It all starts with a message on TikTok or Instagram: ‘Do you also want to be financially free?’ Members of the organization For The People try to recruit members for the courses they offer. But recruiting new members seems especially important. Research by Omroep Brabant shows that at least dozens of young people from Brabant are members. Former members often look back with regret.
The former members of For The People (FTP), whom Omroep Brabant spoke to, look back on their membership of the network marketing organization with mixed feelings. “You think: this is it. They say they are going to help you. But no one has ever helped me and it only cost money. Everyone puts their last cents into it because they think this will bring success,” says former member Jens*.
Mandy* agrees: “The first week the leaders were breathing down your neck, but after a few weeks I had to figure it out myself and I was ignored.” Iris* also looks back on it with mixed feelings: “Despite the wonderful memories and new contacts, it was quite a waste of my time and money.”
Pyramid scheme?
When recruiting new members for an organization is more important than the product being sold, it may be a pyramid scheme. And that is prohibited by law in the Netherlands.
Claudia Gross is an associate professor at the TIAS business school and has been researching this for years. “It is difficult to say and the legislation has many holes, you can hardly prove whether something is a pyramid scheme. Also, only a judge can determine whether FTP is a pyramid scheme. FTP’s revenue model does show elements that are reminiscent of a pyramid-like structure, especially the emphasis on recruiting new members.”
Tight pattern
For Mandy, the obligations were mainly a reason to quit. “You had to come to the office a lot. I also just worked full timeso that was impossible.” When she didn’t come, she was told to make time for her ‘family’. “I have my own family and friends. It’s fun to meet new people, but I’m not going to give up my life for people I don’t even know well yet.”
Minke* recognizes this. “You had to be in the office a lot. Then you end up in the right environment with the right people, as they call it.” If they have an event or online meeting had missed, her mentor started pushing her even more.
Gross hears this often. “You are promised a lot of freedom: both financial and inner freedom. But in the meantime, members are in a strict schedule. They have to approach new people, post messages on social media and they have all kinds of agreements. So that is actually very crooked.”
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For The People
Previously, the members of FTP were affiliated with well-known network marketing companies, such as the American company IM Academy, which Omroep Brabant previously wrote about. You can see FTP as a Dutch branch of the company.
After IM Academy was sued in the United States by the Federal Trade Commission, a consumer protection organization, for a fraud amounting to approximately $1.2 billion, FTP’s leaders decided to switch to another network marketing company called JIFU.
They didn’t stay there long either. In May 2025, FTP’s leaders decided to start their own business. Since then, members no longer pay to a network marketing company that is above FTP, but to FTP itself.
The more members you recruit, the more money and prestige you get within FTP. One of those young people with a lot of prestige is 24-year-old Luuk Brands from Waalwijk.
‘Love bombing’
During so-called ‘bonding days‘ was sometimes told what members are and are not allowed to do. “For example, you were forbidden to eat or drink certain things,” says Mandy. It gave her a strange feeling. “Quite a lot of people listened to it. I had the feeling that you became normal brainwashed.”
Iris had the feeling for a while that something was wrong, but she didn’t stop right away. “You really are in a kind of bubble together. Every day you speak to each other in a very positive way, it is difficult to imagine that they can also have negative intentions.” She emphasizes that not all members have bad intentions: “Most people just get sucked into it, I think it’s mainly about the leaders.”
According to Gross, this is typical for such companies. “You often see that theylove bombing‘ do, the members are, so to speak, showered with love. That makes it difficult to express criticism.”
Commercial friendship
After the young people stopped, they often heard nothing from their so-called ‘family’. “Everyone is so positive towards you, but as soon as you stop you don’t hear from them anymore. That surprised me,” says Iris.
Minke sometimes hears from the people where she is close was along. “They are still there. They sometimes ask how I am doing and if I miss FTP. They then try to persuade me to come back.”
According to Gross, this fits with the ‘us-them feeling’. “That is typical of the cult-like nature that these network marketing companies often have. They are very nice to their members and strict to those outside who are critical.” When someone stops, you are no longer part of it. “It often turns out that the friendships are no longer worth anything and that it was mainly a commercial, useful friendship. That is very painful.”
Difficult to go to work ‘normally’
Some former members returned to study or work, others joined another online company. Minke has started a higher vocational education and wants to complete it first, but the itch remains: “I’m thinking about making money online, it’s completely normal these days.”
According to Claudia Gross, it is not surprising that young people switch from one network marketing organization to another. “It is difficult for young people to return to a normal education or job, after convincing your friends and family for a long period of time that you are an online entrepreneur and will earn a lot of money.”
Accountability
*The eight former members of FTP that Omroep Brabant spoke to extensively come from different places in the country and would like to remain anonymous. Their real names are known to the editors. In addition to the negative experiences they had with FTP, they all also indicate that it was an educational process.
FTP is registered with the Dutch Chamber of Commerce, but according to their website also has a branch in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. According to a tax specialist who spoke to Omroep Brabant, entrepreneurs often open branches in Dubai with the intention of taking advantage of tax benefits. But according to the tax specialist, this is not as easy as it sounds. “It is not the case that when you open a letterbox in Dubai you no longer have to pay tax in the Netherlands, it doesn’t work that way.”
Omroep Brabant approached For The People for rebuttal, but they did not respond to our questions.
