An entrepreneur known as the ‘dropshipping queen’, who claimed to have built a seven-figure empire in e-commerce, has seen her business collapse after allegedly ‘ghosting’ clients and deleting all traces of her social media.
Emma Cunningham, from Melbourne, promised to teach customers how to follow in her footsteps by generating ‘passive income’ through selling products without ever seeing the inventory – a method known as dropshipping.
She previously revealed to the Daily Mail that she was drawn to e-commerce at age 24 after becoming tired of ‘climbing the corporate ladder’ and working at Centrelink.
But in August, I spoke to several unsatisfied clients who had paid up to $10,000 for one of Cunningham’s three-month courses – or ‘challenges’, as she calls them – but didn’t make the money promised. They also didn’t receive any refunds.
Since my story was published, more people have come forward to share their stories. Some say they paid up to $70,000 for a course or to work with Cunningham – only to lose everything.
Now, it seems Cunningham’s downfall has arrived.
According to the complaints I have seen, Cunningham’s ‘coaching’ empire began to crumble around April this year.
And in the latest development in the saga, on September 9, Cunningham’s business ‘My Amazon Empire’ collapsed into liquidation.
Emma Cunningham promised to teach clients how to generate ‘passive income’ through selling products without ever seeing the inventory – a practice known as dropshipping
Three years ago, when I wrote a glowing profile of Cunningham, she told me she had made $4million within three years, and predicted she would earn another $2million in the following financial year.
This success led her to launch My Amazon Empire at the start of 2022.
Her online educational consulting agency promised to help anyone interested in owning and operating an Amazon business modelled after hers.
I even took one of her courses for four weeks, and while I didn’t make much money, I still considered the so-called ‘Amazon queen’ to be a young success story.
But complaints from former clients suggested that while she might have achieved personal success, her coaching claims didn’t live up to the hype.
Jane* and Conner* wanted to start their own online business at the start of the year.
They trusted Cunningham’s guidance and did their ‘due diligence’ before paying an initial $15,000 in start-up costs for Cunningham’s ‘team’ to set up a website for them.
‘I couldn’t find a single bad or even ambiguous thing listed about her or her business dealings. So I trusted her, like many others,’ Jane told the Daily Mail.
Back in August, I interviewed several unsatisfied clients who had paid up to $10,000 for one of Cunningham’s three-month courses. Now, more people have shared their story
‘The idea was that her “team” would set up the store, get it to running a profit, and then she would hand it over to us and provide full training on how to maintain and scale the store.
‘It all sounded promising and we were keen to get started. We chose a niche, a name, and everything was very transparent, initially.
‘Then we started having communication issues – it would take her days to get back to us, her team was clueless, our website was an absolute mess.’
Jane said the online store was meant to go live at the end of February, but never did.
They had a final call with Cunningham in late April, two days before they were due to start a road trip across the country.
‘She promised everything would be live by the end of the week and hyped us up. We left on our lap of Australia, not knowing if we would ever receive any income from the store,’ she added.
‘We never heard from Emma again. No update, no apology, she just ghosted us and stopped responding to all communication.
‘We haven’t received a cent from her or the store either.’
As of September 9, Cunningham’s business My Amazon Empire has gone into liquidation
One customer, who claims to have paid Cunningham $60,000, took her to court.
They went to trial, where a settlement was agreed at the first hearing. However, she failed to pay within the allowed time.
When he later returned to court to enforce the settlement, she did not appear, and he was awarded a summary judgment in his favour.
ASIC documents seen by Daily Mail show the business appeared to operate under an ‘acceptable’ risk – the average default risk for an Australian business – until April.
From May, its risk status fell drastically to ‘impaired’, indicating it was highly vulnerable to default. By September 10, the business had defaulted.
Previously, three clients alleged they had paid for Cunningham’s course and were told there was a ‘money back guarantee’ if they did not make $20,000 upon completion.
They claim their dropshipping businesses did not see those lofty returns and, later, they did not receive refunds from Cunningham, as per the agreement.
When I contacted Cunningham for comment at the time, she said the refunds had been delayed but were issued on August 1. When I published my initial investigation on August 7, the three clients I was speaking to said they had not received the money.
Another woman, who worked for Cunningham, claims she was not paid by her between January and May 2025, and is owed $11,121. (Cunningham told me this payment would be resolved once the clients’ refunds were settled.)
Cunningham, who now lives in Dubai, recently deleted her Instagram account. The website for My Amazon Empire also appears to have been deleted.
Cunningham also previously told me that the delays and setbacks were caused by an unspecified personal catastrophe.
‘I unfortunately had a major personal matter happen,’ she said.
The matter was ‘out of my control’ and had resulted in ‘setbacks’, Cunningham went on to explain, but did not disclose any further details.
Chloe*, 40, signed up to Cunningham’s course in January this year and paid $2,500 per month for three months.
‘I thought [the course] was a good opportunity to make some money and learn a new skill. It just sounded so promising,’ she told me.
Before committing, she asked Cunningham several questions, including about the money back guarantee.
‘If you don’t reach $20,000 turnover from the challenge, I will refund you the $2,500 x 3,’ Cunningham wrote in an email.
Cunningham also spoke at length about this policy on her now-deleted Instagram page.
The course mainly comprised video tutorials on how dropshipping works, setting up a Shopify website, selecting ‘winning’ products from a detailed spreadsheet, and using social media adverts to promote the store.
‘I chose four to five products in a specific niche but my website never went live. We never made any money,’ Chloe said.
Cunningham, who now lives in Dubai, recently deleted her Instagram account. The website for My Amazon Empire also appears to have been deleted
‘The communication was slow throughout. I’d send an email or Slack message and it would take three or four days to get a response. I felt like I was the problem.’
After finishing the course in March, Chloe continued to send emails and Slack messages to Cunningham asking about a refund.
It wasn’t until July that she finally heard back. Cunningham told Chloe she had refunded her $5,000, but after four weeks, she claimed she still hadn’t received the funds.
‘I just want my money back and to forget about this so I can move on,’ she said.
Amanda* completed the same course and claims she only made a few hundred dollars from her online business.
She told me she had been following Cunningham on Instagram for several years before deciding to sign up.
‘When she posted online about a new dropshipping course in January with a guaranteed return of $20,000 once completed, I thought I couldn’t lose,’ she said.
The 39-year-old signed up, paying the $7,500 fee.
She also spent $1,500 on Facebook ads to promote her Shopify store and spent hours on the side hustle alongside her full-time job.
Like Chloe, Amanda claims that communication with Cunningham was initially slow before ceasing altogether.
‘In the third month, I was kicked out of the Slack group, lost access to all the content that was shared, and she was taking ages to respond over email,’ she says.
Cunningham disputes that her communication was poor, saying: ‘I’m unsure why these ladies would continue to pay thousands if the communication was so poor from the beginning.’
Amanda followed up with Cunningham again on June 11, then again a week later on June 18.
On July 1, she finally received a response.
‘She apologised and said she’d been dealing with a lot of personal issues. She promised to organise the refund in the next billing cycle,’ said Amanda.
After following up once more, Amanda was finally told the refund had been issued on July 29 but received no receipt.
‘I borrowed money from my grandma for this and she thinks I’ve started this amazing online business. I still haven’t told my family I lost the money,’ she said.
Lauren was in the same boat as Chloe and Amanda after completing the three-month course, but after enormous perseverance, she managed to get her money back.
‘I had to be persistent. It took weeks of back and forth, compiling screenshots, emails and timelines to clearly show what was and wasn’t delivered,’ she said.
‘I had to be thorough, organised, and patient – but it was worth it. As of Monday, July 28, I received $6,259.48, which is roughly 84 per cent of the full amount I paid.’
Lauren says the money was not ‘voluntarily’ refunded – only paid back to her after she opened a formal dispute case.
‘I’m not expecting any further refunds. I accepted the 84 per cent as a fair outcome.’
Cunningham was contacted for comment on her business liquidation.
*Names have been changed
An expert’s view on online courses
Helen Baker, a financial adviser from Brisbane and founder of On Your Own Two Feet, shares what to do before spending thousands on an online course.
‘Ask yourself: what’s the point of doing this course? What’s the purpose? Is this just a side hustle or do you want it to be your full-time job?’ she says.
‘Take the time to research the person or company before spending money.
‘It can take a lot of time, energy and money starting something from scratch, and you need to make sure the numbers stack up.’
Helen Baker, a financial adviser from Brisbane, shared her advice about online courses
Ms Baker recommends researching the market and competitors, and understanding ongoing costs like shipping, EFTPOS, and currency conversion fees.
She warns that success isn’t guaranteed and advises against quitting your day job until you are absolutely sure your business can support you.
Too many people chase fast money without accounting for the real costs and time involved, she adds.
‘The devil is in the details – check the fine print and always have everything in writing,’ Ms Baker says.
‘How easy is it to get your money back and do you have to pay in full? It’s important to know.
‘Ideally, pay with a credit card, not savings, because the bank can flag anything dodgy.’
