College Power SCAM: Insider Info

You have probably been hearing something about this new platform, and are here to check out if the College Power scam is real or not.

This is the right thing to do, especially with the amount of scams going around on the internet these days. You really can’t be too careful.

Seemingly harmless stuff can find their way into your wallet your purse easily, if the intention is there.

College Power Review

College Power is still in the beta testing stage, so I believe it hasn’t been easy to find any real user feedback on it yet.

But I have been privy to some information that I’m sure you would be interested in, that the owners of College Power are not quite ready to disclose to anyone.


So sit tight as I present my findings in this honest, unbiased and in-depth College Power review.


College Power Review Summary

Product: College Power

URL: http://join.collegepower.com/

Creators: Michael Pousti and Brandie Williams

Product type: social platform for college students

Price: free to join

Scam / Legit? : Highly suspicious at this stage, but I can’t confirm it’s a scam until it is rolled out officially.

Recommended or not? : Not recommended

College Power seems like an innocent social platform that also allows college students to make some money through their interactions on it. But I have reason to believe it is connected to Empowr, which is a scam that has gone by various names, including FanBox.

Even though I can’t confirm this new platform is a scam, until it is launched in August 2019, it has an uncanny resemblance to Empowr, so my advice to you is to steer clear of it.




What is College Power

College Power promotes itself with a tagline that sounds noble, “save the world, get paid on your schedule, use your power”.

Though I can’t really make any sense of it, in relation to what the platform does.

There’s more: “College students shouldn’t trade their time for pointless or boring jobs”.

What? Does it mean that College Power is able to earn them a full-time income when they start using it? Something that can replace a job?

There are 10 ways to get paid, so that you can supposedly have the time and resources for truly meaningful experiences:

college power meaningful experiences


Sounds like financial freedom? Just through this social platform?

This platform can significantly reduce global warming and inequality. In the video, they explain how by sharing stuff that you do not need, you can reduce resources used, and reduce poverty.

college power global warming


It turns out to be just a marketplace that they have on the platform.

It is no different (but yet different in some ways which I will explain later) from the marketplace you have on certain FaceBook groups, or eBay, Amazon, and the likes.

And yet they can make it sound so noble.

Another plot to target at the feelings of righteousness of college students:

college power no profit


If they do not earn from investors, from advertising companies, or by selling your data, how are they going to sustain the business of running this platform? They are not a non-profit or charity organisation. Everything has to make economic sense.

This is a huge red flag, waving at us, telling us to probe deep into where all their funding and profits are going to come from.

The plot continues, targeting at the calling of college students to make a difference in the world.

college power inequality
college power hero
college power solve problems


But frankly, when you take a look at the platform, it is for social interaction, very much like FaceBook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. and nothing to do with saving the world at all.

I hope this brings you to the awareness that there may be some sort of misleading representation and propaganda involved.

Now, I want to show you why I am highly suspicious of this new platform.

College Power is connected to FanBox and Empowr

I’m not sure whether you will still get to see these when you try to access the platform, but I stumbled upon it as I believe it is still in the construction phase, and somehow some of the links or those pages have not been done up properly yet.

Anyway the proof is here. This page is where I landed via one of the links on College Power’s landing page, when it was supposed to bring me to more details about College Power.

Right below on the left, you see “FanBox”.

college power connected to fanbox


That was one of the names the scam by the very same owners took on, before it morphed into the current Empowr.

Look at this other screenshot:

college power connected to empowr


This shows an obvious connection between College Power and Empowr, which does not bode well.

Reading the FAQ section of College Power, there is an uncanny resemblance to how Empowr is run.

Lots of red flags in there that I will go through right now, and lots of unspoken stuff that you probably won’t think too much about, that I am going to highlight to you their explicit meaning.

How does Empowr work

Let me very briefly explain how Empowr works. Yes, I want to show you Empowr, so that you can see for yourself how similar it is to College Power.

It is said to be a social economy. So it runs like how the popular social media platforms run: post content, and others may “Like” it. The twist here: there is monetary value placed on your social interactions.

When you post content, you supposedly get paid based on the number of likes. What they do not tell you: you have to pay Ads credits to post your content. And they actually take your money sneakily through your PayPal or credit card account that you link to Empowr for the purpose of getting paid by them.

Many Empowr citizens (that’s what they call their users) were appalled to see the charges to their credit card or PayPal accounts. They were not notified of the deductions at all.

As for earnings from the “Likes”, there is no transparency, no one knows how much each “Like” is worth. And you get paid through Empowr coins, which take 90 days to mature. But when they take money from you, it does not wait 90 days.

And when citizens try to cash out, many are faced with unending obstacles and frustrations.

This is the gist of how Empowr works, with more details that I will not cover here. You can read my review on Empowr if you want.

Marketplace of Empowr

This section of the social platform allows people to buy and sell stuff. Empowr will take a certain percentage of the sales, which is reasonable since you are doing it through their platform, so they should take a fee for it.

The issue is, they wash their hands off any responsibilities when it comes to disputes between buyer and seller, which is unacceptable. All the giant buying and selling platforms always have some user protection policy in place, including eBay, Amazon, etc. so people are assured it is a safe place for transactions.

On Empowr marketplace, if you pay for a product but do not receive it, or if you sent off the item you are selling and the other party defaulted on the payment, do not expect Empowr to step in and put things right. It is stated clearly in their terms of service, to this effect.

Empowr is all about making money, with no effort to care for its users

It is so bad, there is even an Empowr Scam Alert community on FaceBook. But it has managed to still stay on the right side of the law, because it is smart to still let enough users cash out their money and keep them happy, such that you can find positive reviews too.

College Power looks set in the same direction

Look at the 10 ways that you can earn through College Power:

college power ways to earn


See the small print right at the bottom, where it says earnings must mature before cash out. But why?? Why do they want to hold on to earnings that you have legitimately made? I’m sure college students will have very good uses for their earnings, to pay for rent, or buy textbooks, or just as lunch money.

“Trading currency”, the 3rd point, comes about because your earnings will come in the form of College Power coins, whatever name they are going to give it.

So if it works like Empowr, you are going to pay them real world money in order to post your content, but earnings come in the form of coins, or the likes of Monopoly money. If they make the cashing out process so difficult, how is this even fair or beneficial to the users? To me it is simply exploitative.

“Sell services or products” where you set the price and earn 85% sounds like a lot, it actually means you have to pay 15% of the sales price to College Power, as a fee for using their platform to sell things.

The same goes for “Share (rent) products”.

Even though everything on the surface here looks nice and good, you can see the entire operation actually runs parallel to that in Empowr, they are basically the same system. Made to work for the owners of the platform, not for its users.

Of course I am in no position right now to call College Power a scam, as it has not even launched yet. Maybe (hopefully) it will be different from Empowr, which I seriously doubt, unless a leopard can change its spots. Or maybe the owners would see this post of mine and try to prove me wrong, and that would turn out to be a great thing for everyone.

It is possible to make an income online

Forget College Power. Even if it turns out to be a legitimate and transparent platform, you cannot expect to be making much from such get-paid-to sites, no matter how awesome and honest they are.

If you want to make some serious money online, in your spare time, the best way to do it is through affiliate marketing, where you simply promote other people’s product, without having to create or own any product, or deal with storage or inventory.

When people buy those products through your affiliate links, you get to earn a commission. It is a simple model, yet very lucrative, especially nowadays when everyone is bringing their shopping online.

The transactions still take place between the customers and the retailers directly. So you do not have to handle deliveries, customer complaints or refunds. You do not even have to do any face to face selling, or make any cold calls.

If this sounds good to you, I want to take it further and show you my free traffic method that I am using, to get potential customers to come looking for me, I do not have to spend a single cent on advertising, or go on any social media platforms or anywhere else to look for customers.

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Pros of College Power

1. It is still in beta testing, we can give it the benefit of doubt

We cannot know for sure how exactly this platform is going to run, until people start to use it, and try to cash out. Even then, in the beta testing stage, I suspect cash outs will be a breeze, in order to get many more signups.

But unless it runs on a drastically different model from Empowr, I cannot find any benefit to such a platform, as it is fundamentally wrong in values, in my opinion, to assign monetary benefits to a social platform.

Cons of College Power

1. A scam in the brewing, possibly

As you can see how closely connected it is to Empowr, I just have a bad feeling about it, that it is going to be run the same way.

2. 90 days for earnings to mature is definitely no good for college students

The purpose of college students joining this platform is to make a little extra pocket money. If they have to wait 3 whole months for their earnings to mature, then I do not see much point here.

3. Genuine socialising and money-making do not mix

A social platform should never be run like an economy, pay to share content, get paid when people like your content, etc. Human interaction cannot have a price tag to it. Can you imagine how this world will be like if we get paid to smile at people?


Is College Power Scam or legit?

My personal take on this: College Power scam is brewing. Which direction it will take eventually, your guess is as good as mine. But I’d still bet they go the same way as Empowr. We shall see.


Recommendation

I do not recommend College Power, due to its connection with Empowr and FanBox. Even if it works out well, the earnings will not be huge, so you will not lose much.

If you can spare some time, why not use it to build up your very own online business instead? The affiliate marketing model allows you to work fully from home, or anywhere for that matter.

And you are not working for anyone, you do not have a boss to report to. You are answerable to only yourself.

You decide on the niche, something that you are passionate about. Then you promote great products in your niche. When people buy through your affiliate links, you make a commission.

Countless successful affiliate marketers are making more than a full time income from this method, many are even making 5 or 6 figure months.

The potential is huge because of how the world is going online. To shop, to do their research before they actually buy stuff.

If you can present yourself to people who are at the final leg of the research cycle, they are actually people with very strong buyer intent. So with a bit of a nudge, they will finally make the purchase, and you get a piece of the pie.

Click the button below so I can show you in another post the exact way to do this, and also how I am able to get the highest quality of free traffic coming to my offers:

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If you have any concerns or questions regarding this College Power review, do comment below, and we will start a conversation from there.


14 thoughts on “College Power SCAM: Insider Info”

  1. College Power sounds like a throwback to the old College Club (look it up)
    that Pousti ran
    SMS.AC to FanBox to Empowr – all strongly resemble Ponzi schemes relying on new members to pay for older members.

    Reply
    • Hi Liz,
      Thank you for this information.
      It seems like the leopard never changes its spots.

      Appreciate your time to leave your comment here to help others avoid this dubious program.

      Reply
  2. I received an email from CollegePower that I was being fast tracked to Director because of my experience. Here is the email that I was sent through Indeed.

    Hi Patrick,

    Thanks for applying to the Sales – Entry-level / Recent Graduate position at CollegePower.

    After reviewing your resume, it seems like you might actually be well-suited for a different position that just opened up and takes good advantage of your skillset – the Hiring Director – a position that I think you’ll be very interested in.

    Here’s what’s great about it: You’ll be able to work from home, or from our San Diego office. You can set your own hours. You’re expected to earn as much as $800 per day for full-time work and can get paid at the end of each day.

    As I mentioned, we’ve already reviewed your resume. I am fast-tracking you through the interview process. The next step is for you to speak with our co-founder (Mike) and interview with my Managing Director.

    If interested, let’s book a time on their calendar quickly to ensure the position doesn’t get filled:

    (There was a Calendar with times that I used to set the appointment)

    I’ll get notified as soon as you book a time, using the above link, and I will reach out to you soon afterwards to confirm everything.

    Best regards,

    Mary Jensen
    H.R. Specialist
    —————end email —-

    I was thrilled although I was hesitant because of the negative reviews, but since I live in San Diego, I was willing to give it a chance hoping that it wasn’t a scam. I told them I was interested and they said I was being set-up for the next day to talk with one of the Cofounders Mike Pousti and a hiring director. I received an email with a link for my video call with Mike. It wasn’t a video call, it was a recorded video (that kinda pissed me off because I was lied to) from Mike talking about inequalities in the world and how CollegePower is trying to make a difference. The video was 51 minutes long and after the video (the video pumps you up though) I was called by a managing director. She asked me if I was interested and so said yes. She said welcome aboard and scheduled me for 8:30 am in their downtown office in San Diego (Little Italy) at 610 W. Ash St. Suite 1101. I showed up early and a nice guy, Bob had me wait in a room with a beautiful view of the North San Diego Bay (beautiful) with other new people. We were told to wait and our training was to began soon. We were finally asked to sit down at one of the many computers around the large office and bring up our email. Bob was sending us the information to start Specialist training. The training was poorly executed and disorganized (I was an Operations Officer in the military and have a MBA). On our email, we were given a script, a resume tool used to bring up resumes, and an appointment setting tool. Our job was to read the script and look at people’s resumes that applied for various positions on Indeed (Marketing Brand Ambassador, Marketing Specialist, etc…). We were instructed to follow the script and pretend like we were really interviewing them for a real job. Our real purpose was to set them up for a second interview with a Leader for the next day preferably. Overall, since we weren’t actually selling anything, it wasn’t too difficult to set that appointment. I did that until about 5:00 pm. The goal was to get at least 8 confirmed appointments scheduled. I think I had the highest numbers that day at 8. They project everyone’s name on the wall showing your progress, which is used to motivate you. The next day, I did Leader training. It was very similar, but easier because by then, the people you talk to have received a video about the company and how you can make a difference in the world. My job that day was to follow the script and tell them that the Specialist from the previous day recommended them and you could see why based on their resume. The goal was to set them up for the video call with the Cofounder, Mike Pousti and a Managing Director. This is the part I really disliked because it’s really a video that acts as if it is a live interview- the video goes as far as Pousti saying “oh your mike is too high, I’m going to mute it” to make you believe it’s a real call. I was informed to tell them to set aside about an hour for the video call (it’s really a 51 minute video). That day, I did 8 Leader calls (appointments set) and 5 Specialist calls (appointments set). That day I was number one with 13 total calls. While you are waiting for the next scheduled Leader calls, you are encouraged to make Specialist calls which I trained for on the first day. On my third day, I received the Director script. My job was to call the person as soon as they watched that 51 minute video (supposed to be a video call) and encourage them to come into the San Diego office and start the three day unpaid training sessions. That day I was second highest with a total of 8 appointments set (4 Director, 2 Leader, and 2 Specialist calls). The person that was number one that day had done a total of 12 confirmed Specialist calls. It was his first day and he did well.

    The original plan that I came in on was to train for three days and after that I would receive a team that I was responsible for. I was to make calls to them daily at 9:00 am and 2:00 pm to ensure they were making calls. I was led to believe that on my day six I could cash out (receive money). They told me that the goal was to promote four of my team leaders to directors and I would receive $800 (I found out later on that in order for the team leader to move up to director, they would have to pay $250 each. We were told that the $250 is actually the tip that is paid to the support manager since he’s the one that sends us the resumes and makes sure everyone gets paid. So, that’s $1000 that goes to the company and I would receive $800.

    On my fourth day, they brought us into the briefing room and said they were considering changing the pay structure to make it better for us. We would be able to cash out the first day as opposed to waiting till Day 6. The new pay structure would also pay us to actually make calls and not just set up appointments. All of us loved the new plan that was pitched to us. All we had to do was to make 5 Specialist calls, 3 Leader calls, and 2 Director calls and we could cash out that same day and make at least $200. This morning was the big day with the new pay plan and we waited for about 40 minutes before Mike was able to brief us on the pay structure going into effect today. Mike reiterated about making the 5 Specialist calls, the 3 Leader calls, and the 2 Director calls to cash out $200 and that we could cash out several times in one day. One of the new people noticed that we can only cash out the $200 if the 2 new Directors pay $99 to become a Director. If not, we can’t cash out that same day. I told Mike that that’s a huge obstacle to have someone fork out $99 just to become a Director. He didn’t like my questioning and said I shouldn’t poison this plan for everyone in the office and that it was possible to do.

    It’s at that point that I totally realized that it was a scam. My $200 would be paid with the two new people I bring in, not from the company.

    I told Bob (super nice guy) that this wasn’t for me and left. While I was outside talking to my wife on the phone, I noticed another Director like myself was quitting too.

    I have all the emails that I would gladly share of their training. And the photos of my second day and third day accomplishments.

    The good thing about this experience is that it was located in a beautiful building downtown San Diego with an incredible view. They provided water, sodas, snacks, and coffee all day long and beer at the end of the day. They also provided us a free lunch made by Johnny (another cool guy). Everyone there is super chill and seem to really want you to succeed and to assist you although the training was executed very poorly.

    After I left the office, I texted the Managing Director who brought me on and explained everything. She also confirmed to me that she has been performing unpaid training for over three weeks and hasn’t made anything. She had to pay $250 to become a Director. She was hoping that I was going to pay my $250 so she could make $200 off of it (the old plan, the new plan started today).

    I hope they regret the day they lied to me and all of us.

    Patrick Abney, MBA
    Major, US Army Retired
    [Email address deleted]
    [Phone number deleted]

    Reply
    • Hi Patrick,
      I’m sorry that you have wasted much of your time with College Power. It does sound like a Ponzi scheme. I’m so glad you walked away from it.

      I do hope others are able to see through it as clearly and swiftly as you did.

      Really appreciate all the time and effort you took in writing this comment, to share your experience with us here.
      By the way, I have removed your phone number and email address, to protect your privacy.

      Reply
    • Hi Martha,
      It’s great that you know now.
      And thank you for dropping by to leave your comment, much appreciated.

      All the best to landing yourself a great job!

      Reply
  3. Empowr.com, Collegepower.com, in our opinion, is a scam. If you question anything they just delete your account even when you have supposedly earned $10,000.00. It is a dictatorship not a democracy. Their current alleged scam is to pay everything in (ETH) and earn in dollars, or your native currency, at their dictated rate of their coin token (EMPRB). They supposedly did a swap of (EMPRG)1,000,000,000 (fanbox) to one (EMPRB) (collegepower). One has to ask who owns the coin token (EMPRB). Think possible Michael Cyrus Pousti. Empowr now going to market to naive college students under the collegepower.com. Most of the links do not work. They were instructed to “Preserve All Records in Anticipation of Litigation” (class action). As such, all their empowr training links are now dead. Of the opinion that it is a scheme to prop up their own coin. It is not registered. There are several complaints of not being able to get your earnings out of the platform. They make you keep your funds in for 90 days claiming to stabilize coin. They claim to help poverty, yet have no examples of anyone being lifted up. Just google empowr scam then decide for yourself. Recommend never giving any credit card info. Watch your internal (ETH) wallet for potential skimming. Never pay for anything until you can cash out. They are trying to get 3 billion people on platform within 90 days. If only they can skim one (ETH) from each, hey. BEWARE, BEWARE, BEWARE the default is to give them you contact list and the default is that your contacts go to your so called success coach, i.e. guide. In settings unclick the default they will not tell you this, wonder why? Their vendor MetaMask claims empowr.com is a phishing site. Since visiting their site Windows Defender keeps finding the virus identified as Phishing.

    Reply
    • Hi Thomas,

      Thank you again for dropping your comment on this post as well, really appreciate it that you are trying to warn others too, of this College Power platform.

      I do hope people do their research before deciding if something can earn their trust.

      Reply
      • Big scam! Beware if anyone is applying for a job via indeed. They advertise the job as administration. Once they do a phone interview then they pull you in. I went to a face to face interview and they have a slide show saying you can make 50K a month just be recruiting people. That literally makes no sense. And the bonuses you get are not given for 90 days because they mature in a cryptocurrency account. Literally makes no sense. Total pyramid scheme! Beware

        Reply
        • Hi Kiki,
          I’m so glad for you that you saw through it instead of falling for the $50K a month plot.
          What they’re doing sounds really bad, and it seems they’re quite blatant about it.

          Thank you for dropping by to share your experience with College Power here, I really appreciate it.

          Reply
          • Sorry Sir, I didn’t realize you were a Major. My screen on the phone is small. I only saw your last bit of name info this time once I hit send it opened up more of my screen. Please forgive me Sir. I salute you. Good day sir…

          • Hey Bart, I’m not sure I get what you mean. But anyway, thanks for dropping by to read the article, and for taking the time to leave a note here.

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