I was lied to and ultimately ripped off by Advantage Australia. I have come away after 5 months of grueling Certificate 1V work with nothing to show for it.

Like any other student signing up to do an online course, I did my research and read the following reviews before I signed up. Stupidly I believed them - and I enrolled in good faith. Five months later after completing 95% of my coursework, the company closed - leaving myself and dozens of other students, possibly hundreds, without qualifications, assessments, certificates - or course refunds.

The way this happened is unbelievable. Especially since the company clearly knew they were about to close but instead of coming clean and warning us, they did a ring around to all the students, urging them to send in whatever coursework they had completed. We dutifully dropped everything to do this at our own expense- and then, when they pulled the plug, days later, they said they would only refund money that hadn't been used assessing coursework pro-rota - in other words, we were unlikely to get any refunds because they had allegedly used up our tuition fees assessing the coursework that they asked us to send in days before - except of course that we never saw those assessments, and have not heard a word back since that February 16 announcement!

If you have been a victim of this scam, we urge you to report your experience to W.A Consumer Affairs who are taking it very seriously. In order to act they need all the evidence they can get to stop this company from resurfacing. Don't be a victim of Advantage Training like I was.

This company has knowingly deceived all its students and left us up the creek without a paddle. We are trying to start again with new courses and qualifications but that takes more money and a lot more time. How is this allowed to happen?

[Redacted name]