Relaxing on white beaches and racing in the coolest cars. By joining the controversial company IM Academy, you could become rich very quickly. But research by Omroep Brabant shows that many young people actually lose money from it. After negative media attention, the company now continues under a different name and continues to entice young people. “I’m worried about my son,” says a concerned mother.
Now that IM Academy’s name has been tarnished in many European countries, members are switching to a similar company, with a different name: JIFU. Just like IM Academy, JIFU is an online platform that offers courses on, among other things, trading cryptocurrency and how to make money through social media.
Piramidespel
Besides taking these courses, you can mainly make money by recruiting new members. And that means paying attention, because when recruiting members is more important than the product being sold, it could be a pyramid scheme. In such a pyramid scheme, people who have been around for a while and are at the top of the pyramid earn money off the backs of new members. Ultimately, most members lose their money. Pyramid schemes are prohibited in the Netherlands.
Omroep Brabant itself became a member of IM Academy and spoke to young people who left the organization. You can see that in this episode of HOE..?
Financial incentive
Claudia Gross, assistant professor at Radboud University, has been researching these types of companies for years and states that both IM Academy and JIFU are a lot like a pyramid scheme, but in combination with selling a service or product. Gross previously saw that IM Academy members in Switzerland and Germany also switched to JIFU.
According to her, it is typical for members of these types of companies to move from one organization to another. “These types of companies live on momentum. When there is negative press, it is difficult to find people who still want to become members. Then it just runs out and they have to come up with something new.”
One of the leaders of the Dutch branch of IM Academy is Luuk Brands from Waalwijk. He also recently switched to JIFU. According to Gross, it is effective for those who are high at the top to switch as a group. “Those who were high in the old organization take the members under them to the new organization and immediately earn money. This financial incentive is very interesting for the ‘leaders’.”
READ ALSO: Brabant young people travel to Hungary for the controversial IM Academy event
Loopholes in the law
But what do those leaders tell those members when they make the switch? “I have no insight into that, but I can imagine that they first blame others for the company’s shrinking and then say that they have found another organization where it is even cooler and better.”
She has another suspicion: “I have no evidence for it, but it could also be that the new company offers money to the leader to switch to the other company.”
Pyramid schemes are prohibited in the Netherlands. How is it possible that these companies can continue as normal? Gross: “These companies consciously look for loopholes in the law. They are often very complicated with a head office abroad and often the leaders and their members have a different name, making it difficult to find out who does what. name of who does.”
Keeping up appearances
The Gaming Authority in The Hague is responsible for supervising pyramid schemes, but it only looks at companies that are purely a pyramid scheme and offer nothing else. Since IM Academy and JIFU offer a product, namely the courses, the Gaming Authority does not look at this.
But according to Gross, the companies only offer a course to keep up appearances. “For these companies, the product only serves to obscure the actual business model, which is recruiting paying members who then recruit members and so on.”
In the case of IM Academy and JIFU, the Gaming Authority looks away. “There should be an organization at a national level tasked with tackling these practices. They should be given enough time and money to build up knowledge so that victims can come forward to them and they can take action against the companies.”
Worried mother
The fact that no agency is tackling these practices was also evident when a concerned mother reported to the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) last week. Her son recently joined JIFU and told her that JIFU was previously called IM Academy. After the mother read the criticism of IM Academy online, she became concerned about her son and decided to report to the AFM.
They informed her that they could not provide a substantive response because it was not within their area of expertise. The mother was therefore referred to the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM). But they also previously indicated to Omroep Brabant that they are not about the practices of IM Academy.
Would you like to respond to this story or do you have a tip? Email the research editing or reach us 100 percent anonymously via Publeaks.
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