A fool and their money are soon parted – that ancient phrase came to mind on reading the latest newsletter from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). One item noted that “The FCA has brought charges against nine individuals in relation to an unauthorised foreign exchange trading scheme promoted on social media”.
The individuals concerned promoted trading in CFDs via Instagram accounts and had in total 4.5 million followers. The FCA has previously said that 80% of customers lose money when investing in CFDs because of the risks.
There are clearly a lot of fools in this world who follow “influencers” on social media. And this prosecution is probably just the tip of the iceberg with many other cases remaining to be uncovered. See https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/finfluencers-charged-promoting-unauthorised-trading-scheme
It’s worth following the FCA for the latest news on financial scams but I fear those who fall for these kinds of scheme are so uneducated or inexperienced that they will fall for any get rich quick scheme however it is dressed up. There are so many suckers in this world waiting to be parted from their money that the FCA has an impossible task to stop all the abuses.
Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://twitter.com/RogerWLawson )