Instagram needs to stop the scammers targeting Gen Z

This article is the latest part of the FT’sFinancial literacy and inclusion campaign

I have a question for you. How do you know I'm really writing this article? It looks real. There is a picture of my face and it is published on a media platform you trust.

What if I told you, valued reader, that I had a crypto investment opportunity that could quickly double your money?

I would hope that FT readers would immediately conclude that the article must have been written by a fraudster. Unfortunately, it is much easier for identity fraud to spread on social media platforms. Lloyds Bank recently reported a 155 percent annual increase in Instagram fraud cases last year, focused on those under 25.

The latest twist? Some of the UK's most popular personal finance content creators are being deliberately targeted by scammers who are cloning their accounts and trying to scam their followers.

“If a beauty blogger asked you if you were looking for a new way to make money, you would probably be suspicious,” says Charlotte Jessop, founder of the Looking After Your Pennies website, Instagram account and YouTube channel.

"But if you get a message from a personal finance expert you've followed saying, 'I'm going to teach you how to make an extra £500 a month', it's not so far-fetched to think it could be real - and that's a real risk for us."

This week Jessop and a group of 30 financial content creators launched a campaign to raise awareness of a spate of fake accounts targeting their followers, some of which are losing thousands of pounds.

It's shockingly easy for scammers to copy account names, profile pictures and months of content and then use these fake accounts to target young (and often financially naive) followers with scam investments.

Although this can happen on TikTok, YouTube, Twitter and other platforms, activists are using the hashtag #metadobetter because this is a particular problem on Instagram.

Emmanuel Asuquo - a qualified financial planner who posts financial education content on Instagram at @theemaneffectuk - posted a video this week warning about copycat accounts after two of his followers were scammed out of a total of £4,000.

“The faker copied my profile picture, my page and simply put a 1 at the end of my username, then started chasing my followers and sending them DMs [direct messages] asking them to join my crypto investment club,” he says.

Two people thought it was him and transferred money, but dozens of others sent messages to his real account asking, "Is that really you?"

Asuquo, who has 30,000 followers, was forced to make posts suggesting that he would never invest money for anyone else.

“You can be so excited that someone you admire is following you and communicating with you that you don’t have time to think about it – why would they follow me?”

Instagram eventually deleted the fake account. However, Timi Merriman-Johnson (better known on Instagram as @MrMoneyJar) says that by blocking them, scammers are making it harder for content creators to discover that their profile has been cloned, which also makes it harder for them to report the fakers.

“You can’t see that they exist, so the first thing you’ll hear about is your followers contacting you and asking why you just tried to sell them crypto,” he says.

He and Jessop have set up a WhatsApp group of financial experts to coordinate mass reporting of fake accounts.

“Literally every day someone posts something about another fake account,” he says. The creators find that the more fraud reports are sent, the faster the fake account will be deactivated: “But then MrMoneyJar2 will rise like a phoenix from the ashes and the whole process will start again.”

One of the most copied accounts is that of 21-year-old Poku Banks, whose videos about investing and personal finance have earned him half a million followers on social media - many of them teenagers - making him a particular target.

“If you search for ‘Poku Banks’ on either Instagram or TikTok, there are at least 10 accounts that look exactly like mine – profile picture, posts and in some cases followers,” he says.

"Unfortunately one of my Instagram followers recently contacted me to say they had sent money to one of the fake accounts. They lost over £100 and have no way of getting the money back. I wonder how many more people have fallen victim to these scams."

Even I received an Instagram message from a fake Poku asking me to invest in crypto – and like thousands of others, I messaged him saying, “Is that really you?” His official bio reads “I won’t DM you to invest.”

As influencers spend more time dealing with the consequences, they are rightly demanding that social media platforms do more to protect their followers and prevent this type of fraud.

After I asked Meta for comment, it responded: "We don't allow anyone to impersonate others on Instagram, and people can report impersonating others to us directly in the app. Financial fraudsters use a variety of tactics online to mislead people, and we pay close attention to these tactics so we can respond and protect our community."

Still, verifying high-profile financial commentators with a blue checkmark would immediately make it easier to spot fake accounts – but different platforms have different verification policies.

“Many of us are registered as limited companies and have been quoted in the national press as financial experts, but our requests for review are still being refused,” says Jessop.

I think if you are well known enough to have your account repeatedly cloned by a scammer, you should get a blue checkmark.

Given that these scams start via DMs, why can't platforms train their algorithms to issue a warning like "This account was created three days ago - could this be a scam?" flash. or “This is the first time this person has contacted you, are you sure of their identity?”

Pinterest has a similar warning system – and of course the banks do too. When you try to transfer money using your online banking app, a plethora of anti-fraud messages flash up.

Unfortunately, this wasn't enough to deter the young investors, who lost money. Their banks have said they will not be held liable for the fraud because the customers transferred the money willingly.

With online fraud at record levels, retail (private) banking executives will be gnashing their teeth as they rush to compensate defrauded customers when they believe social media platforms could do much more to prevent it.

The UK's online security law will – ultimately – impose a legal obligation to improve user protection against fraud. So why wait? Like it or not, social media is where young people turn for their financial education. It's a shame that some learn lessons about cheating the hard way.

Claer Barrett is the FT's consumer editor:claer.barrett@ft.com; Twitter @Clearb; Instagram@Clearb