Question:
Stratford Career Institute -- a gigantic sack of scam monster, or...?
Curious-2-Know
14 years ago
Hello I live in Mississauga, Ontario and this morning I found this brochure in my mailbox:

STRATFORD CAREER INSTITUTE
8675 DARNLEY ROAD
MOUNT-ROYAL, QC H4T 2C3

I felt eery because this was sent from another province..., from Quebec.

The 1st page or rather, the front side had bunch of detachable stamps and "55 exciting careers to choose from!" message, followed by "Choose your CAREER DIPLOMA STAMP, affix it to the postcard, MAIL IT TODAY!"


"Imagine yourself learning a new career in the comfort of your own home! In your spare time, at your own pace, you can obtain a diploma that will lead you to exciting new career opportunities.

"Here's what career training can mean to you:
・higher salary
・a new career in the field of your choice
・less anxiety about the future (I feel anxious regarding their seemingly sugarcoated words of affirmation.)
・no regrets somewhere down the road, about lost opportunities (Oh really, now?)

I flipped the page to the back where said "Free Career Information... No Postage Necessary."
"Paste career Stamp Here [....] Please select one program only."
"Please send me FREE OF CHARGE, career information on the information I have selected."

"There's a School in your Mailbox! Don't have time to go back to school? ...then let school come to you!"
(Sounds fishy... Maybe it's "There's a Scam in your Mailbox! Don't want to get scammed? ...then let it come to you!" o_O)

Under the personal information writing-lines in the detachable postcard I see:
"We respect your right to privacy. Names on our mailing list _may_ occasionally_ receive_ offers_ from_ our selected_ business partners_. If you prefer not to receive these mailings, check here. [ V]
(Of course I would IF I were to send it. Underscores I put up there denote for more suspicions. I've never heard of a collegiate institution that sells personal information to third-parties.)

"Send us this reply card today!" - Never! You sound too suspicious!

Now at the bottom of the postcard, they claim:
"Stratford is a member of the International Council for Distance Learning, the Canadian Association for Distance Education and the Better Business Bureau."

I typed "International Council for Distance Learning" in google for ICDE.org and put 'stratford' in their search box to see no such thing. By curiosity, I put "site:icde.org stratford" in google, it had nothing.

I did the same research for the CADE and BBB.
The Canadian Association for Distance Education led to lastminutetraining.ca and its CADE website @ www.cade-aced.ca where I searched for the word stratford to find nothing again.

Now this is getting real questionable, I mumbled.

On the last stop to BBB.org/canada where I used the search tool --
"Your search was limited to http://bbb.org/canada/ Click Here to expand your search to all BBBs."
the expanded search to all BBBs had nothing either.
In google "site:bbb.org/canada stratford career institute" there's one mention of it that is similar to various searches on "site:bbb.org stratford career institute". Why so many pages of it? I looked up a dozen of those in global search to see no relevant differences other than being duplicates, different "accredited" dates. How credible is that little piece of information? Most of the pages' BBB Rating says "No Rating" save for one where says "A+". What if that report was sent by the scammers themselves?

Scam.com, Ripoffreport.com stratford career institute scam victims convince me more than BBB's rating by itself.

I trust my initial judgment and intuition for what is my question:
Stratford Career Institute -- a gigantic sack of scam monster, or...?
Three answers:
14 years ago
Yup.
9 years ago
A search of the US Department of Education database shows no accreditation of this institution, a bad sign. Caveat Emptor
xavier
10 years ago
Alright...what???? about Penn Foster. Is this place the same or what??


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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