Ad description
A website for Fortune Academy, https://fortuneacademy.co.uk, a financial training provider, seen in August 2019 promoted their cryptocurrency course program. Text above a video entitled “Crypto Masterclass” stated “Habib has helped 700 students in 2017 create a wealth of £2.5 million amongst them!”. Text below stated “WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE TO SEE HOW HABIB, OUR CRYPTO TRAINER CAN HELP YOU WITH THIS LUCRATIVE INDUSTRY!".
Issue
The complainant, who believed the ad exaggerated the potential wealth the crypto currency course and investments could achieve, challenged whether the claim “Habib has helped 700 students in 2017 create a wealth of £2.5 million amongst them” was misleading and could be substantiated.
Response
Fortune Academy did not respond to the ASA’s enquiries.
Assessment
The ASA was concerned by Fortune Academy’s lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 1.7 (Unreasonable delay). We reminded Fortune Academy of their responsibility to respond promptly to our enquiries and told them to do so in future.
Upheld
The ASA considered that consumers would interpret the claim “Habib has helped 700 students in 2017 create a wealth of £2.5 million amongst them” to mean that many students had completed the crypto currency course offered by Fortune Academy and, using the knowledge and techniques they had learned, had gone on to make successful financial investments. We considered consumers would therefore infer that going on the course would typically enable them to make successful investments and achieve significant wealth. Because we had not seen any evidence to substantiate the claim, we concluded that the claim was misleading.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1, 3.3 (Misleading advertising) and 3.7 (Substantiation).
Action
The advertising must not appear again in its current form. We told Fortune Academy not to make claims that implied they had helped consumers achieve a high level of wealth because of the cryptocurrency course unless they held evidence to substantiate those claims. We referred the matter to the CAP Compliance team.
