Is IM Mastery Academy A Scam? | 4 Truths Behind The Assumptions

Is IM Mastery Academy a scam? In this IM Master Academy review we’ll take a 100% unbiased evaluation of the company. But the question remains if it is profitable. Find out in this comprehensive take on the course platform and the Independent Business Owner opportunity that they are offering.

Is IM mastery Academy A scam Im Mastery Academy review  featured image

An IM Mastery Academy Review Summary

Product Name: IM Mastery Academy

Founders: Christopher and Isis Dela Torre

Products and Prices: 

FRX Academy – $184.95 upon enrollment, $174.95 monthly
HFX Academy – $184.95 upon enrollment, $174.95 monthly
DCX Academy – $184.95 upon enrollment, $174.95 monthly
ECX Academy – $184.95 upon enrollment, $174.95 monthly
Elite Academy – $324.94 upon enrollment, $274.95 monthly
IBO Membership- $16.71/month

Best For: People who have the financial means to splurge for the overpriced courses

Recommended: Not Recommended

What Is IM Mastery Academy About: IM Mastery offers trading courses about ForEx, crypto trading and E-Commerce but is focused on the MLM framework as they are more about selling and recruiting than getting and finding valuable lessons from their courses.

Overall Rating: 5/100

Summary: IM Mastery Academy is an MLM business that offers trading courses and mentoring as their product. Not venture recommend for anyone without significant influence, resources and time because commissions rely heavily on recruitment and course sale.

What is IM Mastery Academy About?

IM Mastery Academy is trademarked under International Markets Live (or IML) INC. as a rebranding move of the company in 2019. But despite the rebranding it seems like they haven’t turned the tide of the issues they were caught in way back on 2018, which could have urged them to create the branding move. But we’ll go into that part later in this article.

Is IM mastery Academy A scam Im Mastery Academy review trademark details


For now, here is a motivational video of IM Mastery Academy’s CEO and Founder Christopher Terry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgKJC577EL4

According to the IM Mastery Academy website, they are in this address: 348 West 57th Street #247, New York, NY 10019. When you check out the business registered in this address, International Marketing Live Inc. shows up which could confirm that they created another brand to steer clear of the “old” company name. Why? Because they have had quite a lot of issues that were associated with iMarketsLive (or International Markets Live) which we’ll tackle in a while.

Later in this IM Mastery Academy review we’ll try to answer the question “is IM Mastery Academy a scam or legit?”. But first let’s go over the people behind this business.

People behind IM Mastery Academy

Is IM mastery Academy A scam Im Mastery Academy review logo

The front personalities of the business are its CEO Chris Terry and his wife, the CFO, Isis Deal Torre. Let’s take a look at what we could find for the two of them.

Christopher Terry

Is IM mastery Academy A scam Im Mastery Academy review chris terry

When you search about Chris Terry, you may find a lot of articles that narrate how he had his humble beginnings as a construction worker who then found his way to becoming part of Amway (another MLM company) before he made a career on trading and as an educator on live trading.

In 2012 he took the leap of faith and established International Markets Live where he offered the same packages that you may find in IM Mastery Academy today.

I actually found a website of about him with the url: iamchristerry.com which was fairly new (created last year), now I’m not sure if it’s actually his or he just didn’t pushed through optimizing it, because it seems like it only existed just to create his branded image. Let me tell you why. But first, here’s a screenshot of the website details:

Is IM mastery Academy A scam Im Mastery Academy review website

It seems like it has created the website through another existing layout because the you click its media page, it seems to still carry over the details of Larry Morrow’s resources, even if the pictures were Chris Terry himself, the hyperlinks and websites cited in the page points to webpages featuring Larry Morrow.

Frankly, that’s not really suspicious at all, just a bit of a bad branding move. But it really doesn’t matter because there’s already a whole lot of existent articles that creates a solid image for him.

Isis Dela Torre

With such elusive details on the personal life of Chris Terry, Isis Dela Torre has more digital footprints and details, here’s a bit of details about her:

Is IM mastery Academy A scam Im Mastery Academy review Isis dela torre



You can read it in full here. You’ll find that most articles refer to her as CFO of IM Mastery Academy (or IMarketsLive/International Markets Live) but in D & B she’s registered as its CEO and Key Principal.

Is IM mastery Academy A scam Im Mastery Academy review DNB Details

Even if Dun & Bradstreet is truly reliable, we cannot say for sure that it’s an updated registration and business profile.

A Deeper Look Beyond IM Mastery Academy

For this part of our IM Mastery Academy review, we’ll take a look at the details that other reviews may not have tackled yet, like domain age, trademark, and their old company IMarkets Live/ International Markets Live past issues.

Domain Age

Even if their company IMarketsLive/ International Markets Live Inc., has long been established, the IM Mastery Academy website was created just last 2019, which is consistent to what we have mentioned earlier in this article as a rebranding move they had years ago.

Is IM mastery Academy A scam Im Mastery Academy review  whois results

Backlinks

For a website that was created some year ago, it’s expected that it would have substantial backlinks which is consistent with what we found:

Is IM mastery Academy A scam Im Mastery Academy review backlink profile

They have a good domain rating and a good number of backlinks which is a sign that they are continuously establishing authority for their online products.

Past Issues of iMarkets Live/ International Markets Live Inc.

As a marketer, I know that a company may choose to rebrand for these three reasons:
1. It needs to veer away from old issues of the company
2. It’s relaunching with a different management and branding
3. Brand expansion

It’s likely that a company established years ago may choose to rebrand and it’s not really something that’s considered suspicious. Most likely the company has chosen to restructure their management, developed better products and as a reputation management strategy. It’s also normal that an established company has had legal issues, and IML is just the same. Here are some of them:

  • A worth noting incident in 2018 was (the then iMarketsLive) their legal case with Wealth Generators LLC., which was about how IML committed “corporate espionage and misappropriation of valuable information” regarding the recruitment of Binary Trading experts. You can read it in full here.
  • iMarketsLive is also banned in the the U.K.SpainColumbiaFrance and Belgium 
  • In 2018, FCTC gave a cease and desist order to iML and other unregistered individuals and business entities offering “forex and binary options to retail investors in the US”

If you’re curious about the other issue that they had before their rebranding in 2019, you can read them here.

Rebranding under a different product alias is a good strategy to keep the slate clean and start again.

But has anything improved? Is IM Mastery Academy really worth its price?

What does the IM Mastery Academy Offer?

What does IM Mastery Academy offer, is it legit or is it just another financial and trading scam? Here we’ll take a look at the present platform and for a while let’s keep the dirt of their previous brand under the rug for a while. This is a way for us to have an unbiased and comprehensive IM Mastery Academy review and to make sure that we’re giving an honest take on their product and offers.

IM Mastery Academy Packages

Here are the educational opportunities offered by IM Mastery Academy:

FRX Academy ($184.95 upon enrollment, $174.95 monthly)

They seem to recommend this course for beginners and those who are new to ForeEx trading.

Is IM mastery Academy A scam Im Mastery Academy review frx

HFX Academy ($184.95 upon enrollment, $174.95 monthly)

As a trader myself, I believe these topics should have been covered too under FRX but who knows maybe they are indeed extensively teaching them things here.

Is IM mastery Academy A scam Im Mastery Academy review Hfx

DCX Academy ($184.95 upon enrollment, $174.95 monthly)

Now this one is quite a good offer because ForEx trading is not the same as digital currency trading (cryptocurrencies) although you can apply the other techniques that you may learn from ForEx trading, it’s good that they created a separate course for this more volatile platform.

Is IM mastery Academy A scam Im Mastery Academy review  dcx

ECX Academy ($184.95 upon enrollment, $174.95 monthly)

This is another good offer as this would be more about E-Commerce and digital marketing. Since they offer this in multiple languages, we can assume that this product is part of their brand expansion move as they try to accommodate other language and nationalities.

Is IM mastery Academy A scam Im Mastery Academy review ecx

Elite Academy ($324.94 upon enrollment, $274.95 monthly)

For anyone looking for a trading tutorial and class, this could be considered as the best option as it included the three packages, and you’ll likely save a lot more if you avail this one.

Is IM mastery Academy A scam Im Mastery Academy review elite academy

When you look at it, choosing the Elite Academy Program may look quite a steal, but I guess that’s the point of their pricing strategy: they gave individual pricing to lessons that you can access as one program so you’ll think it’s a good deal, without realizing that it could have been a ripoff all along.

IM Mastery Academy Refund

IM Mastery academy has a good and clear refund policy:

  1. Refunds are sent on the same service that you used to avail their product
  2. You need to request for a refund within seven days of your purchase
  3. Those who decided to become an Independent Business Owner (IBO) are not within the scope of having refunds.

Let’s go over IM Mastery Academy’s Compensation Plan in a while so we can evaluate if it’s worth the hype.

How does the IM Mastery Academy Work?

Basically, you can choose to avail of their course about trading and learn from there. While that’s promising, one thing that I don’t like about IM Mastery Academy is that they will charge you the monthly fee every 28 days! It’s like you’re paying for 13 months a year!

Is IM mastery Academy Im Mastery Academy review A scam refund policy
This part is most likely missed by most customers

Note that’s quite a rip off.

On the other hand they offer an Independent Business Owner program which we’ll look into next. Their website did not have any link that we can look into but we found a copy uploaded by one of their affiliates, according to IM Mastery Academy compensation plan, it will cost you a monthly recurring fee of $16.71! Now if they will charge you every 28 days, that would be like $217.23 per year.

If you think about it, that’s a steal. But almost all MLMs operate like this. They’ll make you think that you’re saving more by becoming their member! And yes, IM Mastery Academy is an MLM company.

If the company is an MLM, then is IM Mastery Academy a pyramid scheme?

Is IM Mastery Academy a pyramid Scheme?

For this IM Mastery Academy review, let’s first be clear that a pyramid scheme is usually an unregulated business, simply put it is illegal. So is IM Mastery Academy a pyramid scheme? The simplest answer is no, but… it operates on the same premise as a pyramid scheme. The only difference is that they pay taxes and abide by government mandates and restrictions.

Is IM Mastery Academy then an MLM? Yes. an MLM or multi-level marketing company operates on the same rules as a pyramid scheme. It means that the only way for you to get ahead and find the venture profitable is when you have enough connections, repeat orders and time to recruit other people as your downlines. This means that you actually need to be on top of some pyramid before you can actually make a good case for your investment.

Just the same as a pyramid scheme, profitability depends on how many people you’ve recruited and retained. If you haven’t created your own pyramid of connections, it’s most likely that you can’t ensure that you’ll get ahead in the business and profit from it.

Is IM Mastery Academy Legit?

Is IM Mastery Academy legit? Well we can say for sure that the business is legit, but in terms of the quality of the courses that they offer, we’re not so sure.

Can you make money with the IM Mastery Academy?

Yes but with a lot of BUTS. Just so we’re clear here are two ways that you can make money with IM Mastery Academy.

1. You can be a simple customer.

By availing their courses, you can actually make money by referring two other people (to avail the same package as yours) before your billing date. When you have done so, you can get your course free for the month! If you want to continue saving as a customer, then you may need to refer two people every month. In my opinion that’s just quite unrealistic. If you’re a simple customer you may likely get a few months free but it’s not a guaranteed deal every month.

2. You can opt to be an Independent Business Owner

Well the first step to make money as an IBO is when you are able to recruit people and they avail of the IBO or “Platinum Membership”. Whenever they avail of the below courses as an IBO, you get the corresponding bonus compensations:

Is IM mastery Academy A scam Im Mastery Academy review compensation plan

There are different Platinum Membership level but the lowest level, lets you earn the above amounts. I also found in this IM Mastery Academy review that they also offer weekly residuals depending on your Platinum Level. But you should know that going up the ranks means recruiting more people and balancing them up into 3 legs.

So for you to actually get a guaranteed $600 per month, exclusive of the bonus mentioned above, you first need to be on top of a pyramid with 12 people under you! For you to maintain the rank, you need to maintain your rank per week to be paid the expected amount according to your rank.

Of course it’s a bit easy to lure people into becoming a member, imagine paying a huge membership fee every month if you decided to become a simple customer… it’s quite obvious that most people would choose availing a course as an IBO because you’ll pretty much spend just the same, but an IBO has a seemingly greater chance of getting ROI in their “educational investment”.

IM Mastery Academy Income Disclaimer

Here is a part of their income disclaimer which you can read in full here:

Is IM mastery Academy A scam Im Mastery Academy review  income disclosure

It’s quite disappointing but not really surprising that 67% of their representatives are only earning an average of $165.44 in 12 months. Most likely this 67% is are those under the bottom level of the pyramid, the new recruits and those still trying to create a minimum of 12 people under them. Now these figures are only for those based in the US.

Do you remember the IBO membership fee mentioned earlier? If IM Mastery Academy offers IBO membership for $16.71 and they charge you every 28 days that would be $217.23 per year. Imagine if you also availed course lessons!

Here’s what you should ponder on: Do you think you can have a good ROI if let’s say you’re doing the bare minimum of recruiting and selling the the course?

IM Mastery Academy Reviews Online: Pros and Cons

Pros

  • An established MLM for years
  • Has a refund policy
  • Extensive course selection

Cons

  • Will charge membership fee every 28 days (approx. 13 months a year)
  • You pay them to pay you
  • Recurring billing and charging issues on their BBB profile (has a BBB warning)
  • 67% had an average of $165.44/year of earnings according to their income disclaimer

IM Mastery Academy Reviews and Testimonials

Let’s look at Trustpilot and BBB reviews.

Trustpilot Reviews:

While it’s hard to discern the authenticity of Trustpilot reviews, let’s take a bird eye view of their Trustpilot profile. It was shown that their profile was claimed just last 2020, and here is an quick view of the volume of comments for the last few months:

Is IM mastery Academy A scam Im Mastery Academy review trustpilot details

They also haven’t flagged any reviews ever since they claimed their profile. They are also not replying so everything we may read here should be taken with a grain of salt to be fair. But let’s look at Better Business Bureau which more command and authority than Trustpilot.

BBB Reviews

Their Better Business Bureau profile is associated with International Markets Live Inc. and here’s what we surprising found:

Is IM mastery Academy A scam Im Mastery Academy review trustpilot details

Now it’s not an issue if they are not BBB accedited, but what’s a bit alarming is that they are under BBB alerts due to pattern of business complaints which you can read here, but just to show you here is the most recent complaint that they have:

Is IM mastery Academy A scam Im Mastery Academy review BBb recent complaint
You’ll see that they are very responsive to the complaints but you’ll also see that most people were asking for refunds beyond their designated range in their Refund Policy.

Is IM Mastery Academy A Scam?

While IM Mastery Academy is an MLM we still can’t say for sure if they are a scam since there are testimonies that they were not satisfied with their learning resources and recommended tools and platforms. The problem with MLMs is that people are more focused on the earning part rather than actually evaluating and giving an honest take about the products just so a company could improve and develop more appropriate and needed fixes.

So is IM Master Academy Legit then? The company is legit as it’s running this MLM for years now.

Just to be fully transparent with you, I am not a student of Chris Terry or IM Mastery Academy myself and I do not endorse it in any way.

In this IM Mastery Academy Review I have researched the website, testimonials, and information on the Internet to get to the bottom of what M Mastery Academy genuinely does. This is because I have been burnt from programs just like this in the past and I want to prevent others from making the same mistakes. If you’d like to learn Ways to Avoid Online Scams then click the highlighted text. 

What I Like About IM Mastery Academy

  • Variety of courses
  • Established company

4 reasons why you should avoid IM Mastery Academy

  • Expensive monthly subscription + billing every 28 days
  • History of billing and card charging issues
  • No refunds for IBOs
  • Income Disclosure shows that the majority of its members receive less than $200 a year

Truth: Why People Think IM Mastery Academy Is A Scam

  1. MLM operates like a pyramid scheme, but the only difference there is is actually MLMs are legal and are bound by government regulations and policies. While it’s legal, there is no guaranteed income unless you have created your own downlines.
  2. People were asking for refund beyond 7 days of purchase, which either they have just missed, not stated by their recruiter, or details may have been simply left out before their purchase. Also, IBOs are not eligible for refunds.
  3. MLMs are not for everyone because you need connections, recurring orders and maintain your downlines to secure your rank and commissions.
  4. They seem to focus more on recruiting other people for the bonus benefits rather than promoting the course as something that can truly help one to learn about trading, either the course isn’t of good quality or there really aren’t good reviews about it.

My Final Verdict About IM Mastery Academy

IM Mastery Academy is an MLM that has been running for years now. As with any MLM, getting ahead and truly profiting from is hard since you need influence, connections and resources to be able to create your own pyramid of downlines and get commissions from it. As income is not the same for everyone, I don’t really recommend investing in this one.

Is IM Master Academy legit? The business is legit, but we don’t really know if the course offered are worth it.

But just in case you’re curious your best bet of getting the most of out this is being a simple customer and checking out if their courses are any good. I don’t recommend signing up as an IBO too because it has a disadvantage regarding refunds. In case you felt and saw that this isn’t worth your time and money, you need to remember to cancel and ask for a refund within 7 days of purchase.

A better way to learn how to make Money Online- and it’s FREE to Start!

If you’re looking into learning about trading so you could fulfill your dream of making money online, without any deadlines, and being at the comfort of your home, I can suggest another venture for you, it’s affiliate marketing.

I’m also an experienced trader and I can attest that learning about ForEx, cryptocurrency and E-Commerce management are good investments but there are a lot of online resources which can help your queries even if you’ll type them word by word on Google. Trading is something that you learn while doing and actually from the losses that you may experience from it. It’s not something that you learn from just the tutorials and I’m telling you it’s not easy.

Now why am I suggesting affiliate marketing, well:

1. It can help you create another stream of income that you can then use as you learn the ropes in trading
2. It can be an evergreen form of income if done correctly
3. You get to choose the brands you partner with
4. It’s worth your time and resources

I do know a good community that can help you get started if you’re looking into partnering with brands and getting commissions from sales through your promotions. I mean it’s nice to have a variety of products that you can choose to partner with rather than just promoting one, right?

Now I did mention that it’s free to start and John below can help you get started with it. If you then decided to do this for long term, you can always choose to take the Premium option which is just $49/month inclusive of resources, tools and a helpful community. If you’re curious about it here a link to our comprehensive review of the Wealthy Affiliate program.

Louee Gonzales Author

Louee Gonzales has been a content specialist for 4+ years now. She has been enjoying writing investigative articles for EFYL. If she’s not writing, she’s either painting or traveling somewhere fun.

She has a degree in Psychology, and quick fact: she can’t read your mind. She has authored articles on the School of Positive Transformation.

IM Mastery Academy

$16.71-$274.95 monthly
0.5

Credibility

0.5/10

Income Opportunity

0.5/10

Reliability

0.5/10

Price

1.0/10

Business Model

0.0/10

Pros

  • An established MLM for years
  • Has a refund policy
  • Extensive course selection

Cons

  • Will charge membership fee every 28 day
  • You pay them to pay you
  • Recurring billing and charging issues on their BBB profile
  • 67% had an average of $165.44/year of earnings according to their income disclaimer

4 thoughts on “Is IM Mastery Academy A Scam? | 4 Truths Behind The Assumptions”

  1. Hi Louee,
    I had heard of this company, but until your very comprehensive review of IM Mastery, I didn’t know much about them. After reading your review and discovering the many things not to like about this company, I will be avoiding them in the future.
    Like you, I agree that rebranding a company can be a very good thing, but it is generally a Red Flag for me. I have found many companies are just hiding their bad practices and decisions under the old name. And your BBB complaints expose the not so obvious about the previous brand, International Markets Live.

    The poor compensation of a paltry $165.44 per year, makes this a total waste of time. They may be a legit company, and offer $600 guaranteed monthly income, but the recruiting requirements necessary are unreasonable. It is a total no brainer to avoid this company.

    I agree with your choice of the training program that you recommend at Wealthy Affiliate! It is hands down, a better path to success than IM Mastery!
    Thanks for helping me to stay away from bad choices like IM Mastery, and helping others discover the better choice, like Wealthy Affiliate.

    • Hey Chas,
      Thanks for reading my honest IM Mastery Academy review. You have highlighted some of the key red flags
      Poor income earning potential
      BBB complaints
      Shady past and issues with the FTC
      Expensive monthly subscription + billing every 28 days
      Plus do the IM Mastery Academy courses even work?

      Yes I agree with you Wealthy Affiliate is a far more sustainable and legitimate way to earn an income online.

      • In all honesty this platform should be avoided by all means. The level of incompetence here is alarming. Do not be fooled.

        • Hey Joseph,
          Thank you for reaching out with your comments, I am glad that you took the time to read my honest IM Mastery Academy Review.
          If you have any questions or would like help in building a real online business, feel free to click on the links in the review or email me at [email protected]

Comments are closed.