If my husband and I took courses through a home study program and now found out it is a scam, how do we get out of paying?
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If my husband and I took courses through a home study program and now found out it is a scam, how do we get out of paying?
Our courses cost about $600 each and upon doing research I have found that this school is not accredited and most businesses will not except any of the training received from this institute. I also found many customers got scammed out of their money, never received their books, and the address of the company keeps changing. They may have some outstanding lawsuit against them already.
Asked on December 26, 2011 under Bankruptcy Law, New York
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 12 years ago | Contributor
You could likely terminate the contract/agreement and avoid paying if:
1) They deliberately represented, or stated/promised, in their marketing/adverstising materials that they were accredited, knowing that they are not--that misrepresentation would then be fraud, which could provide grounds to void the contract.
2) Similarly, if the agreement or terms of service states that they are accedited but they are not, that would be a breach of contract and would allow termination.
3) Or if they breached their contract in some other material, or important way, such as by not providing course materials, that might provide grounds to terminate.
Note however that there must be fraud or breach of contract directed at YOU--it doesn't matter what has been done to other people or if anyone else is suing them.
Also, if they never claimed to be accredited, then the fact that they are not does not matter--it may be that you should have checked this out before signing up, but if they never made any false claims, or promises which they did not keep, in regard to accredidation, they did nothing wrong and there are no grounds in relation to it for getting out of your obligation to pay.
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