Career Step LLC, an online career training company has been ordered to pay $43.5 million in cash and debt cancellation to resolve FTC charges that the company “lured consumers, specifically servicemembers and their families, with deceptive ads that falsely touted inflated employment outcomes, job placement, and partnerships with prominent companies.”

The company will cancel $27.8 million in debt and pay $15.7 million to provide redress to consumers harmed by its deceptive advertising.

The FTC said that since at least 2019, Career Step has used deceptive advertising on social media and on its website to lure servicemembers to enroll in its programs. The company also has marketed its services through military-focused publications and in events that were sponsored by the military.

The FTC complaint said that while Career Step has claimed that it finds jobs for consumers, that help was limited to assistance with drafting resumes or emailing links to job postings generally available on the internet. The company also has claimed that more than 80% of its graduates are employed in their fields of study. Most consumers never finish their program, the FTC said.

The company also has falsely promised that students would complete their program in four months or less even though the vast majority of Career Step students never complete their programs, according to the FTC.

Career Step also used a deceptive incentivized review program to encourage consumers to leave positive reviews on such sites as the Better Business Bureau and Trustpilot. Students who left reviews received up to three months complimentary extra time on their programs, the FTC said.

The stipulated order, which must be approved by a federal judge before it goes into effect, also prohibits the company from deceptively advertising any educational product or service.

The FTC recently issued a consumer alert promoting July as “Military Consumer Month,” which primarily focused on imposter scams, but also promoted MilitaryConsumer.gov, an interagency website with the Department of Defense and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, that promotes financial readiness for servicemembers. While the CFPB did not hold a servicemember-focused event or announce any military-specific initiatives in July, it recently highlighted an increase in consumer complaints received from the military community in 2023 – up 27% from 2022 and 98% from 2021 – and encouraged servicemembers to submit complaints if they have an issue with a financial product or service.  

[View source.]