IM Academy, a company that has been convicted in Belgium for organizing a pyramid scheme, is still very active in Brabant in recruiting new members. On Sunday she held another event in Breda that attracted about 1400 young people. In the Netherlands they still get away with their dubious practices. Omroep Brabant spoke to young people from Brabant who left this organisation. “When I stopped, the blow came. I came back to reality and saw what it had done.”
The American course platform IM Academy is controversial because it may be a pyramid scheme. That is forbidden in the Netherlands, because it is unfair: people at the top of the pyramid earn a lot of money and people at the bottom often lose money.
“In principle it is a pyramid scheme, but of course it is not said.”
Omroep Brabant spoke to former members who only wanted to tell their story anonymously. Most say they learned a lot about presenting, leadership and trading cryptocurrencies during their time at the Academy. But because the focus was increasingly on network marketing, they eventually decided to stop.
For example, a former member says that it no longer felt good after a while: “I was really good at persuading people, but at a certain point I thought it was a bit sad. Then I thought: I shouldn’t do this anymore. Especially because you knew that it was becoming increasingly difficult for those others to find new people.”
He himself recognized that it was unfair. “Basically it’s just a pyramid scheme. Only that is not said of course. And you learned tricks to get around that.”
“For you ten others.”
When people finally decide to get out of such a pyramid scheme, it is not always without consequences. “In that period everything revolved around IM. I pushed my parents away from me. I ignored my friends. They were no longer important. My business was more important and I was in the office until one in the morning. I was not aware of that at the time. I was so obsessed.”
At first he felt at home in the tight-knit community of IM Academy, but later it turned out that it was different. “In the beginning you think: I belong somewhere, I am important. At the beginning you are also important, because you provide them with something. If you then no longer supply new people, they simply think: ten others for you.”
“I came back to reality and saw what it had done.”
He stopped working to go full-time for IM Academy. “I was so blind. When I stopped, the blow came. I came back to reality and saw what it had done. I thought I had made friends in that organization, but I don’t speak to them anymore.”
In retrospect, he is happy that he did complete his education. “There are also boys who have nothing and who also go blank. That is really not smart. It is difficult to pass that on to the young people of today. I think that is very bad.”
IM Academy and a number of young people from Brabant who are high up in the Dutch organization did not answer our questions.
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Omroep Brabant itself became a member of IM Academy and spoke to young people who left the organisation. You can see that in this episode of HOW..?
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