Josh Brown: Watch Out for Impersonators on Social Media

Josh Brown, CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management

Ritholtz Wealth Management CEO Josh Brown recently warned followers to avoid scammers impersonating him and trying to solicit their business on social media or text messages. And he noted fraudsters are mimicking other high-profile financial leaders as well.

"I am saying this here in the hopes that as many people as possible who follow me will see it: I do not solicit people on Facebook or Instagram to join WhatsApp groups or trade crypto," Brown said on his blog, Downtown Josh Brown, last week.

"I do not sell stock picks via text message. I will never DM you. I will never ask you to DM me. If you ever see an advertisement using my image or name or some unverified version of my profile, I promise you it's not me. It's a scam. Do not engage."

Instead, Brown added, targeted investors should click the "report" button and tell Meta or its Facebook and Instagram platforms about it. Meta also owns messaging platform WhatsApp, where Brown said people have seen the lures.

Brown wrote that people have inundated him with messages asking "Is this really you?" and showing his photo with a WhatsApp link urging recipients to join penny stock or crypto trading groups.

He said he has been told fraudsters are posting similar ads pretending to be from Fidelity CEO Abigail Johnson, Allianz Chief Economic Advisor Mohamed El-Erian, Charles Schwab Chief Investment Strategist Liz Ann Sonders and renowned investor Peter Lynch, who managed Fidelity's Magellan Fund for over a decade.

"I am telling you here that it is always fake. No well-known person in finance will ever solicit you for anything like this except maybe Kevin O'Leary. If it's him in the advertisement, it might be real. Anyone else, you can take it to the bank that it's a scam," Brown added, using less-than-flattering terms for people who'd think El-Erian wants to text them or that Sonders wants to talk to them about crypto on WhatsApp.

"The entire financial services industry is experiencing an increased volume and type of sophisticated scams which are becoming more challenging for consumers to identify," A Fidelity spokesperson told ThinkAdvisor by email last week. "Criminals are turning to phone number spoofing, texting and imposter social media tactics to gain unauthorized access to accounts.

"We recommend customers regularly review account activity and contact Fidelity immediately if they have concerns about unauthorized activity. We work with customers directly to answer any outstanding questions they may have concerning suspicious activity."

A Schwab spokesperson emailed a similar statement last week.

"We've seen a dramatic increase in imposter profiles across the industry. We work with social media companies to have them removed as soon as we identify them, but social media companies are often unable to identify imposter profiles on their own. We recommend that our clients stay vigilant and remain cautious about any content they find on social media," the Schwab spokesperson said.

The Wall Street Journal reported in March that some Americans were losing their life savings to fake billionaires on Facebook. Fraudsters have used ads pretending to be Lynch, ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood, Pershing Square Capital Management CEO Bill Ackman, New York Mets owner Steve Cohen and Bridgewater Associates Chief Investment Officer Ray Dalio.

A Meta spokesperson told the Journal that scammers use every available platform and adapt to evade enforcement and that the company has heavily invested in trained enforcement teams. Meta said it has detection tools to identify fraudulent activity and ban ads that use celebrities to try to bait customers.

A spokesperson for the company didn't immediately respond Tuesday to an email from ThinkAdvisor seeking comment.

Ritholtz Wealth's Brown wrote that he is "being advised behind the scenes that I should sue Meta / Facebook for allowing people to use my likeness to sell products on their platform. By allowing scammers to utilize my name and image, it's a form of defamation that is not covered by section 230 immunity because, again, these are not fake profiles they are paid ads. Meta is making money from this."

Ritholtz Wealth had no comment beyond the blog post, a spokesman told ThinkAdvisor by email.

Photo: Bloomberg