Fake Trading Platforms and Deepfake Endorsements Threaten Investor Confidence — SEC
Ghana’s Securities and Exchange Commission has warned that artificial intelligence and social media are making investment fraud cheaper, faster and more difficult to detect, threatening public confidence as more financial activity moves online.
Daniel Beebako-Mensah, Deputy Director-General for General Services at the SEC, said fraudsters were using AI-generated videos, fake endorsements, cloned investment applications and fraudulent trading platforms to give illegal schemes the appearance of legitimacy.
The technology allows a single operator to reach thousands of potential victims at minimal cost, extending the scale of financial deception beyond the reach of traditional face-to-face Ponzi schemes.
“Increasingly, however, the deception is digital,” Mr Beebako-Mensah said. “Fraudsters use platforms such as TikTok, WhatsApp and Telegram to promote schemes promising guaranteed daily returns.”
“We also see fake trading platforms, duplicate applications, and even AI-generated videos and misleading endorsements designed to make fraudulent schemes appear credible.”
He was speaking at the Ghana Stock Exchange’s Ring the Bell for Financial Literacy Campaign 2026 at Cedi House in Accra.
The event, held under the theme “Investor Resilience, Digital Deception and Scam Alert”, forms part of the World Federation of Exchanges’ annual financial-literacy initiative in support of IOSCO’s World Investor Week.
Digital finance has lowered the cost of opening accounts, receiving investment information and participating in financial markets.
The same infrastructure has, however, created efficient distribution channels for fraud.
Social-media platforms allow promoters to build large audiences without disclosing their identities, regulatory status or physical locations. Encrypted messaging applications can then be used to move potential victims into private investment groups where fabricated testimonials and artificial urgency are employed to encourage payments.
AI has made that deception more persuasive.
Fraudsters can imitate the voices and faces of public officials, business executives and celebrities, creating videos in which apparently trusted individuals endorse schemes with which they have no connection.
Logos, licences and certificates can also be copied and displayed on professional-looking websites or mobile applications.
The result is that the SEC’s investor-protection challenge is no longer limited to whether individuals understand financial risk. Investors must first determine whether the institution, platform or personality presenting the opportunity is genuine.
“The message to investors is simple: verify before you invest,” Mr Beebako-Mensah said.
“Do not rely solely on a certificate, logo, social-media page or the assurance of a promoter. Fraudsters can forge certificates and copy official logos.”
He urged investors to confirm through the SEC’s official channels that firms and individuals offering investment products were properly licensed.
Traditional Ponzi and pyramid schemes remain a threat alongside unlicensed fund managers, market manipulation and so-called affinity fraud.
Affinity fraud exploits trust within churches, professional bodies, families, alumni groups and other close communities.
A fraudulent investment may spread quickly when an early participant introduces relatives, friends or colleagues, believing that the promoter has been validated by a trusted network.
Such schemes can remain credible for extended periods because payments to initial participants are funded with money collected from new investors. The apparent success of early investors then becomes the marketing material used to attract others.
Digital platforms have accelerated this process. Screenshots of supposed payments, edited testimonials and fabricated trading dashboards can be circulated instantly, giving an illegal operation the appearance of popularity and profitability.
The most dangerous promises are often the simplest: unusually high returns, guaranteed profits and limited opportunities requiring immediate payment.
The SEC advised investors not to allow urgency to replace due diligence and to treat promises of effortless or guaranteed returns as warning signs.
The regulator is seeking stronger legal powers to stop prohibited investment schemes and punish those who operate or promote them.
Mr Beebako-Mensah said proposed legislation would enable the SEC to halt the promotion of illegal schemes, pursue the freezing and seizure of proceeds through the courts and hold promoters, operators and financial influencers directly liable.
“The proposed sanctions include fines of up to 250,000 penalty units, imprisonment of up to 15 years, or both,” he said.
“This measure sends a clear message that investment fraud is not a minor offence. It can destroy livelihoods, families and public confidence in the financial system.”
Extending liability to financial influencers would be significant because social-media personalities increasingly promote investment products to audiences that may interpret popularity as financial expertise.
The proposed framework would place greater responsibility on people who use their platforms to attract investors to unlicensed or fraudulent products.
Enforcement, however, will need to move as quickly as the technology. Fraudulent websites and applications can disappear within hours, while operators can transfer proceeds across multiple accounts and digital-asset platforms.
Effective intervention will therefore require stronger co-operation among the SEC, Bank of Ghana, law-enforcement agencies, telecommunications companies, banks and digital-payment providers.
The damage caused by investment fraud extends beyond the direct losses suffered by victims.
Ghana’s efforts to deepen its capital markets depend on persuading households to move more of their long-term savings into regulated equities, bonds, collective investment schemes and other productive assets.
If potential investors associate financial markets with fraud, mobilising domestic capital becomes more difficult. Legitimate firms also face higher costs because they must work harder to distinguish themselves from sophisticated digital imitations.
The SEC has already increased scrutiny of fintech businesses and online trading platforms after observing growth in unregistered applications offering access to securities in Ghana and foreign markets.
The regulatory dilemma is to protect investors without blocking the innovation capable of expanding financial inclusion.
Overregulation could discourage legitimate fintech investment, but weak oversight could allow fraudulent operators to damage confidence in the entire digital-finance ecosystem.
Financial literacy must therefore be treated as part of Ghana’s market infrastructure rather than a peripheral consumer-education campaign.
“The bell we ring today is more than symbolic,” Mr Beebako-Mensah said. “It is a call for vigilance, responsible investing, and collective action against financial fraud.”
“Your vigilance is the first and last line of defence.”
That defence is becoming more difficult as digital imitations grow more convincing. In the age of AI, investors may no longer be able to believe what they see or hear online.
The most reliable protection will be verification: checking the regulator, confirming the licence and understanding that no technology has eliminated the basic relationship between higher returns and higher risk.
