a refund? I wanted a refund after two days of “training” and they said by law they couldn’t just refund my money.
November 2, 2020 – I was sent a link to the webinar last night and watched. I joined a discovery call and was told it was $3500 and then 197 a month after the first year. I can’t believe they keep increasing the cost of it. I am so glad this site fell in my lap. I was thinking it was so much to join right away and I should check to see if there were any complaints. I am sure because they keep changing their name and are so mysterious about the website until you join the call people get so excited and join. Thank you soooo much for this information you saved me from another con artist! They should be in jail stealing people’s money and having mentors lure people in.
04/30/2021
Signed up for and attended the webinar this morning. I acted excited during the Q&A period. But, too many red flags left me thinking. Testimonials from people who talked about having children, and living paycheck to paycheck. ” I Didn’t know how I was going to pay the rent or feed my family, so I gave 5000.00 to join this group (that I’ve never met before) to sign up for a sunshiny future! REALLY?!? You’re starving and can’t pay your bills, but you’ve got 5 grand laying around to gamble on the unknown?
I’m calling bullshit on this one! Better odds buying a powerball ticket!
2nd red flag… We’re going to give you a 50% discount, saving you 3500.00, and for an additional 1500.00 for 8 opportunities to speak one on one with our successful people. That’s a total of 5000.00 dollars, right? All this by midnight! Again, your starving, but you are suddenly resourceful enough to come up with 5k by midnight… Right. Another red flag- no web presence. No “About Us, no site map, no investor relations link, no address. Just a page to pay for a membership. NOPE! I emailed them back and explained all this to them. Told them ” Sorry, but no cigar”😎
Ugh. I signed up for Book Arbitrage recently and did not know they scammed ZA. I want nothing to do with them now, even if the business can be successful. Has anyone managed to have their credit card co. reverse the charges? I highly doubt I’ll be able to meet all the niggly terms of the cancelation requirements.
Thank you!
Were you able to get your $ back from your credit card, Jody? I’m out $3500. Do not want to be associated with scammers!
Thanks 🙂
Thanks to all who gave their feedback. I contacted my credit card company to dispute the $1,580 charge for their training. They refused to release the software and were trying to charge me for it at the same time!
Also, incidentally my credit card was compromised after I made the initial charge to Booktrades.
I avoided a bullet on this one for sure.
yes agree