The Orlando, Fla.-based Institute of Commercial Real Estate touts commercial property as a quick and easy way to make money.

The full-page ads in Boston’s daily newspapers screamed headlines that were hard to miss.

“How You Can Get Super Rich with Boston’s Commercial Real Estate! Self-made Multimillionaire Reveals Next Jackpot for Investors!”

The ads, which cost as much as $60,000, promised a “groundbreaking event” at the Woburn Hilton that would demonstrate “step-by-step how you can own lucrative commercial real estate in as little as 60 days.” The announcement included a picture of Cherif Medawar, a self-described real estate magnate and “one of the largest single owners of historical commercial properties in the [United States] and founder of the Institute of Commercial Real Estate.”

But the three dozen people who attended the free session last week got the latest get-rich-quick scheme and heard a two-hour sales pitch for a three-day seminar totaling $2,995.

Real estate professionals are telling buyers to beware. “I never heard of the Institute of Commercial Real Estate or Medawar, but he made up a name trying to make his business sound legitimate,” said Robert Nahigian, chapter president of the Counselors of Real Estate (CRE), a 55-year-old organization for real estate advisors. “There’s the Institute for Real Estate Management [and] the Urban Land Institute, and he comes along with the ‘Institute of Commercial Real Estate.’ It sounds pretty good, but the attendees might not know this is just a fancy name.”

During the session, Edward Lisogar, substituting for Medawar, described a hypothetical $250,000 real estate deal for a vacant commercial property. Under his scheme, the novice investor would find a tenant who would pay for the building renovations and $4,000 in monthly rent. In addition, he promised a tax-free opportunity with hands-off management, and no calls “to fix the toilet.”

Lisogar never explained why empty property would miraculously be profitable. And when one of the attendees asked: “What if I don’t have $50,000 for the down payment?” Lisogar quickly said, “Don’t worry about that.”

In another example, Lisogar said he is buying a single-family home in New Jersey for $29,000 and plans to spend $21,000 to renovate the home and lease it to a local church as a day care center.

“Why not buy a home and put a commercial use on the first floor?” Lisogar told the audience. But he failed to mention that zoning laws would prevent commercial use in a residential district.

One contractor in the crowd questioned the modest amount of cash for the renovation. “It costs $21,000 for a new kitchen. How can you renovate a home for that little amount?” he asked.

But Lisogar dismissed the question, saying, “Just raise the amount; you’ll still be profitable.”

CRE’s Nahigian said out-of-state examples are irrelevant.

“Boston is a high-cost area, so a deal that might work in New Mexico will not fly here,” he said. “Why should anyone believe this stuff?”

While Lisogar encouraged the group to hold questions until the end of the session, he later said, “I can’t answer all these questions. I have to catch a 4 p.m. flight.”

“It’s just a con game,” said Debra Stevens, principal at The Stevens Group, a Boston-based commercial real estate firm, who attended the session. “I went because I was curious about who would go to such a thing and my feelings are confirmed that these guys are preying on unsuspecting people.”

Stevens, who said her blood pressure increased during the sales pitch, said anyone interested in investing should seek counsel or enroll in a class at Boston University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology or the Certified Commercial Investment Member Institute (CCIM). At the very least, she said, a novice should seek the advice of a local broker before buying a piece of commercial real estate.

“This suggestion that you can invest in commercial real estate tax-free is a lie,” she said. “Purchasing real estate requires hard money, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”

‘Not a Threat’

Jonathan Salk, chief executive officer of CCIM, a global organization that offers courses in financial, market and investment analysis, said he’s not worried that the public might be confused about the alphabet soup of commercial real estate organization names.

“We had our lawyers look at it and we don’t feel threatened, because what they’re offering does not compare in any way to what we offer,” he said. “They are not a threat.”

Brian McNiff, a spokesman for Secretary of State William Galvin, said the state does not regulate such courses. “If they were selling financial advice or stock, they might run afoul of the state’s Securities Division,” he said. “But a course like that is probably foolish, but not illegal.”

The fast-talking Lisogar, dressed in a gray sleeveless sweater, brown cotton pants and a white shirt, told the audience he was president of the Ventura International in Scottsdale, Ariz. But directory assistance did not have a phone number for the company and a Web site could not be found on Google.

Officials at the Federal Trade Commission have posted “buyer beware” warnings for years about such schemes. In the late 1990s, they said, “thousands of consumers attended ‘seminars’ in hotel rooms where they are persuaded to invest in fraudulent business opportunities and investments.”

The agency heard from consumers who said they were lured to seminars by newspaper ads or late-night infomercials that promised easy ways to buy and sell real estate and no-money-down schemes. But participants later found they didn’t learn much about how to profit from real estate and were out thousands of dollars.

While Lisogar insisted that the Orlando, Fla.-based Institute of Commercial Real Estate offers a triple guarantee, promising to refund three times the tuition cost if students are not satisfied, the FTC warns seminar participants to get refund guarantees in writing.

It was unclear if any of the last Wednesday’s attendees in Woburn signed up for the pricey three-day workshop. An Institute of Commercial Real Estate spokesman did not return a call seeking the information. Other sessions were held earlier last week in Braintree, Dedham and Waltham.

Kevin Phelan, president of Colliers Meredith & Grew, a global real estate firm with office in Boston, laughed at the idea of the three-day seminar on Route 128. “I have too much good going than being caught coming out of a hotel in Woburn,” he said.