Instagram must stop the fraudsters who are targeting Z

Instagram must stop the fraudsters who are targeting Z

This article is the latest part of the FT’s campaign for financial education and inclusion

I have a question to you. How do you know that I really write this article? It looks real. There is a picture of my face and it is published on a media platform that trusts you.

What if I, an esteemed reader, would say that I had a crypto investment option that could quickly double your money?

I would hope that FT readers immediately come to the conclusion that the article must have been written by a fraudster. Unfortunately, it is much easier that identity fraud spreads on social media platforms. The Lloyds Bank recently reported an annual increase in fraud against Instagram by 155 percent last year, which focused on the under 25 years of age.

The latest turn? Some of the most popular creators of personal financial content in Great Britain are intentionally attacked by fraudsters who clone their accounts and try to cheat on their followers.

"If a beauty blogger would ask you whether you are looking for a new way to make money, you would probably be suspicious," says Charlotte Jessop, founder of the website, the Instagram account and the YouTube channel of "Looking After Your Pennies".

"But if you receive a message from an expert for personal finances you followed and he says: 'I will teach you how to earn an additional £ 500 a month', it is not so far to believe that it could be real - and that is a real risk for us."

Charlotte Jessop, founder of "Looking After Your Pennies".

This week Jessop and a group of 30 creationers of financial content started a campaign to raise awareness of a flood of fake accounts that aim at their followers and of which a few thousands lose pounds.

It is terrifyingly easy for fraudsters to copy the account seeds, profile images and months of content and then use these fake accounts in order to address young (and often financially naive) followers with fraud investments.

Although this can happen on Tikok, YouTube, Twitter and other platforms, the activists use the hashtag #Metadobetter, as this is a special problem on Instagram.

Emmanuel Asuquo - a qualified financial planner published on Instagram at @Theemaneffekuk content - this week posted a video in which he warned of imitators after two of his supporters were cheated by a total of £ 4,000.

"The counterfeiter copied my profile picture, my page and simply put a 1 to the end of my username, then he started chasing my followers and sending them to DMS [Direct Messages] to join my crypto investment club," he says.

Two people believed it was and transferred money, but dozens of other messages sent messages to his real account and asked: "Are you really?"

Asuquo, who has 30,000 followers, was forced to publish posts in which he pointed out that he would never invest money for someone else.

"You can be so excited that someone you admire follows and communicates with you that you don't have time to think about it - why should he follow me?"

Instagram finally deleted the fake account. Timi Merriman-Johnson (better known on Instagram as @Mrmoneyjar) says that fraudsters make it difficult for the creators of content, to discover that their profile has been cloned by blocking them, which also makes it difficult for counterfeiters.

Timi Merriman-Johnson, also known as MR Moneyjar

"You can't see that you exist, so you will first hear that your followers contact you and ask why you have just tried to sell you crypto," he says.

he and Jessop have set up a WhatsApp group of financial experts in order to coordinate the mass message fake accounts.

"Literally every day someone posts something about another fake account," he says. The makers find, the more fraud reports are sent, the faster the fake account is deactivated: "But then Mrmoneyjar2 will resurrect like a phoenix from the ashes and the whole process begins from the front."

One of the most frequently copied accounts is that of 21-year-old Poku Banks, whose videos about investments and personal finances have brought him half a million followers on social media-many of them teenagers-which makes him a special goal.

"If you are looking for" Poku Banks' either on Instagram or Tikok, there are at least 10 accounts that look the same as my profile picture, posts and in some cases also followers, "he says.

"Unfortunately, one of my Instagram followers recently contacted me to say that he sent money to one of the fake accounts. You have lost over £ 100 and have no way to get the money back. I wonder how many people still fell victim to these fraud."

Even I received an Instagram message from a fake Poku in which he asked me to invest in crypto-and how thousands others did I send him a message with the words: "Are you really?" The inscription "I will not dm you to invest".

Since influencers spend more time to deal with the consequences, they rightly demand that social media platforms do more to protect their followers and prevent this type of fraud.

A warning social media contribution by look after look at the

After I asked Meta for a comment, it replied: "We do not allow someone to offer themselves on Instagram as others, and people can contact the app directly in the app. Financial fraudsters apply various tactics to mislead people on the Internet, and we pay close attention to these tactics so that we can react and protect our community."

Nevertheless, the verification of top -class financial commentators would immediately make it easier to recognize fake accounts with a blue checker - but different platforms have different verification guidelines.

"Many of us are registered as limited liability companies and were quoted in the national press as financial experts, but our applications for review are still rejected," says Jessop.

I think if you are known enough that your account is repeatedly cloned by a fraudsters, you should get a blue checkmark.

In view of the fact that these attempts at fraud over DMS, why can platforms not train their algorithms in such a way that they were created a warning like "This account was created three days ago - could this be a fraud?" Let it flash. Or "This is the first time that this person contacted you, are you sure of your identity?"

Pinterest has a similar warning system - and of course the banks. If you try to transfer money with your online banking app, a wealth of fraud control reports flashes.

Unfortunately, this was not enough to deter young investors who lost money. Your banks have explained that they are not liable for the fraud because customers have willingly transferred the money.

In view of online fraud on a record level, managers in private customer business (private) will grind their teeth because they are fully on the hat to compensate for betrayed customers if they believe that social media platforms could do much more to prevent this.

The British Online Security Act will ultimately impose a legal obligation to improve the protection of users from fraud. So why wait? Whether you like it or not, social media are the place to which young people turn for their financial education. It is a shame that some lessons learn about fraud on the hard tour.

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