Beware and Be Smart. In today’s world there are all kinds of people out there and there are people out there who will take your money and run promising you with a hope and dream, but in the end your left with nothing but false promises and scams. Beware of Scams they are everywhere promising you the best of the best; getting you closer to your dreams at least that is what they want you to think. They play on peoples emotions and they are the best at telling you the things you want to hear and your shaking your head yes, yes that’s how I am feeling that’s what I want almost as if they are reading your mind. The thing is this is how they get you to buy into their products or services.
The Belly Dance community is not excluded from this at all. Yes, on top of everything else we have to deal with I deal with countless of emails wanting my service asking if I can perform for a long lost relative or that they are coming to the United States with a niece who wants to take belly dance lessons and they are willing to pay me anything. Sorry, I think I will pass. It gets even better then this though emails of becoming a professional belly dancer in less then 6 months or being bogged with ads on Facebook. There is one that has been appearing like fire over the last couple of days I have seen it before and I have just ignored it in the past, but this time I felt being a teacher and a professional dancer myself it is my job to make others aware of the good, bad and the ugly. I am talking about Mariella Monroe Belly Dancing Course “Learn How To Belly Dance Quickly & Easily From Home!” This course has gone from learn to belly dance from 2 months to 2 weeks…..What you mean I can learn everything I would ever need to know about belly dancing in 2 weeks instead of working hard for 15 years learning what I know and I still do not know everything!! I am going to tell you now You cannot learn everything in this dance form in 2 months, 2 weeks or even a year! Those who are in this business and are honest will never put a number on learning. It takes time, hard work and years of training in this art. It is an ongoing process and I will be the first one to admit that I still do not know it all and that is one thing I really like about this dance form.
Mariella Monroe who is she is the first question I asked myself according to the course she has been dancing professionally for 18 years. I did a search on her and I could find nothing on her except the fact that it pointed me directly back to the course. First red flag. Secondly, there is no contact information such as email or phone number and the fact that it is a product of ClickBank which is a marketing platform for digital information product in which they do not approve or endorse products and or review so anyone at anytime can put content on their platform; Red Flag 2. If you would rather purchase the course by phone you might as well forget it and it specifically states that they have been trading on the internet for years through ClickBank and are a company of trained staff happy to assist you, but still no phone number to contact Red Flag 3 and 4.
They state that 3 different instructors are being used; they use pictures of other dancers and the course states it covers the 5 different styles. There is no where on the site where it states who the teachers are; which I find very strange plus there are tons of pictures being used of other dancers such as Sadie and they are using other stock photos. The videos that are shown are previews I have come across myself on YouTube by the teachers, such as expert village. There is even a discussion on Bhuz about this course and how they are taking videos and photos of other dancers without their permission from YouTube.
Bottom line: Beware before you purchase anything! Internet and technology is great but it is filled with scams and products who do not care about you and are just trying to make money. Research and ask others if you are not sure or something seems too good to be true.