More than 10,000 financial adverts and other promotions were withdrawn or changed in 2023, following intervention from the Financial Conduct Authority.
The regulator said this was an increase of 17 per cent year-on-year.
After being given new powers by the government, the regulator has focused on illegal crypto asset promotions to UK consumers, issuing 450 consumer alerts between October 8 and December 31, 2023.
It also published 2,285 alerts to help prevent consumers from losing their money to scams, up from 1,800 in 2022.
Lucy Castledine, director of consumer investments at the FCA, said: “People need clear, fair and accurate information to base their financial decisions on.
“We will continue to intervene and take action when we identify firms not meeting our minimum standards.”
The City watchdog highlighted its concern at the rise of influencers promoting financial products, including credit and investments on social media which often targets younger age groups.
As of February 7, 2024, authorised firms need permission from the FCA if they want to approve promotions for unregulated persons.
This makes sure firms approving financial promotions have the required competence and expertise for the promotions being offered.
In 2020, FT Adviser investigated what was being done to combat pension fraud.
At the time, it was revealed that £657.4mn was lost to fraudulent activity from September 2019 to September 2020.
Elsewhere, according to a Freedom of Information request submitted to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau by comparison site Good Money Guide, UK consumers lost £75mn to financial scams on social media in one year alone, with a total of 3,597 reports to the police about investment fraud.
Instagram was mentioned in more than half of cases, followed by Facebook with 1,193 reports.
Total losses were greater on Facebook, however, with £33mn lost to frauds and scams originating on the platform.
The FOI asked about scam reports on social media platforms that mention ‘trading’, ‘investing’, ‘stocks’, ‘crypto’, or ‘broker’ in the past five years.
sonia.rach@ft.com
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