Finfluencers are widespread throughout social media platforms, promoting themselves as successful entrepreneurs in luxurious destinations to lure people into paying for their services such as masterclasses to get rich quick and following their investment strategies.

The FCA is now planning on ‘protecting social media users from illegal financial promotions by rogue finfluencers’ by joining together with nine regulators from across the globe to combat the issue.

Regulators from the UK, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Italy and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) took part in a ‘global week of action against unlawful finfluencers’ from 2 June.

Karl Foster, financial services partner at Spencer West, said: ‘Those pushing stories of how large portfolios can be amassed and profits made, may not realise that once they begin to reference products, specific stocks, or tokens, they venture into giving investment advice which is a regulated activity.