If you scroll through Instagram or TikTok, you may have come across videos showing how to make money on your mobile. Colorful graphs and arrows show how quickly your wealth can increase. The money works for you while you are at the gym, studying for an exam or cooking dinner. One of the platforms currently promoted by influencers in social media and on YouTube is called “Eaconomy”. Screenshot from TikTok. Photo: Karoline Johannessen Litland / news By taking out a subscription, you get, among other things, access to various educational videos, live lectures and investment tips. In addition, you earn money by recruiting new customers. The Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority is critical and warns that the company has several similarities with illegal pyramid schemes. What is a pyramid scheme? Pyramid schemes lure with promises of easy money. In practice, pyramid schemes are a form of fraud, where those who have been deceived help to deceive others. Pyramid schemes are prohibited. Therefore, it is often camouflaged as something else. Many pyramid schemes sell products. There may be different courses or apps, but in a pyramid scheme most of the money comes from recruiting new members. Whoever starts the pyramid scheme recruits a group of members who must pay to join. Members are told to withdraw members. When you recruit a new member, you only get to keep part of the money. The rest of the money goes further up the pyramid to the levels above. Source: consumer protection authority.no But the supporters think it is completely wrong. Joachim Nyseth in Fredrikstad has used Eaconomy himself for almost two years. He has recruited several people to the platform. By learning trading, Nyseth believes that many people can get a welcome extra income. – It is nice to be able to help others to a better situation. We know that the world has been quite turned upside down in terms of economics. Even in Norway there are many who are struggling, says Nyseth. Compared to Netflix, Nyseth calls Eaconomy an educational platform for people who want to learn how to trade. – Are you afraid that it may turn out to be a pyramid scheme? – A pyramid scheme is when people invest and give up control of their money and are promised more money in return. Here it is a digital product, just like Netflix, he replies and continues: – That is why I am one hundred percent sure that this is not a pyramid scheme. If I had the slightest doubt, I wouldn’t have put my name on it even once, he replies. Joachim Nyseth has used Eaconomy for almost two years and recruited several people to the platform. Photo: Eirik Pessl-Kleiven / Eirik Pessl-Kleiven / news On his mobile phone, he shows several satisfied text messages from people he has recruited. Every day, members can sign up for live lectures – so-called live sessions – with different course providers. Nyseth explains that while you are learning to trade, you should use demo money, so that you do not risk losing real money. He wishes he had known about Eaconomy when he started trading, and wants more people to hear about the platform. – I learned the hard way. I didn’t have a platform like this around me when I started. I lost NOK 150,000 in two weeks. That’s a lot of money. It was a sour lesson, he admits. On his right arm, he has a tattoo of an ox, or “bull” in English. Being “bullish” in financial terms means that you have expectations that you will get good results in the future. Photo: Eirik Pessl-Kleiven / Eirik Pessl-Kleiven / news – Like winning in the Eurojackpot On TikTok, Nyseth has posted many videos showing how to easily make money in the financial markets. And he is far from the only one. Finanstilsynet has seen for a long time that trading and fast money are marketed by many in social media. That worries section leader Roy Halvorsen in the section for securities companies. – If something seems too good to be true, it usually is. When someone says that you can stop working, you’re going to be very rich if you join me on this adventure here, and it’s so easy, you should understand that it’s just not like that, he says. – Is it possible to get the sky-high profits that they advertise that you can get? – It is perhaps possible. I would say it is possibly the same kind of chance as winning the Eurojackpot. So it is clear that it is possible, a lot is possible. But normally, that’s not possible, and the odds are really against you, he replies. Monitors social media Marketing of financial products in Norway is strictly regulated. It is not permitted to advertise investments in securities without disclosing the risk of losing money. In order to keep up with the fine influencers in social media, Finanstilsynet has a system where they can enter keywords that are often used in marketing – for example “investment”, “gain”, “risk” or “money”. That way, the inspectorate can find the videos and posts that are posted. – Then we can play the small videos. And they only last for a few seconds or minutes, so it’s easy for us to play through these here every day and grab the ones that look the worst. It is a very, very good system, says Halvorsen. In August this year, Joachim Nyseth received orders from the Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority to stop the marketing of Eaconomy to Norwegian consumers. – It was a slap in the face for me and my business, then. But I have to follow what the Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority says. And then I have to try to build my way out of Norway, he says. – What do you think about the Finanstilsynet being so critical? – I don’t know where they get their information from, but I believe and fully understand that there are a lot of companies out there that are scams, that deceive people. But then they have to focus on companies that take people’s money. Eaconomy does not take investments from people, he says. Earning by recruiting more Nyseth does not think the Finanstilsynet has familiarized itself well enough with what Eaconomy really is. – But it almost sounds too good to be true, that it can be so easy to make money? – That is a very good question. It’s not easy, because then everyone would have done it. It requires you to spend time and familiarize yourself with it and learn from the right people, such as we have here in our platform, he says. When he recruits a new customer to Eaconomy, he receives a one-time bonus of between 50 and 100 dollars. – My job is not just to recruit them, but I also have to help them, so they get off to a good start, he explains. In addition, he receives a fixed sum of 1,500 dollars a month from Eaconomy. – When I get paid as an affiliate in Eaconomy, it is because I have customers who physically go in and pay a small monthly subscription every single month. Then I get a small part of it. Eaconomy is marketed by many in social media. The Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority believes that the company has several similarities with illegal pyramid schemes. Photo: Eirik Pessl-Kleiven / Eirik Pessl-Kleiven / news Many have contacted him on TikTok. Some of his most popular TikTok videos promoting Eaconomy have over 10,000 views. – How have things gone with the customers you have recruited? – If you take in ten customers, you will get ten different results. It depends on different things. How willing are you to learn? How much time do you spend on the education? Do you come in with a gambler’s mindset? Are you just going in and not doing what the company says? The company has no control over that, he replies and continues: – Someone may have lost, but it is not the company’s fault. And many have won, so I’ve seen both. – Must be lucky How difficult or easy is it really to make money from trading? Investment director Robert Næss at Nordea is one of Norway’s foremost fund managers. When news calls him and tells him about Eaconomy, he becomes skeptical. – You can buy something, and then you go have dinner or lie on a sunbed, and afterwards you have made a lot of money. But what you have to remember is to compare with the alternative, i.e. how much the stock market would have risen if you had done nothing, he explains. Investment director Robert Næss at Nordea. Photo: Nordea Over time, the average return in most stock markets is quite close to 10 per cent, according to Næss. – So maybe you should be a little skeptical if you see advertisements for sky-high returns? – Yes, absolutely. It is possible to get, but then you have to be lucky. But we know that when we play Yatzy or other dice games. It doesn’t just hit sixes all the time, he replies. news has contacted Eaconomy to get a comment on the case, without receiving a reply. Published 03.11.2024, at 18.55
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Popular on TikTok, but Finanstilsynet warns against pyramid schemes – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
