The UK’s financial watchdog has stepped up its enforcement of illegal ‘finfluencer’ promotions, resulting in a 7,300% increase in actions between 2023 and 2025.
A Freedom of Information request from online broker BrokerChooser found that the Financial Conduct Authority has conducted 112 enforcement actions against financial influencers between 2020 and 2025.
Actions soared between 2023 and 2025 - from just one to 74.
However, just 13% of these enforcement actions (15) resulted in criminal measures with just three arrests made between 2020 and 2025. Warning alerts and interviews under caution accounted for 50 and 40 of the enforcement actions respectively.
According to BrokerChooser, the anonymity of online platforms and the sheer volume of content uploaded daily can often provide influencers with a “protective shield”, making prosecution challenging.
“By ‘finfluencers’ disguising their promotions as ‘educational’ content or ‘personal experience’, harmful material can fall into a grey area that complicates formal regulatory action, meaning the online investing environment remains risky,” states BrokerChooser.
Consequently, misleading content can still be in wide circulation before regulators are able to intervene, creating greater risk for younger and less experienced investors.
The FoI request revealed that two-in-five UK adults who have acted on social media investment advice have lost money as a result. Furthermore, it is older and more affluent amateur investors that have lost the greatest amount.
Influencers can delete and re-upload posts, and repeat offenders may continue until escalation occurs.
“A practical rule of thumb for retail investors online is this: if an investment opportunity or product cannot be accessed through a well-regulated online broker supervised by authorities such as the FCA, the SEC or major EU regulators, investors should approach it with extreme caution - or avoid it altogether,” said Adam Nasli, head broker analyst at BrokerChooser.
“Regulation does not eliminate market risk or even the risk of fraud, but it significantly reduces the likelihood of bad actors holding on to traders’ money and the emergence of misleading structures and uneven playing fields.”