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Knowledge Source review: Scammers; Jon Giann and Dymphna Boholt 27

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Knowedge Source is a Real estate spuiker who has had trouble with the law on a number of occassions for providing false and misleading information to a guilble and greedy public now partnered with another scammer extraordinaire Ms Dymphna Boholt to spin brilliant tales of wealth through real estate, and more recently through foreign property investing (a dangerous strategy at best). And who is to stop them leading thousands of Australiand down the garden path while fleecing them off thousands and thousands of dollars for the "advice"? no one.

Best that can be done is to provide public records relating to those two snake oil merchants read the links below and decide wether the sweet promise of wealth and the well layed out words are of any value other than to ensure your trust enough to transfer wealth from your bank account to theirs

on Jon Giaan or his real name jon Giannopoulos also jon giaan see articles below, this guy trades as Knowledge Source, use to trade under a variety of names including giann and Giann pty ltd and Break Free events amongst others... oh he now goes by Jon Giaan a play on the spelling of his name to fool people googling him from finding out about his history ;

he is referred to as Giannopoulos in this article by the Sydney Morning Herald;

http://blogs.smh.com.au/radar/archives/2004/11/trust_me_im_a_w.html

he is referred to as Jon Giannopoulos in the ASIC Ruling against him as a scammer;

http://www.asic.gov.au/asic/asic.nsf/byheadline/04-339+ASIC+restrains+wealth+creation+spruikers?openDocument

he is referred to as Jon Giann in the age News paper article below;

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/mr-hotshot-shoots-himself-in-the-foot-20081204-6rhu.html

and more;

http://www.jenman.com.au/news_item.php?id=400
http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/story/2009/05/01/today-tonight-admits-stories-false/

As for Dymphna well she was selling Real estate wealth advise since 2003. She sold it on the bases of
having accumilated 60 properties in under 18 months (she's still claiming it, but now she probably does have it
from all the poor souls she's ripped off), when questioned by the ACCC she had to sign an afidavit that contrary to her statement of holding 60 real estate properties she infact held NO property at all and very little assets of any kind.
See what Justice Steve Rares says about Dymphna's none existent assets in his ruling follow the link below;

http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/FedJSchol/2009/7.html

These people are seasoned professional rip off artists people.

As they say, a fool and his money...

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27 comments
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Paula Withington
, AU
Nov 09, 2018 2:39 pm EST
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She’s still scamming and still not refunding. My partner attended a “course” last month, parted with $5k and then cancelled under the cooling off period. Still no refund, no response to calls, txts or emails. Filthy scammers. Wish he had done a little due diligence before getting caught up in the hype on the day 😱

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dave hemming
, US
May 06, 2023 7:26 am EDT
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Did you get the money back. Just watched here seminar. Very convincing but never purchased the program

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Ty Cobb
, AU
Oct 19, 2017 8:28 pm EDT

Am grateful there is a page like this, thanks Jon Jon Jon! Completely, wholeheartedly agree with the complaint and have a specific grievance against knowledge [censor].
I recently booked a course through k[censor] and via a glitch with the online booking system we were overcharged. We anticipated a fairly trouble free, quick resolution of the matter and dealt with their managing DICK Stevan Spehar to get that done. I should have had cause for concern when I saw his linkedin page had a photo of him with the morally corrupt 'the Donald' and a photo of a lion on his Facebook page...really, what a pretentious tool...
Anyway, true to form he fought like a mangy dog to deny our honest/reasonable claim obviously valuing cash over integrity.
My advice to anyone considering booking a course with k[censor] is to think very carefully whether you really need to do the course. Many of their courses offer feel good 'have a plan', 'be your best you' messaging that instruct you on common sense legal and accounting matters you can get out of a book for a fraction of the cost.
We're on track to replace our income in 2 years not from anything we've learned from the courses k[censor] peddle but from advice from professionals and our own instincts about targeting areas for development.
Good luck with your endeavors and based on my experience, my advice is to avoid k[censor] at all cost.

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Darshan039
, US
Jul 18, 2016 6:53 pm EDT

I do not really understand all the ins and outs of these real estate spruikers. What i have seen with the many wealth creation seminars that i have attended is that they are master sales events that use all the well reasearched tricks to get you to part wit your money on the day, then funnel you through their system while taking ever increasing amounts of your cash. Step one is always CREATE A PROBLEM AND PROVIDE A SOLUTION. If i were making false claims i would be tempted to say i never do any thing in my name to protect me, (from what)... To further substantiate that claim i would then demonise the tax man as the enemy who wants to steal from me, or perhaps the rentors or lawyers. This would work for me as you could not really research what i had and i have a perfect reason "they are out to get your money, look out the biggest criminals are now the government and the tax man" . i would even create documents to and testimonials to convince you of these claims. I would become an internet marketing expert so that all due diligence searches ended up in my network of supporters or directly with one of my many sites (none of these sites would apper connected directly to me but would suppot me, deny negative propaganda about me and direct traffic to me. I would have the luxury and finaces to achieving this through the real wealth creation vehicle that is my self promotion seminars. Like network marketing, if you do the math only the few at the top can make money because it only takes a few levels to max out population in a network. I would say the same would apply here in a very different way. Not every body will be sucessful in investing, this is a known factor. Only the few will make it. That to me is why the hge costs involved. Thats where the real money is made, leverageing your time through sheer volume of paying participants. More steadily flowing and ever increasing volumes of cash than property or personal investing could ever provide. Yippee and good on them for the effort. One of the wealthiest investors i know sold out of most of his property investments because the tax and costs in his opinion were just becoming unfair. He only invest in stocks now. Another great mento of mine said to me when i asked her to be my teacher. The course i wil offer you will not cost you a one or any dollar amount, it will however cost you every thing you have and the comittment will be four years every day and every week with no breaks. She truly just wished to share her wisdom for free, but i had to commit the cost of every thing i have was that who i emerged as at the end of four years was not recognisable as compared to who i was at the start. Every thing is changed. Just saying you can always recognise the true intent from the offer presented. There is always gold to be found.

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2sides2everystory
, US
Feb 12, 2016 4:15 am EST

ummm she probably doesnt have any property and says she has nothing as any person with half a brain puts a portfolio in a discretionary trust especially if your out in the public eye and tell everyone your worth nothing. technically i would say she is worthless, without assets ... of course. its in a trustees name!

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Julia 173
, AU
Feb 07, 2016 6:02 am EST

I have been to several seminars. Weekends and wish I had been told what I learnt from dymphna years ago. As I would have protected my properties better and would not have so many neg geared. Through her I'm going to get back into property but I will only buy positive geared now and re is that can be improved for equity
She was very epethic to me and my past dealings with a financial broker. Why I lost every thing before
The friend that introduced me to her. Is going great guns ahead too

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Sofiya Furtado
, US
Feb 05, 2016 5:13 pm EST

The austlii link has nothing to do with this company - Unfortunately the lengthy & fortunately amusing report was about the farewelling of a revered judge.

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Stu Lorro
, US
Jan 28, 2016 10:41 am EST

HAHA! If you know anything about asset protection, you would not own anything in your own name. Do we know that Dymphna is an asset protection specialist?
Has the author of this article reviewed her course? Based on the claims and comments, it seems Jon Jon Jon has not.

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Michael Way
, US
Nov 30, 2015 8:56 pm EST

The correct link for the ASIC reference to the Federal Court orders it obtained against Jon Giannopolous and his companies is now:
http://asic.gov.au/about-asic/media-centre/find-a-media-release/2004-releases/04-339-asic-restrains-wealth-creation-spruikers/

or if this post abbreviates the link (as it seems to have done with most of the other links above) - go to www.asic.gov.au and type "Wealth Creation Spruikers" into the search box in the top right hand corner of their home page.

And as for Dymphna Boholt (Self-confessed Liar) - here an excerpt from the speech by Justice Steven Bares on 17 March 2009 to the UNSW Continuing Legal Education Seminar: Defamation and Media Law Conference:
"It did, and those proceedings are the ones currently reserved by the High Court. As events turned out, Ms Boholt and Ms Forster were not in fact as filthy rich as they appeared to suggest on the programme, they were dirt poor. But this was only revealed just before the trial when they swore affidavits that they owned no real estate at all and had minimal assets."
Full transcript here:
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/FedJSchol/2009/6.html

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Beth Ahern Barclay
, US
Nov 23, 2015 5:32 am EST

http://knowledgesource.com.au/offers/us/?utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=bp201512&utm_content=camp1

They are doing realestate seminars all over Australia over the next few weeks...Scary!

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SamsParty
, AU
Nov 13, 2015 6:11 am EST

I'm student of DB and I find her program to be very useful. In saying that though her information that she gives is something you can find anywhere if you were to look but paying her high program price saves a lot of time. Attending her 3 day bootcamp recently in Sydney was really good and also really pricey if your were to sign up for everything they were selling. You would be looking at $20, 000.00 and even more if you were to sign up for one-on-one courses. I also found they sugar coated a lot of their strategies. I'm hundred percent sure they work because I'm a young builder who's in the industry working for clients who are investors, so I know they work. Just that they leave out the finer details such as the cost for services to a second hand house that you have just bought to be trucked off to your land which you will sub-divide into 2 different titles, well make sure you have spare $30, 000.00 to run all your service such as electrical and water. I think people forget that she running business which similar to a private school, they will teach the theory but they don't care whether you past the class or not. She leaves you with a final note at the end of her bootcamp which is " all i ask is that you spread the knowledge to friends and family " what she's really saying is tell your friends and family to sit in my classroom with private school fees. If your looking to sit in a classroom, one thing I would say is that she is the best school to be at. And like the saying goes " you gotta spend money to make money "

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Cr Bennett
, US
Oct 27, 2015 8:21 pm EDT

I just attended a 3 day Dymphna Boholt training seminar in Sydney and although there was tons of information there was a very simple underlying message "Do your own research / due diligence, get proper legal advice and if you can't afford it or are fearful- DON'T DO IT", pretty clear from my point of view.
I went to learn the pitfalls of property investing having lost over $70, 000 doing it on my own with advice from a so called "financial advisor" in Parramatta. I learned over the last 3 days why I lost the money and how to prevent doing it again.
Loved the training and am looking at what is best for my situation with the proper caution and due diligence of course.

Note: NOT once were we told to invest in any particular suburb, area or type of property and nothing was every offered for sale to us.

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Talking cash flow
, US
Oct 09, 2015 1:03 pm EDT
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Yep, success for 6 months then failure and forgotten about when all turns south. DB told people to go and invest in areas, do your DD first she said. But when you have a 'guru' on stage saying this is what she has done, you get caught in the hype, and take her 'opinion' as advice. Then bang, everything caves in, and she does not even want to know you. This is when you find out what she is really made of. She is only after your money. Well isnt everyone?

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crazym3
, AU
Aug 23, 2015 6:00 am EDT

I know its a bit old but I went to 1 of Dymphna Boholt free 1-day workshop, which I found very informative on some of the things, however the sales pitch was too much. Especially the continuing costs and training.

So...I did some research found this. She pretty much makes her money from the up selling of the seminars. Im not too sure on how successful her so called students make, however, this is something to read.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/business/fair-trading-fines-dymphna-boholt-15000-over-bogus-seminar-claims/story-fnihsps3-1227339462708

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TimW14
, AU
Aug 17, 2015 9:15 am EDT

I dont know Jon Giaan, Jon Giann, Jon Giannopolous or Dymphna Boholt and haven't been to one of their seminars but it is easy to spot people that try to take advantage of others. If Jon and Dymphna really had a passion for helping others they wouldn't be spruiking all over the country, they would offer their advice freely on the internet. Remember they are so wealthy already they dont need to make any more money, right. However for some reason they want to get face to face with prospective clients, get them hot, sign em up and charge large fees for ongoing services. Do you really believe these people are doing this out of the generosity of their hearts. Get an honest accountant that can advise you on the correct tax treatment if you need it (only pay for advice on an hourly basis), use a bit of common sense when buying properties and avoid the greedy spruikers previously mentioned. Oh one other thing as well, I see Dymphna shows photographs of her with other famously successful people. Why do you think she does that? To make her look like a winner and legitimise her claims. Its an old trick used by many scammers. Funny that she was never photographed with Mother Teresa or Fred Hollows, wouldn't really fit the image would it. If you really feel you need someone to always hold your hand during the investment process, a better and cheaper way would be to buy diversified property trusts with moderate gearing. You can buy many of these on a cashflow positive basis and avoid stamp duty as well, but dont over do it as current low interest rates means all assets are on the expensive side at present.

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Gary Glitter
, AU
Aug 10, 2015 2:17 am EDT

She's not scammer, but she is a liar and many people have fallen for her false claims. Yes you can make money out of real estate, we all know that. But seriously, does anyone else think they are going to get rich by buying US property or homes in Queensland mining towns?

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sunnnn
Castlereagh, AU
Jul 11, 2015 9:30 pm EDT

The complaint text above seems like written by some angry person with a real victim mindset, who seems to not have put into place any valuable information provided. He or she thrives on feeling sorry for him/herself and walking through the world complaining. His/her whole text above does not give any concrete example or proof of an actual scam. I feel sorry for you, mate (you did not even give you name) you must be a really unhappy person.

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barney1
Caloundra, AU
May 23, 2015 1:59 am EDT

By the sounds of it this bird should be locked up .. What a disgrace that people are loosing eveything because of her own get rich quick schemes

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Andy_
, US
May 12, 2015 10:48 am EDT

Money2Me, I have to question your brainpower. Have you not heard of using historical events to demonstrate a point? Better to point out an historical example and learn from it by suggesting what would have been better to have done before the action that resulted in the loss or lack of gain that could have been achieved. Perhaps you missed the point or were too busy trying to find fault that life passed you by. Stop looking in your tiny rear-view mirror wandering what's going on and start looking out of that big windscreen full of opportunity ahead of you!
As far as I am concerned, I'm still healthily optimistically sceptical of Dymphna's teaching, however, a vast amount of what I have heard and read so far makes significant sense and I'm looking forward to building a successful property based passive income and developing my knowledge and wealth. Here's to all those out there chasing your dream! Decide for yourself and then go and make it happen!

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Money2Me
Adelaide Metro Area, AU
Mar 11, 2015 10:34 pm EDT
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Earlier today, I listened to Dymphna Boholt advise approximately 160 people in an online session claim that had a particular person spoken to her before he sold a certain property, then she would have advised him not to sell. I believe that she also stated that she would have given some strategic advice regarding the property. This particular property was sold in the early 1970's. Regardless of me sending a message advising of this fact, I have no recollection of Ms Boholt amending her statement during the session. Report filed to Consumer Affairs, Victoria.

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Gloria M
Cardup, AU
Feb 28, 2015 9:48 am EST

Today at the Novotel Perth, my husband and I attended a full day seminar by Dymphna and I must say, I was totally blown away with the information she provided and mistakes we are making. Dymphna is the first person we have come across that actually makes sense in layman's terms.
At not one point did she EVER force anyone to purchase one of her seminars. it's your choice, as it was ours. Now what we chose to do with it, again, is our choice. Now if you purchase a program and choose not to do anything with it...that's your choice so take responsibility for your choices. If however you choose to listen to and read her program, and do something with that knowledge, that's your gained, that's a huge plus to you. I learnt soooo much today and now I know what to do with a negative geared property to make it a positive geared property. So Don't blame anyone but yourself if you don't succeed.
She gave us information that I wish I knew years ago.
Thank you so much Dymphna, you pushed me out of my comfort zone and gave me the knowledge and courage to push forward, change things in my life and strategies to succeed. Gloria M (WA 28.03.15)
To the NEGATIVE comments that people said...You don't know what you are talking about...it's YOUR fear that stopped you from succeeding, not her seminar...

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JacksonTurnbul
Sydney, AU
Aug 05, 2014 4:25 am EDT

Of course she doesn't own 60 properties in her own name. That would be crazy. It's called asset protection, something that Dymphna (who is a certified accountant) teaches to all of her students. The fact that the author of this post is using this point as evidence that she is a "scammer" suggests that A) they have not attended any of her seminars and B) they do not even understand the basic fundamentals of real estate investment. I prefer to take advice from people who know what they're talking about.

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Schmacher3
Sydney, AU
Aug 04, 2014 7:52 pm EDT

I too am a past 'student' and concur with the statements made above, she is a total scam. The examples used in their 'free' seminars I have first hand knowledge of the property owners and they were told to 'hush up' about the LOSSES made on the nasty, cheap and without permit approval renovations. Many of her seasoned students don't pay annual fees and are there for self interest to prey on the very green newbies... it's like fresh meat. Yes she does have some success stories but I know around 20 'students' that have lost everything EVERYTHING because she told them to buy at certain locations and "you have until xx date to do, don't come back until you have"... sound like caring solid advice... hmmmm let me think? that would be HELL NO! buyer beware!

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dave01
Sydney Metro Area, AU
Jul 20, 2014 7:37 am EDT
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Agree, total scam! Signed up at the Knowledge source seminar with Income Education LLC, should have known, a fool and his money. No wonder when i checked with Fair Trading and ASIC they advised they had numerous Complaints about this Co and Jon Giaan. Basically the Income Education LLC (US property seminar) you pay 2k for a weekend course at which is mainly about getting you pay another 20k 40k or 60k for another course. Naturally a the start of the course they advise if you don't want to move forward they will give a refund, yet all who wanted one haven't got one yet and its been 3 months!. ASIC advise me this practice is totally illegal and they "hope" to move soon on this mob.

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SimonBates
Eltham, AU
Jun 12, 2014 9:24 pm EDT

I followed some of the links here in this complaint - Sydney morning herald article doesn't talk about Giann or Boholt but about Jamie McIntyre and some other people. Niel Jenmann (a man who is trying to sell his own financial advice) making some ### statements... that's about it... I looked on Youtube and was inundated by testimonials by students who loved this education (there are even some on this page)... And the complaint is from someone who was unwilling to leave his own name (jon jon jon) and is hiding behind anonymity.
Near as I can tell it seems like this complaint is written by someone who failed to make a success of the education he paid for and is looking for someone to blame. A person like that should not be listened to because with that attitude would you rather learn from someone who is making money and teaching many others to do the same or a disgruntled coward who failed?

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shalbri
Newcastle, AU
Jun 06, 2014 5:30 am EDT

Im a Dymphna Student and she has educated me, but has never sold me property, never tried to sell me property but has pushed for me to do my due diligence on any property deal, its an education, and what you do with it is your responsibility. I for one was buying real estate for 30 years the same as what I have learnt from Dymphna, only now, i have been knowledge of tax, insurances and protection.

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Property
East Malvern, AU
Jan 07, 2014 4:21 pm EST

Dymphna Boholt is an amazing woman. She is incredibly generous with her information and herself. She is compassionate and really cares about people and their success. Since signing up with Dymphna we have made back our money many times, my husband has transitioned into Real Estate as a full time profession and we have both grown a massive amount personally. The person who wrote this complaint has no idea about the real Dymphna Boholt

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