I believe I was scammed by Chuck Hughes Financial group. Please beware. This is a synopsis of my take on what happened.
I saw an advertisement for their service. It says there is no risk using his method with options. A very strong statement.
I followed up and received a video and a long write up, claiming to have tested his approach with well over 90% success in picking the direction of the underlying stock for the option. He also claims to be a world champion trader (?). It gives a pointer to his website, which does not allow for any information on his trade results but gives a number to call to join his inner circle.
I called and was informed that there were a few places open for $6000 but I would have to sign a contract that said I would not start my own advisory group using Chuck Hughes information. The contract was emailed to me and where I needed to sign was circled with arrows pointing to the signature area. In the fine print it did say I agree to not set up my own advisory group. I signed the contact and faxed it back.
I was sent by email a user name and password to the inner circle web site. The video for new members would not run, but I was able to see what had happened in the last 2 months. It looks to me like 6 losses and one win and 6 losses and 2 wins. The wins did cover all the losses, but it was the same win that was being partially cashed out in each month. It did not look like what was advertized to me. I called and left a message saying I wanted my money back since it was not as advertized. A few days later I got an email telling me to sell an option and buy it for a new month. Since I did not have anything to sell , it was not much use for me. So I called them and asked to get my money back again. It was now that they pointed out I had signed a contract that said I could not get my money back for 12 months. That statement was under the circle and arrows directing where to sign, And then only if there virtual account did not double in the 12 months. Even if it did not double , I suspect that they would extend my membership for another 12 months and take that as having given my money back. It was at this point that I realized I had been scammed. A really stupid mistake on my part.
Time to get a lawyer.
The first thing the lawyer did was search the net for Chuck Hughes scam and found numerous people with the same complaint as I had. His suggestions were to try to get Visa to reverse the charges (that would take 2 months and was not successful ) and go to the Attorney General Consumer Protection Division. I chose to try to get Visa to reverse the charges first. But during that time I started to call them and leave the message that I wanted my money back. After a month of being called stupid and being threatened with police action they said to send them some documentation that was not correct and they would refund my money. I had the lawyer send document 1.
Which is obviously incorrect. After a week I called and they told me how stupid I was and that I did not understand anything. So I kept calling for a refund. Sometimes having to use others phones, when they blocked me. . I knew I was getting to them when they started calling and filling my answering machine and dialing and not saying anything and when I would hang up they would call again. I just disconnected the phone until they gave up and then would again start reminding them I wanted my money back. They called the lawyer and said they would give me back some ¾ of the 6k, which I refused and the next day they said they would give back the $6k , which they did by reversing the Visa charge. I canceled that credit card and got another one. During this 2 months they tried 5 times (5 different persons) to get me to switch to another options group. Not quite sure why. The purported results were to good to be true and I do not understand how they would think I would trust anything they proposed. They each started there pitch with how I may not be doing well with the Chuck Hughes group but they had a great system for me to try.
I plan to go on Facebook and warn people with this as a reference as well as contacting the Attorney General Consumer Protection Division and offer to pay for financial and criminal investigators of their choice, if the Attorney General Consumer Protection will try to help.
Again be very cautious if you interface with Chuck Hughes Financial group.