Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson has filed a lawsuit against a South Carolina-based technology company accused of running a deceptive training program that charged residents upward of $30,000 for a video course.The Office of the Washington Attorney General issued a press release detailing the allegations against Prehired LLC and its owner, Joshua Jordan.The lawsuit alleges that Prehired broke Washington law through its deceptive marketing practices and by operating in the state without a license.The press release noted that Prehired seemingly promised its graduates positive career outcomes.“We guarantee you land a $60k+ job offer (from a tech company YOU choose),” Prehired wrote in marketing materials.However, many Prehired graduates never secured paid technology positions.When students were unable to repay their course loans, Prehired resorted to aggressive collection techniques, forcing some students into arbitration and filing lawsuits against others.While Ferguson’s office does not know how many Washington residents enrolled in Prehired courses, it already has evidence that at least 39 individuals paid for the video training courses. Collectively, they owe the South Carolina company more than $1 million.

Money; image by Pasja1000, via Pixabay.com.

Ferguson’s lawsuit seeks restitution for all Washingtonians who took Prehired courses, reimbursement of legal costs, and up to $7,500 in penalties for every violation of state consumer protection laws.“Washingtonians forked over tens of thousands of dollars in hard-earned money based on Joshua Jordan’s lies,” Ferguson said in a statement. “I intend to make sure Jordan and his company do not prey on anyone else. I will fight to see his victims paid back and help get them out from under these illegal contracts.”Prehired, notes the Office of the Attorney General, advertised itself as a “tech sales bootcamp,” preparing individuals for careers in software sales.Prehired claimed to offer online sales training lasting between 6 and 12 weeks, as well as job placement programs through internal mentors and corporate connections.But in reality, Prehired’s program consisted of little more than 15 hours of videos that Jordan made to teach people how to begin “a six figure career.”Jordan said that his course could help people find software sales positions with starting salaries above $69,000—even those without a college degree and sales experience.Ferguson also charges that Prehired inflated its success statistics. According to Prehired’s marketing materials, 90% of its graduates find employment as part of the program. However, Prehired did not disclose that it required its students too apply for 20 or more positions a week to fulfill its job placement “guarantee.”A spokesperson for Prehired said that the company disputes the allegations."Prehired and Mr. Jordan are shocked and surprised by the filing of the complaint by the Washington Attorney General's Office, and the allegations contained therein,” Prehired told KING5.com. “We categorically deny the allegations in the complaint and look forward to defending these allegations in court.”

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AG Ferguson files lawsuit to shut down predatory tech sales program, recover money for harmed WashingtoniansFerguson files lawsuit against company that duped Washingtonians into buying online course'Predatory' company accused of scamming Washingtonians into $30,000 for online training courses