Jakarta –

These days, social media is already teeming with influencers who share financial and investment advice with the general public. Even so, not all information provided by these influencers is instantly reliable.

There are even a number of influencers who deliberately provide certain information for fraudulent purposes. For this reason, India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has asked his people to be careful with any information they receive.

“If there are 3-4 people who give us objective advice, there are 7 out of 10 people who could provide information with other intentions,” he said, quoted by BloombergSunday (4/23/2023).

“Social influencers and financial influencers do exist, but each of us has to exercise a great sense of caution to make sure we double-check (information received),” he added.

As for India itself, one of the most publicized cases of investment fraud by financial influencers is the Ponzi scheme.

Therefore, Sitharaman said that currently the Indian government is working with the Reserve Bank of India and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to remove ponzi schemes that promise huge returns to investors.

For information, cases of investment fraud announced by financial influencers are not only rampant in India.

Even in Indonesia, a similar case happened, where an influencer with certain modes tried to influence the audience to invest in the platform he was advertising.

Even though these platforms are fraudulent investment platforms that end up swallowing many fraud victims.

(eds/eds)