Online career-training company Career Step, LLC has been ordered to pay $43.5 million in debt cancellation and cash to resolve charges brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC alleged that the company used deceptive advertisements to lure consumers, particularly servicemembers and their families, with inflated employment outcomes, job placement promises, and partnerships with prominent companies.
Career Step will cancel $27.8 million in debts and pay $15.7 million in cash to provide redress to consumers harmed by its advertising practices.
“Servicemembers and their families make sacrifices every day to protect our freedoms,” said Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “We owe it to them to make sure that when they look to use their hard-earned benefits to further their education, they get facts and not fantasy.”
According to the FTC's complaint, Georgia-based Career Step promotes career training and certification programs for healthcare industry jobs, targeting servicemembers and their spouses. Since at least 2019, Career Step has allegedly used deceptive advertising on social media and its website, employing sales representatives and AI technology to persuade consumers to enroll. The company also marketed its services through military-focused publications like Military.com and military-sponsored events such as job fairs.
The FTC claims Career Step made false promises about job placement assistance, claiming a "career placement team" would find consumers the "perfect job." In reality, Career Step’s assistance was limited to resume-drafting help or emailing links to general job postings available online.
The complaint also states that Career Step misrepresented employment outcomes by claiming that “most learners” or “more than 80% of its graduates” were employed in their field of study. These claims were based on an optional survey sent only to program completers, which had a low response rate.
Career Step’s website falsely claimed partnerships with leading healthcare businesses like CVS and Walgreens for job placements post-graduation. However, these agreements did not involve any actual job placements.
Additionally, the FTC charged that Career Step misled students about externship placements required for program completion. Less than 10 percent of students in externship-required programs were placed in externships.
Career Step also promised students would complete their programs in four months or less despite most taking longer due to various issues such as frequent website problems and lack of response from representatives. Some students had their programs expire before completion or paid up to $999 for extensions.
The complaint notes that Career Step conducted a deceptive incentivized review program by offering free program extensions for positive reviews on platforms like BBB, Google, and Trustpilot.
The settlement requires Career Step to pay $15.7 million for consumer redress and cancel approximately $27.8 million in debts owed by students who enrolled between February 2020 and February 2023. It prohibits Career Step from deceptively advertising educational products or services.
Career Step must notify third-party platforms displaying incentivized reviews about the FTC’s action against them and request removal of those reviews.
The Commission vote authorizing the staff to file the complaint was unanimous at 5-0. The complaint will be filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Commissioners Melissa Holyoak and Andrew N. Ferguson issued concurring statements.
The staff attorneys involved are Stephanie Liebner, Samuel Jacobson, Sally Tieu, and Michelle White from the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.
NOTE: The Commission files a complaint when it has “reason to believe” that defendants are violating or are about to violate the law. Stipulated final orders have legal force once approved by a District Court judge.
The Federal Trade Commission works to promote competition while protecting consumers through education efforts on various topics at consumer.ftc.gov.
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