IM Academy

A summary of what happened?

Analyzing the Fake Copyright Notice(s)

Our team collects and analyses fraudulent copyright takedown requests, legal complaints, and other efforts to remove critical information from the internet. Through our investigative reporting, we examine the prevalence and operation of an organized censorship industry, predominantly funded by criminal entities, oligarchs, and disreputable businesses or individuals. Our findings allow internet users to gain insight into these censorship schemes’ sources, methods, and underlying objectives.

What was IM Academy trying to hide?

IM Academy‘s attempts to hide unfavourable content through the misuse of copyright notices while allegedly engaging in perjury present serious legal concerns. These actions suggest a calculated attempt to manipulate legal systems to suppress free speech, a fundamental violation of copyright law principles and an abuse of legal processes. The use of such tactics not only undermines the integrity of copyright protection but also potentially constitutes perjury, further entangling IM Academy in legal accountability. Let’s examine the information IM Academy may be trying to remove from the internet –

Investigative Report on IM Academy: Allegations, Legal Battles, and the Dark Side of an Education Platform

Background on IM Academy

IM Academy, previously known as iMarketsLive, is a company offering online courses on forex and cryptocurrency trading, established in 2013 by Christopher Terry. While it promotes itself as a platform providing financial literacy and trading skills, the organization has encountered numerous allegations, regulatory scrutiny, and public complaints that raise questions about its legitimacy and practices.

Allegations of a Pyramid Scheme

Central to the concerns surrounding IM Academy is its business model, which many allege functions as a pyramid scheme. Rather than focusing on education or trading, a significant portion of the company’s emphasis lies in recruiting new members. This structure incentivizes members to bring in more recruits, often more than focusing on trading success or educational content. Reports indicate that members are enticed with promises of financial independence and wealth, leading them to recruit aggressively, often targeting young adults and students.

Members are reportedly encouraged to pay subscription fees with the promise that they can earn these fees back — and more — by recruiting others. Critics argue that the primary profit for participants comes not from the education itself but from the recruitment of new members, which mirrors the structure of a pyramid scheme. This structure has raised concerns in various countries, with authorities investigating IM Academy’s methods for focusing more on member recruitment than actual trading education.

Regulatory Warnings and Legal Actions

IM Academy’s activities have caught the attention of financial regulators in multiple countries, leading to investigations and regulatory warnings. The company’s unregistered status in many regions has led regulators to caution citizens against engaging with it. Regulators have frequently questioned IM Academy’s adherence to financial and business standards, as the organization operates in a legally ambiguous space by mixing trading education with multi-level marketing (MLM) practices.

In one instance, regulators launched an investigation into IM Academy’s marketing practices, scrutinizing its advertisements and recruiting methods. IM Academy has also faced fines in some areas for allegedly promoting unauthorized financial products. In several regions, IM Academy events have led to police interventions, with authorities disrupting meetings aimed at recruitment and occasionally arresting organizers who target students and young adults.

Psychological Manipulation and Cult-Like Environment

Former members and critics have described IM Academy’s approach to recruitment and member retention as cult-like, with claims of psychological pressure and group manipulation. Members are reportedly encouraged to invest emotionally in the group, adopt a loyal mindset, and recruit aggressively. The organization allegedly promotes an intense culture where doubts about the business model or skepticism toward IM Academy’s promises are discouraged or silenced.

Family members of recruits have expressed concerns, describing behavioral changes in their loved ones who join IM Academy. The organization has reportedly developed a culture of exclusivity and loyalty, convincing members to prioritize Academy goals and push away those who raise concerns. This cult-like approach to retaining members has led to families describing the group as a “crypto-sect,” particularly in instances where members dedicate significant time and money to the organization, often to the detriment of their personal and financial lives.

Financial Losses Among Members

One of the most frequent complaints against IM Academy is the financial toll it takes on its members. Many individuals join with high hopes of financial gains, only to find themselves incurring substantial losses. The recurring subscription fees, coupled with expectations to invest additional funds into trading or recruiting, often leave members in precarious financial situations.

Numerous individuals have shared stories of going into debt or losing their savings due to IM Academy’s promises. Some former members describe feeling compelled to keep investing, either to maintain status within the organization or to avoid acknowledging the losses. IM Academy’s promises of easy money often draw in those unfamiliar with trading, making it challenging for them to assess the risks accurately. As a result, many walk away with little to show for their time and investment, aside from frustration and debt.

Questionable Quality of Educational Content

Another criticism often raised against IM Academy is the quality and focus of its educational materials. Although marketed as a platform to teach trading skills, many have found the content to be insufficient for actual success in trading. Some former members have reported that the courses often prioritize recruitment tactics over trading strategies, with more emphasis on bringing in new recruits than on building financial literacy or practical trading skills.

Members have also reported that the courses are often basic and lack depth, failing to equip them with a strong foundation in trading. While there are various online resources available at lower or no cost, the premium charged by IM Academy raises questions about the genuine value of the content. Dissatisfaction among members has grown, with many feeling they paid more for the community and recruitment potential than for substantial trading education.

Attempts to Suppress Negative Coverage

IM Academy has also been accused of attempting to suppress or censor negative information and reviews. Former members and critics have reported experiencing pressure to remove negative testimonials, and some allege receiving direct or indirect threats from IM Academy representatives. The company’s efforts to maintain a positive online image, coupled with a reluctance to address criticisms openly, have fueled suspicions about its transparency.

This reputation management approach raises questions about IM Academy’s willingness to engage with or address the concerns of dissatisfied members. Rather than responding to critiques or improving its educational offerings, the company’s strategy appears focused on controlling the narrative around its brand. Such practices, critics argue, reflect a lack of transparency and a prioritization of recruitment over meaningful engagement with its members’ experiences.

Conclusion

IM Academy’s business model, regulatory challenges, and treatment of members present a troubling pattern. The combination of legal actions, regulatory warnings, negative reviews, and accusations of cult-like tactics paints a complex and concerning picture of the organization. With a focus that appears to lean more toward recruitment than true educational value, IM Academy leaves many members feeling financially exploited and emotionally strained.

Prospective members should exercise caution, conduct thorough research, and consider alternative resources if they are interested in learning about trading. The numerous complaints, regulatory red flags, and controversies surrounding IM Academy suggest that individuals may face significant risks by engaging with the organization.

How do we counteract this malpractice?

Once we ascertain the involvement of IM Academy (or actors working on behalf of IM Academy), we will inform IM Academy of our findings via Electronic Mail.

Our preliminary assessment suggests that IM Academy may have engaged a third-party reputation management agency or expert, which, either independently or under direct authorization from IM Academy, initiated efforts to remove adverse online content, including potentially fraudulent DMCA takedown requests. We will extend an opportunity to IM Academy to provide details regarding their communications with the agency or expert, as well as the identification of the individual(s) responsible for executing these false DMCA notices.

Failure to respond in a timely manner will necessitate a reassessment of our initial assumptions. In such an event, we will be compelled to take appropriate legal action to rectify the unlawful conduct and take the following steps –

Since IM Academy made such efforts to hide something online, it seems fit to ensure that this article and sensitive information targeted online by these events get a lot more exposure and traffic than what it would have received originally

We hope this becomes an excellent case study for the Streisand effect…The key idea behind the Streisand effect is that efforts to restrict information can backfire, often causing the information to gain more attention than it would have otherwise. This effect is widespread in the digital age, where users quickly notice and spread censorship efforts on social media and other platforms. Trying to suppress something can unintentionally lead to it becoming more visible, which IM Academy is finding out the hard way.

Potential Consequences for IM Academy

Under Florida Statute 831.01, the crime of Forgery is committed when a person falsifies, alters, counterfeits, or forges a document that carries “legal efficacy” with the intent to injure or defraud another person or entity.

Forging a document is considered a white-collar crime. It involves altering, changing, or modifying a document to deceive another person. It can also include passing along copies of documents that are known to be false. In many states in the US, falsifying a document is a crime punishable as a felony.

Additionally, under most laws, “fraud on the court” is where “a party has sentiently set in motion some unconscionable scheme calculated to interfere with the judicial system’s ability impartially to adjudicate a matter by improperly influencing the trier of fact or unfairly hampering the presentation of the opposing party’s claim or defense.”  Cox v. Burke, 706 So. 2d 43, 46 (Fla. 5th DCA 1998) (quoting Aoude v. Mobil Oil Corp., 892 F.2d 1115, 1118 (1st Cir. 1989)).

Is IM Academy Committing a Cyber Crime?

Yes, it seems so. IM Academy used multiple approaches to remove unwanted material from review sites and Google’s search results. Thanks to protections allowing freedom of speech in the United States, there are very few legal ways to do this. IM Academy could not eliminate negative reviews or search results that linked to them without a valid claim of defamation, copyright infringement, or some other clear breach of the law.

Faced with these limitations, some companies like IM Academy have gone to extreme lengths to fraudulently claim copyright ownership over a negative review in the hopes of taking it down.

Fake DMCA notices have targeted articles highlighting the criminal activity of prominent people to hide their illegal behavior. These people, which include US, Russian, and Khazakstani politicians as well as members from elite circles including the mafia and those with massive financial power, are all connected – and alleged corruption ranging from child abuse to sexual harassment is exposed when exploring evidence found at these URLs. It appears there’s a disturbing level of influence being exerted here that needs further investigation before justice can be served. IM Academy is certainly keeping interesting company here….

The DMCA takedown process requires that copyright owners submit a takedown notice to an ISP identifying the allegedly infringing content and declaring, under penalty of perjury, that they have a good faith belief that the content is infringing. The ISP must then promptly remove or disable access to the content. The alleged infringer can then submit a counter-notice, and if the copyright owner does not take legal action within 10 to 14 days, the ISP can restore the content.

Since these platforms are predominantly based in the U.S., the complaints are typically made under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which requires online service providers and platforms to react immediately to reports or violations. Big Tech companies rarely have systems in place to assess the merit of each report. Instead, all bad actors need to do is clone a story, backdate it, and then demand the real thing be taken down.

Reputation Agency's Modus Operandi

The fake DMCA notices we found always use the “back-dated article” technique. With this technique, the wrongful notice sender (or copier) creates a copy of a “true original” article and back-dates it, creating a “fake original” article (a copy of the true original) that, at first glance, appears to have been published before the true original.

Then, based on the claim that this backdated article is the “original,” the scammers send a DMCA to the relevant online service providers (e.g. Google), alleging that the ‘true’ original is the copied or “infringing” article and that the copied article is the “original,” requesting the takedown of the ‘true’ original article. After sending the DMCA request, the person who sent the wrong notice takes down the fake original URL, likely to make sure that the article doesn’t stay online in any way. If the takedown notice is successful, the disappearance from the internet of information is most likely to be legitimate speech.

As an integral part of this scheme, the ‘reputation management’ company hired by IM Academy creates a website that purports to be a ‘news’ site. This site is designed to look legitimate at a glance, but any degree of scrutiny reveals it as the charade it is.

The company copies the ‘negative’ content and posts it “on the fake ‘news’ site, attributing it to a separate author,” then gives it “a false publication date on the ‘news’ website that predated the original publication.

The reputation company then sent Google a Digital Millennium Copyright Act notice claiming the original website infringed copyright. After a cursory examination of the fake news site, Google frequently accepts the notice and delists the content.

In committing numerous offences, IM Academy either premeditated actions or were unaware of the consequences. Despite hiring an agency to make Google disregard any negative information about IM Academy, ignorance does not excuse this wrongdoing.

Fake DMCA notices have targeted articles highlighting the criminal activity of prominent people to hide their illegal behavior. These people, which include US, Russian, and Khazakstani politicians as well as members from elite circles including the mafia and those with massive financial power, are all connected – and alleged corruption ranging from child abuse to sexual harassment is exposed when exploring evidence found at these URLs. It appears there’s a disturbing level of influence being exerted here that needs further investigation before justice can be served. FSMSmart is certainly keeping interesting company here.

The Reputation Laundering

Rogue Reputation agencies use spurious copyright claims and fake legal notices to remove and obscure articles linking clients to allegations of tax avoidance, corruption, and drug trafficking. Most of these reputation agencies are based offshore, mainly in Russia, India, and Eastern Europe, and they do not worry about complying with US-based laws.

The content in all of the articles for which the fraudulent DMCA notices have been sent relates to allegations of criminal allegations, including corruption, child abuse, sexual harassment, human trafficking and financial fraud against businesses and individuals with ultra-high net worth.

In addition to the misuse of the DMCA takedown process, there is a notable absence of enforcement concerning perjury violations. The statutory requirement related to perjury is designed to deter copyright holders from submitting fraudulent or knowingly false takedown requests, as they may face legal consequences for making false declarations under penalty of perjury. However, to date, there have been no known instances of any individual being prosecuted for perjury in connection with the submission of false DMCA takedown notices.

This lack of enforcement has emboldened copyright holders to exploit the DMCA takedown process to suppress dissent, criticism, or other unfavorable content, without fear of legal repercussions.

Some of the people and businesses who have employed this tactic to remove legitimate content from Google illegally include a Spanish businessman-turned-cocaine-trafficker, Organised crime, an Israeli-Argentine banker accused of laundering money for Hugo Chávez’s regime, a French “responsible” mining company accused of tax evasion, child molesters and sexual predators. IM Academy is in great company ….

What else is IM Academy hiding?

We encourage you to ‘Dork‘ Google by searching for keyword combinations such as [IM Academy] + {Negative Keyword, such as Scam, Fraud, Complaints, Lawsuit, Sanction, etc} on Google. It’s likely if you scroll down to the bottom of this Google search results, you’ll stumble upon this Legal Takedown notice (pictured below)

To make such an investigation possible, we encourage more online service providers to come forward and share copies of content removal requests with industry experts and researchers. If you have any information on IM Academy that you want to share with experts and journalists, kindly email the author directly at [email protected].

All communications are strictly confidential and safeguarded under a comprehensive Whistleblower Policy, ensuring full protection and anonymity for individuals who provide information.