Keala Kanae Scam Alert – Are Keala Kanae Courses Scams?

Last Updated on April 19, 2025 by Eric Cantu

Looking for a Keala Kanae scam alert? Are Keala Kanae courses scams? Why does this affiliate marketing guru attract the big “scam” word so often? It happens so much that Keala Kanae himself is having to address it.

Are his training platforms and business launch challenges legit? Or are they hype machines packed with massive upsells and red flags?

Keala Kanae Scam Alert – Are Keala Kanae Courses Scams?

Although 100% legal, complaints of Keala Kanae’s massive upsells, unrealistic revenue promises, “done for you” systems that don’t pan out, and charging upward of $10k for training should raise major red flags.

Personally, I don’t think affiliate marketing training should cost $10k-$20k. I don’t think you should be upsold training module after training module with each one more expensive than the last. And I definitely don’t believe there’s any business that’s “done for you”.

In this article we’ll examine Keala Kanae’s beginnings, his training platforms, and the common thread that binds them all: massive upsells.

You’ve probably seen Keala Kanae’s “from zero to hero” ads all over your social media. That’s where I first found him years ago pushing AWOL Academy back in 2017. The free webinar I sat in on didn’t feel “live”. There was a lot of hype and plenty of guys with backwards hats talking about success, but what was the actual product here?

AWOL Academy fizzled in 2017 and Keala Kanae rebooted it years later with Fullstaq Marketer. You may have seen him promoting it via his Digital Freelancer ads on social media or his Freelance Affiliate Guide review he uses as a lead-in to his training courses.

Unfortunately, his latest platforms follow the exact same pattern that brought down AWOL Academy.

So is Keala Kanae legit? Is freelance digital marketing legit? Why does it end up costing upwards of 10K to finish his training? Are Keala Kanae’s courses worth the high prices? A deeper look into AWOL Academy, Fullstaq Marketer, and Digital Freelancer expose the obvious patterns.

What Constitutes a Scam?

The definition of a scam is “a dishonest scheme, a fraud.” In business, when there is an exchange of money without any product or service being delivered, this is a scam.

I’ve done many reviews on network marketing platforms and several other so-called “scams” that are 100% legal. Are Keala Kanae’s courses technically scams? No they are not. It’s important to understand that there’s a difference between businesses that aren’t a good investment and businesses that are illegal.

Personally, I don’t think Keala’s training platforms that routinely cost $10k-$20k to complete are a good investment, especially for a beginner looking to make a splash with affiliate marketing.

And that’s exactly what every single one of his platforms do, over and over again.

To go a bit further, I feel his platforms actually prey on that need for instant gratification. And before you know it, you’ve paid too much, gotten little in return, and you feel defeated.

Keala Kanae – How It All Began

Keala Kenae shares his story all the time in ads like the one above. Very entrepreneurial minded, he’s worked his away out of coffee shops and minimum wage to founding major multi-million dollar businesses.

Unfortunately, this is the exact same story every single “guru” uses when they’re pushing their latest, greatest, ultra expensive training.

I’m not saying in any way that his story is a lie, but for those who have been duped by other high priced training platforms, it’s that feeling of “Here we go again” and that’s why Keala Kanae’s reputation precedes him.

In 2015, Keala Kanae founded AWOL Academy along with Kameron George. The acronym AWOL stands for “Another Way Of Life”. During that time it was hard to be on Facebook and not see one of AWOL Academy’s ads with either Keala Kanae or his businesses partner Kameron George walking through a million dollar mansion telling you all about AWOL Academy and how it could change your life.

Personally, one of the things that I feel is too gimmicky when I see an online business opportunity are the mandatory scenes of fancy cars and huge mansions.

AWOL Academy was definitely guilty of this.

Now, I’m not going to say these scenes looked staged, or point out that there were no photos on any of the walls, or how in one ad Kameron George says “Welcome to our offices…” and in another Keala says, “Welcome inside my home…”, because honestly, they both could be telling the truth.

Maybe AWOL operated out of Keala’s home and pictures were just removed for personal reasons, but yeah, you get the idea. But there was definitely a lot of hype around AWOL Academy at the time.

So what happened?

What Happened to AWOL Academy?

AWOL Academy was a VERY high ticket affiliate marketing training platform that ultimately didn’t have enough success within its membership to justify that high ticket pricing. Reports vary, but the common number online is that there was only a 3% success rate.

Being profitable after AWOL Academy’s training would have been difficult given the high pricing for the training. Just how expensive was it? Can you say $10k-$20k? Ouch.

The complaints poured in and AWOL got scrapped in 2017.

But Keala wasn’t done. He did a complete AWOL reboot and rebrand, and returned to his exact same patterns with an equally expensive Fullstaq Marketer.

Fullstaq Marketer – How Closely it Follows in AWOL Academy’s Footsteps

Billed as “The World’s Greatest Internet Marketing Training” Fullstaq Marketer mirrors AWOL Academy’s blueprint with high ticket pricing and massive upsells, even using the exact same word for word training module descriptions as its predecessor.

While updating this article, I noticed that Keala Kanae has created an ad posing as an “open letter” responding to scam allegations.

In this ad, Keala Kanae goes through Google’s top search results to find articles that review his platforms. He calls out articles about him that have “scam” in their title as click bait, saying that the authors of those articles are simply trying to make a commission on another product.

The problem is here is that searches for “Keala Kanae Scam” are popular because many, many, many people are making that search and filling the articles with valid complaints.

It’s also important to note that his own ad with the words “Keala Kanae” and “scam” in the title is aimed at selling his products.

Keala Kanae’s Latest – Digital Freelancer

It doesn’t take long for Keala to repackage and roll out another high ticket hype machine. Digital Freelancer ads are all over instagram and Facebook.

He’s showing off his balances at an ATM, getting in a fancy ride, calling his system “done for you” and making some ballsy claims and promises of income. And then like clockwork, it’s time for massive upsells, high ticket pricing, and unrealistic promises of revenue.

Haven’t seen the ads? Check out my full Digital Freelancer review and see the number of customer complaints all throughout the comments.

Want training that delivers? Check out my detailed review and full walkthrough of the affiliate marketing training platform I owe all my success to! The training is straightforward, affordable, and you can test drive it first to see if it’s a good fit. Click here to check out my full review!

Final Thoughts

Keala Kanae has a pattern with his training: low start up costs followed by extreme upsells. He pairs that with unrealistic revenue claims and it adds up to complaint after complaint of customers left feeling high and dry.

Were you an AWOL Academy member? How much did you end up spending? Were you satisfied with your results? Are you looking into Fullstaq Marketer and Digital Freelancer and can’t shake the “I don’t know about this” feeling? Let me know in the comments section below! Ask any questions you have!

I always respond and I look forward to hearing from you!

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