There was some shock this week when the FCA announced that it was charging nine social media influencers, including some reality TV stars, in connection with promotion of an unauthorised investment trading scheme.

British reporting restrictions prevent me from discussing the case itself in detail and the defendants deserve a fair trial. They may be guilty or innocent, that will be for the courts to decide.

What we can say is that the FCA is increasingly getting tough on so-called ‘finfluencers’ who are using their fame to promote investment schemes. Patience has run out.

In these days of social media and reality TV, many of the participants can and do garner millions of followers. These followers can then be ‘influenced’ or encouraged to invest money into a variety of schemes.

That's the power of social media. 'Monetising' your followers as it is known.

While I cannot say what happened in this case as it is still to come to court, over many years we have seen a legion of celebrities encourage their fans to put money into schemes they have been paid to promote.

The result is often losses and devastated investors, many of them at the younger age of the spectrum who cannot afford to lose the money.

Celebrity endorsement of products has, of course, been a ‘thing’ for decades. It’s hard to watch a TV commercial break in the UK without a Hollywood star promoting some product or other and these contracts can be very lucrative for them.

A Hollywood star promoting a mobile phone contract or a brand of fast food is not quite as risky, however, as a celebrity promoting crypto or other high risk investments.

The FCA deserves praise for finally stepping in to end the feeding frenzy in this sector. We cannot have social media influencers pushing high risk financial products which others believe are legitimate investments and lose money on. It flies in the face of all that is sensible and worthwhile about financial regulation.

The FCA has taken its time to focus on the problem but any other social media influencers thinking of promoting financial products may well think twice and it’s about time that happened.

Social media, YouTube, Facebook are very poorly regulated and are full of people advertising products but failing to make clear they are being paid for doing so. In many ways this sector is the ‘Wild West’ of the advertising world. It’s no wonder there have been problems.

Much of this is a shame because there are also good content producers producing valuable, helpful content on social media and YouTube, encouraging people to save and put money into a pension or explaining how a mortgage works. This generic guidance can often be very useful to consumers unsure of where to start getting advice.

This is a world apart, however, from the ‘get rich quick’ merchants who see their followers as sales targets rather than fans. That must stop, at least when it comes to regulated investments.

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Kevin O’Donnell is editor of Financial Planning Today and a journalist with 40 years of experience in finance, business and mainstream news. This topical comment on the Financial Planning news appears most weeks, usually on Fridays but occasionally other days.  Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Follow @FPT_Kevin >Top Tip: Follow Financial Planning Today on Twitter / X @_FPToday for breaking news and key updates