ACAMSReviews of acams.org

Customer support was terrible. I started reading reviews and I am so happy I did not pay money to ACAMS. Following to see if the reviews change.

I found ACAMS to be a great organization for their local chapter meetings and networking, and that of all the courses offered, the CAMS exam is likely the primary purpose of membership. The reality is that selling and proctoring exams and certifications is their business model -- and an impressive global undertaking that no other AML training vendor can match. The customer service staff communications are somewhat aggressive in their focus on selling those products, but I did receive timely and helpful responses to verify my eligibility and then pay the exam invoice when I was pressed to meet deadlines (kudos to Ellen V. in customer service!) In their defense on costs, I found no-cost and low-cost online training and webinars that are excellent and earned enough credits for CAMS exam eligibility quickly. Note that online research of CAMS exam study materials indicates those provided by ACAMS could be better —-and there are many other vendors who offer CAMS exam study products but are not related to ACAMS. Tread carefully.

I will give ACMAS 0 star if I can. Half of the time, I can login successfully. The other half, with the same username and password, it led me to reset my password. It also took them a long time for them to confirm the payment as if they do not like money. Be aware that even after paying for the membership, you still need to pay extra money to attend their courses and get credits in order to maintain the membership. Companies do not care if you can maintain the membership or not that much, as long as you have passed the exam once, you are good to go. That is also the reason why you can see people just put ACAMS certificate issue date on Linkedln. Here is ACAMS's "competitors": Simply go to the government AML/ATF related website. To get an overview of AML/ATF, search "international anti money laundering organizations" in your browser. To get specific jurisdiction updates and instructions on how to do your job, search local financial intelligence unit. They are completely free and get updated based on criminal trends. You can also just search up news related to these trends. When I get my job interviews, they will usually ask you if you are familiar with the compliance policy of the jurisdiction the company operates in. Take a good look at that, you do not need ACAMS.

If you need proof that ACAMS is a for-profit enterprise that is only interested in taking your money, please read this review. I've been an ACAMS member for over 15 years, and was invited to speak at their conferences in Las Vegas and Hollywood for almost 10 consecutive years. My presentations always received excellent feedback from the audiences and I generally spoke to packed rooms. I'm a law enforcement professional who retired in 2023 to enter the private sector as a financial crime consultant. I noticed that I was not invited to speak at any of this year's conferences, so I reached out to my contact at ACAMS. I was told they would love to have me speak again, but my company would have to sponsor the event (known in the conference industry as "pay to play".) The message here is that ACAMS is simply not interested in having seasoned professionals share their experiences with the AML community. They want money, period. Also of note, ACAMS has changed ownership twice in the last few years and I began to notice a significant decline in the quality of their offerings. I will not be renewing my membership when it expires this year. There are a lot of other financial crime organizations out there that are worth exploring.

After being unable to do the exam, Vueperson "escalates" the issue to ACAMS, which then sends back to Vueperson. A complete joke. I wish I had seen these reviews first. What a shame. The profit-making enterprise won't last long this way. Who cares right ?!

Taking the ACAMS Money Laundering Specialist course/exam was the best thing I ever did. The reading material is very informative and the support from Tom Frenzel and Praj was second to none. Any concerns or information I needed was always answered and resolved swiftly. Highly recommend taking the course with ACAMS if that's the career path you choose.

As has happened with many professional associations, ACAMS was sold to a for-profit enterprise (regardless of their tax-status) and revenue and profit are the key focal points of the organization. Besides their accreditation programs being excessively priced, their customer service is abysmal and the instructors they hire to conduct classes are just trying to get through the curriculum rather than trying to ensure anyone learns something. They're performing an upgrade to their LMS which takes it offline for those trying to complete their coursework and the downtime is 3 entire days. This illustrates clearly that they haven't got the necessary IT skills to manage what should be a much simpler (and faster task). This experience is similar to other "professional organizations" (e.g. ATD) where they get the tax benefit of being "not for profit", but trust me... it's a very profitable business for the owners.

ACAMS is a scam. Despite lacking concrete evidence, they threatened to revoke my certification, which I earned legitimately on December 11th. Now, they're demanding an additional $100 for an alternate exam, unjustly placing the burden on me. This experience feels like unwarranted mental harassment. After so much time and effort I passed the exam and now to make more money they have started this business. This is the most awful experience.