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  • Report:  #606584

Complaint Review: Cram101.com

Cram101.com Scott Parfitt scamming college students, universities, and trying to get $6 million from investors Internet

  • Reported By:
    Joshua — Baton Rouge Louisiana United States of America
  • Submitted:
    Mon, May 24, 2010
  • Updated:
    Tue, May 03, 2016
*Consumer Comment: Yup, you are right! They are a scam!
The site charges $10/month or $70/year and their PoD books run between $20-$40 or so.

Cram101's Main Site:http://cram101.com/home.asp
You can look at any book on the site and cross-reference the Chapter 1 "notes" with Wikipedia. It's clear that some script just pulls keywords and then links the corresponding Wikipedia article. The site is badly coded so I can't give direct links; however, most everything is in the About Us section. Somewhat scary are the press links to Memphis and University of Arkansas newspapers - it seems that the UA bookstore endorsed Cram101 back in 2004.

There are actually videos of Mr. Parfitt describing his product if you go to About Us --> Instructors --> Overview. There is a link that says "Click to see video of founder Dr. Parfitt addressing faculty". Within the first minute or two he says he taught at UND and that he specialized in "human factors".

There are Print-On-Demand versions of all the outlines from the Cram101 site on Amazon. The reviews are sparse, but the reviews I read imply it's just the same Wikipedia text with a bunch of blank paper.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&sort=relevancerank&search-alias=books&field-author=Cram101%20Textbook%20Reviews

You can also find them on Barnes and Noble: http://productsearch.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?ATH=Cram101+Textbook+Reviews.

Investor Slideshow:
http://www.slideshare.net/edinnovatenet/content-technologiesi-4-1210

The slideshow is for "Content Technologies Inc", which is odd because the company on Cram101's site is "Academic Internet Publishers Inc". I don't know if any of the slideshow is legitimate, but I hope not because it claims that CTI has already raised 2.7 million dollars and seeks 3 million or so more. At the end of the show it lists contact info for a Mr. Bishov, Mr. Nelson, and Mr. Pocaterra. Bishov and Nelson's email addresses were on a domain for Capital Insight LLC.

http://www.capitalinsightllc.com/
This site looks pretty legitimate, and if you go to the Accomplishments section, they have apparently been advisors for some major business deals like corporate acquisitions and debt financing.

I wasn't able to find much more on the people in the slideshow, but they all have bios on the Capital Insights site.

One person I couldn't find anything about on is Nick DeFilippis. According to the slideshow he is the director of CTI, and is the Head of Worldwide Marketing for part of IBM. I thought that wasreally interesting, but couldn't confirm it. His LinkedIn page is http://www.linkedin.com/pub/nick-defilippis/1/684/b92, and you'll need an account to see the details. Some of the other guys have LinkedIn pages too.

Mr. Parfitt is in Moorpark, CA according to his Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=770307597). All the Capital Insights LLC people are in Phoenix. And Michael Pocaterra's phone number from the slide is apparently from Santa Monica, CA.

1 Updates & Rebuttals

Ieatsaltytears

Milwaukee,
Wisconsin,
USA

Yup, you are right! They are a scam!

#2Consumer Comment

Tue, May 03, 2016

Those people thinking about trying out their "Online" service, think again! There is a reason so many bad reviews are out there.  Before I knew much about them I had taken a chance and signed up for their online service - which NEVER WORKED. Their website never set my account up correctly (Couldn't get to any member area) and they still charged my card. When I contacted them all I got was a form letter back that had nothing to do with anything I was asking them about. I contacted them MULTIPLE TIMES and they never responded with a real live human or addressed my issue in any way.. they just hapily took my money without providing anything in return.

I ended up filing a charge-back against them and got my money back. They never even responded or questioned the charge back because they KNOW they are liars and thieves.

It's a shame because I was hoping to find a site I could use to help me study for tests. THIS IS NOT THE SITE TO PICK!

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