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Is Green Stickman A Scammer Or Not?

There has been a lot of noise circulating recently in the investing community about a certain Gayward Mendoza who calls himself the “Green Stickman.”

The issue is about his stocks mentoring program that offers insanely high fees.

Who Is The Green Stickman Anyway?

Green Stickman is about a guy who advocates financial literacy through his blog www.gayward-concepts.com. He’s a Licensed Electronics and Communication Engineer, and a former DOST-SEI Scholar during his college days.

In his blog, he offers a stock market mentoring program which is under immense fire after Mr. Floi Wycoco exposed screenshots of Green’s unsatisfied students in the TGFI’s group page.

What’s The Story Behind It?

In his Facebook account, he pitches his stock mentoring program and shows screenshots of his student’s portfolios and claims that those gains where the result of his program.

He even has social proof of this mentoring program of his.

 

Despite these positive testimonials, apparently, there has been reports of unsatisfied people and dismayed followers into his stocks mentoring program in this post by Floi Wycoco of The Global Filipino Investors.

These are the screenshots taken from that post.

These people are offered insanely high mentoring fees amounting to twenty and fifty thousand pesos for the promise of a guaranteed green portfolio. All you have to do is do exactly what he tells or advice you in his program.

Screenshots of different people conversing with him proves that the mentoring program’s fees are true. In fact, the price isn’t fixed. It varies from twenty thousand pesos to one hundred thousand and some even say that it reaches to one hundred forty thousand pesos.

What I don’t understand is why the mentoring program has different fees… and why is it so expensive and what is really in it? I would not really know because I’m not in the position to give a comment or a testimonial on what’s inside his program since I haven’t tried it out.

Another screenshot circulating in the public forums is the one below where he gives an offer of at least a 20% gain by buying 200 shares of MER for 260.00 from him.

All the person have to do is wait fifteen to forty-five days until he gives the money back to the person’s bank account.

I don’t know if there’s a legality of some sort in this. So let the screenshot speak for itself.

This kind of dealings is very similar to what a certain Mr. Jose Cecilio “Jay” Penaflor is pitching. The Philippine Stock Exchange has issued a warning to the investing public against him, the PSE’s former assistant head of market education, who allegedly pools funds from investors on behalf of the PSE and PSE’s accredited brokers according to this news.

See the screenshot below.

There’s also an issue where he uses a portfolio screenshot from the blog Zeefreaks which is used in his email sales pitch.

In a statement made by Zeefreaks, Green Stickman apparently grabbed the photo without permission.

In his Facebook group, he released a statement regarding these allegations as described in the screenshot below.

And just today, he released another statement about writing an open letter about the issue to fully explain his side. He also promised a full refund of the unsatisfied student of his. He also explains that mentoring is a very hard thing to do because of the responsibility of managing a 6 to 7-figure portfolio that’s why e charges such high fees.

According to him, supporters and loyal followers sent him messages of trust and confidence after the issue escalated on all investing groups and forums. This according to him, brighten up his day.

I also learned that Mr. Gayward Mendoza has been nominated for Finance Blogger for the Year Award by Angat Pilipinas Coalition for Financial Literacy. I’m not surprised because I really find his posts informative and his blog deserves an award. You can really learn many things from his blog posts.

Personally, I admire the guy because of his quest and style for advocating financial literacy. Until such time that all proper evidences are presented and actual unsatisfied students of his sit down in a room and discuss about it, there would be endless debates in every discussion forums whether the Green Stickman is a scammer or not.

But since the evidence is compelling, Green Stickman should address in detail all the allegations thrown at him as soon as possible in a constructive manner to clear his reputation.

In my opinion, there’s nothing really wrong in mentoring programs. I, for one is subscribed at Bo Sanchez’ Truly Rich Club because I strongly believe that we really need someone or something to guide us in the right path. Not only it contains good advice, but also it is cheap.

I believe that good teachers make great students that’s why finding a good teacher is a must if you really want to learn. I also read a lot of Warren Buffet books and to me, those books also act as my mentors.

For me, the ultimate purpose of having a mentor is to learn their strategies and think like them in order for us to succeed just like them. The cost of a mentoring program depends on the value of the information you get.

Always remember to pay only for what it’s worth. If you think you’re paying too much for something with little or no value, then scrap that program, cut your losses and move on to something else.

It also helps if you can really find the time to learn and apply these so-called secret techniques by yourself because experience will always be the best teacher. Let’s not be lazy to learn stuff today that will benefit us in the future.

My Final Thoughts

If you believe that this guy is a scammer, then stay away from him. Otherwise, proceed with caution. Be responsible because no one is hitting that buy and sell button on your portfolio other than yourself.

Happy investing!

Note: I’m neutral at this issue because it’s not in my personality to take sides to issues I don’t really have a complete information. I also cannot guarantee the accuracy of the screenshots presented here since they are just grabbed from the public groups.

Update: Read this official statement of Spyfrat regarding the alleged rumors that Green Stickman is just using the former’s recommendations in Bookaka premium for the latter’s personal benefits.

2-13-2016 Update: Green Stickman just released his official statement in his blog here. He answers all the allegations thrown at him by the TGFI admins and unsatisfied students. You can also read there his letter of apology from Zeefreaks regarding the portfolio screenshot issue.

Zeefreaks also released his thoughts about mentorship here.

I hope that the issue ends there and I hope participating parties take a cup of coffee and settle their disagreements in a professional way.

2-17-2016 Update: It seems that Zeefreaks has warned Green Stickman about pressing charges if Green continues to use Zee’s materials in his mentorship program. I learned about this after Zee posted an update in his Facebook page here.

Zee posted in the comments section Green’s response pertaining to this latest issue.

I guess this “investaserye anthology” will continue since many issues are left open-ended. I will keep this post updated for new developments regarding the issue.