Devin Jacobs
Someone who learned about investing six months ago is now your “financial mentor,” charging monthly fees. Shockingly, they do this, but it ends up hurting people. Those influencers use fake urgency and your genuine desire to improve to turn education into a way to take your money. Their methods make them money; however, they do not help you. Here’s how they do it.
Selling Unrealistic Get-Rich Promises
One exaggerated claim can push you into choices that drain your savings much faster than you ever planned. Gurus frame effortless wealth like it’s a normal step anyone can take. What finally hits people is the clear truth that these promises were never meant to work for anyone except the person selling them.
Pushing Overpriced “Expert” Courses
The price tag itself becomes the selling point because people assume expensive means valuable. Wrong. What you’re actually buying is old advice repackaged with fancy graphics and testimonials. Meanwhile, libraries and YouTube channels teach the same basic money lessons without the high cost, so you learn without putting yourself deeper into debt.
Using Fake Testimonials To Build Trust
There’s an entire ecosystem of fake reviews-for-hire with AI-generated faces and backstories. These are not just exaggerated claims; they are complete fabrications meant to influence your choices. What makes them worse is how they prey on desperation. Someone struggling financially sees these “wins” and believes this is their solution.
Using Fake Luxury To Build Credibility
A single rented car or borrowed watch might seem insignificant at first. Those expensive items are used as a cover-up to create a believable illusion of success. By the time followers uncover the truth, they have already been pushed into trusting someone whose lifestyle was never real in the first place.
Encouraging High-Risk Day Trading
Speculative trading has caused losses for people for centuries, long before social media existed. Today’s gurus make it look exciting with flashy charts and fast-moving trades. The real lesson comes later, when people realize they joined a modern version of an old gamble that almost never rewards beginners.
Selling Paid “Insider” Chat Groups
Gurus make money by charging people to join exclusive online groups. New members expect secret tips and alerts. Instead, they get lots of messages with no real value and old questions repeated. Your monthly fee ends up paying for confusion, and not helpful advice.
Promoting Debt-Fueled Investing
This matters because debt adds stress that savings never do. Online financial experts call borrowing “good debt,” such as taking loans to invest or buy assets, rather than highlighting the risks. Followers eventually feel the cost when interest grows faster than any money they hoped to make from investing.
Manufacturing FOMO With Fake Deadlines
Online marketing thrives on the fear of missing out (FOMO), and gurus use it to their advantage. Their disappearing offers show up so predictably that it becomes a repeated trick. Eventually, the pattern becomes clear: the timer wasn’t meant to create a real opportunity, only to make you buy before thinking.
Discouraging Real Financial Professionals
Certified professionals are painted by gurus as greedy middlemen trying to take your money. This rhetoric serves one purpose. It keeps you hooked on their content instead of seeking real advice. What they leave out is that fiduciary advisors must act in your interest, whereas influencers have no accountability when their advice causes costly mistakes.
Repurposing Free Advice As Premium Material
Here’s the playbook: find solid advice on any financial website, repackage it into modules, and present it as a breakthrough method. The fancy presentation makes it look valuable even though it’s not. Eventually, you’ll find the original source online and feel the sting of overpaying for a remix of public information.