FCA chairman Charles Randell has lambasted scam investment advertising on Google and social media.

Anti-fraud organisation Action Fraud has warned Instagram users to be wary of fraudulent investment posts as news emerges of more than 350 people being cheated out of a total of nearly £3.2m in the last five months.

The FCA has warned about the growing threat of investment scams as it revealed £197m of fraudulent losses were reported last year.

Financial advisers are using social media as their main marketing tool, according to a study for adviser support company Intelliflo.