"Earn Money in Your Sleep" Is Now an Official FTC Red Flag. Go Read Your Own Sales Page.

Open your sales page. Search it for the word sleep.

On October 1, the Federal Trade Commission went public with a warning about investment-training scams spreading across social media, and consumer education specialist Terri Miller offered a one-line detection test. The tell, she said, is that "they will say you can earn money in your sleep and there's little to no risk."

That is the regulator's scam signal. It is also, close to verbatim, the opening hook on an enormous number of entirely legitimate evergreen funnels.

The scope is narrow. The wording still stings.

Miller was talking about trading education specifically. "When it comes to investing or trading, there's always risk involved," she said. "Anyone who says otherwise is a scammer." The FTC's framing: social media is full of people flashing fancy cars and exotic trips, claiming you can have the same lifestyle just by "learning to trade."

If you sell a watercolor course or a Notion template or a clinical supervision program, the literal rule doesn't bind you. But the shape of the claim is what got named — guaranteed outcome, minimal risk, no labor. The agency also warned that more dishonest companies and influencers remain active, and that many of these posts target young people.

What happened to the people who ran the biggest version of this pitch

The warning didn't come out of nowhere. It follows IM Mastery Academy.

The FTC and the Nevada Attorney General alleged in a May 2025 complaint that the scheme — operating most recently as IYOVIA, previously branded IM Mastery Academy, iMarketsLive and IM Academy — used false or baseless earnings claims to sell training on how to invest in financial markets, and that it generated more than $1.2 billion since 2018. The agency alleged the company advertised "educators" who often had no legitimate credentials.

In May 2026, the FTC and Nevada required five individual and corporate defendants, including ringleaders Chris and Isis Terry, to surrender assets valued at nearly $90 million. The proposed order imposes a $795.8 million judgment.

The asset list reads like an inventory of the marketing itself. Eight luxury homes in New York, Nevada, Florida and Dubai. Thirteen home lots in a high-end development near Las Vegas. Nineteen automobiles, including Range Rovers, BMWs, a Bentley and a Rolls Royce. A yacht. Jewelry including a 15-carat diamond ring, plus Richard Mille, Bulgari and Rolex watches.

Every one of those props existed to make the offer credible. They are now the restitution pool. A court-appointed trustee handles the liquidations; the FTC handles distribution.

Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford said more than 5,000 Nevadans were affected, with estimates that as much as $9 million was taken from residents. Truth in Advertising puts the total judgments obtained across the case at over $914 million, though only a fraction will ultimately be paid.

The clause that should actually worry you

Forget the yacht. Read this part twice.

The Terrys are permanently banned from selling trading-training services and investment opportunities, and permanently prohibited from making earnings claims without proper substantiation.

The second half isn't a custom punishment. It's the ordinary standard, written down. The FTC put businesses on notice back in 2021 that false money-making claims could lead to big penalties.

Three questions worth running against your own page this afternoon:

Can you substantiate the number? If your headline implies a typical result, you need records from real buyers showing that result is typical.

Where does "passive" quietly become "riskless"? Those are different promises. One is about delivery mechanics. The other is a claim about outcomes you don't control.

Are your testimonials exceptional, and do you say so? Screenshots of your best student, presented without context, are an earnings claim.

The honest version of the pitch converts worse. That's the real cost, and nobody selling funnel templates wants to say it out loud. But the FTC has now described the dishonest version on camera, in plain English, using words that are probably sitting on your checkout page right now.

Somewhere in Nevada, a trustee is pricing a yacht.