The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a complaint for permanent injunction, monetary judgement and other relief against IYOVIA, also known as International Markets Live, Inc. (IML) and IM Mastery Academy Ltd. The FTC alleges that IYOVIA violated Section 5a of the FTC Act, as well as a number of other rules regarding telemarketing and consumer fraud and online shopper confidence, and bring action under the rules of 5a, 13b and 19 of the FTC Act.
The FTC alleges that IYOVIA was operating a “large deceptive investment scheme training young adults, including Black and Latino consumers,” claiming that “consumers can make significant income by joining.” The FTC says IYOVIA lacks support for these claims and call the earnings representations false or made up. According to the filed complaint, the FTC says: “In truth, a substantial percentage of purchasers of the Trading Training Services lose money trading, on top of the hefty sum they pay IML.”
The complaint alleges that IYOVIA has generated more than $1.242 billion in worldwide sales since 2018, and stated that its top salespeople have knowingly engaged in using deceptive earnings claims in telemarketing to sell IML’s services. In addition, the company’s top salespeople are believed to have instructed team members on how to post deceptive earnings claims online “in ways that will evade law enforcement investigators.”
