Meet Ricky Rich, the internet’s latest trading success story. If you spend just a few minutes scrolling through Instagram or TikTok you’ll see him everywhere, how he made thousands overnight and is now living a life of luxury. His posts are filled with screenshots of overnight profits, motivational captions about escaping the 9-5 and promises that you too could be living like him.
The problem is that he isn’t real but the world he represents certainly is. Ricky Rich is a fictional character, created by us to highlight the very real and growing presence of fake ‘finfluencers’ selling the dream of easy money through trading. At STARTrading we believe it’s important to challenge this narrative and highlight the risks of following these characters. This campaign is about showing people what to look out for, helping them make safer and more informed financial decisions. We’re here to offer a safer alternative which is built of real education and responsible trading.
But what exactly are finfluencers and what role are they playing in shaping how people approach trading and investing.
What Our Research Found
To understand what popular finance content actually looks and sounds like on social media, STARTrading analysed 524 popular finance-related TikTok videos, filtered from an initial crawl of more than 3,600 videos.
The analysis found:
- 87% made no mention of the word ‘risk’
- More than one in three (35%) referenced a financial figure within the first 10 seconds
- 15% contained language associated with financial freedom and lifestyle
- 11% mentioned ‘side hustle’
- 5% mentioned ‘millionaire’, with 26 of the 27 references relating to being or becoming a millionaire
- 3% referenced making ‘six figures’
The findings suggest that the language surrounding online wealth and financial success can be subtler than obvious promises of guaranteed riches, making the context around financial content just as important as individual words or phrases.
What Are Finfluencers?
The term finfluencers refers to social media influencers who create and share content about money, trading, and investing. While some aim to educate, others focus heavily on lifestyle-driven content, often presenting themselves as experts and trading as a fast, easy, low risk and an accessible route to wealth.
This is where characters like Ricky Rich come in. While exaggerated, his image reflects a recognisable pattern. His success is presented as fast, effortless, and easily replicable, often without much visibility into the process behind it.
The Influence is Real and Rapidly Growing
The impact and risk of finfluencers on financial behaviour is extremely significant.
Research from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) highlighted that 9 in 10 followers (aged 18 – 29) have been encouraged to change their financial behaviour by influencers online.
A 2025 survey from TSB highlighted that 49% of 16-24 year olds felt compelled to take out a product, or invest after seeing wealth content on social media. This isn’t just passive consumption, it is actively shaping how people think about money, investing and risk.
What Ricky Rich is Really Selling
Ricky Rich deliberately exaggerates some of the characteristics people may associate with ‘get rich quick’ financial content: the luxury lifestyle, eye-catching earnings, apparent simplicity and focus on the outcome rather than the work and risk involved in getting there.
However, our research suggests financial content that warrants greater scrutiny doesn’t always rely on obvious claims such as ‘guaranteed returns’ or ‘you can’t lose’. The messaging can be much subtler, making it important to look beyond individual phrases and consider the overall context in which trading, wealth and financial success are being presented.
As STARTrading founder Lewis Crompton explains: “If someone spends more time showing you what trading can buy than teaching you what trading can cost, be careful.”
Financial content online can also promote products, services and approaches such as:
- Trading signals groups
- Copy trading platforms, which automatically replicate someone else’s trades
- High-risk products like CFDs or leveraged forex trading
- Crypto or Forex trading opportunities
A common appeal can be convenience: making trading or investing appear simpler, quicker or less reliant on developing your own understanding of the markets. But understanding how these products and approaches work, and the financial risk involved, is an important part of making informed decisions.
The Financial Reality of Finfluencers
While the content only focuses on wins and profits, the broader data shows a much more accurate picture of the risks of finfluencers. The same TSB survey highlighted that, 31% of people have acted on financial advice on social media platforms and as a result of this, over 50% of them lost money.
Barclays’ internal data revealed that claim values from investment scams have doubled in only two years, with the typical investment scam claim value reaching £3,400 in 2025, up from £1,600 in 2023.
A more recent example was highlighted in Louis Theroux’s documentary ‘Inside the Manosphere’. Theroux invested £500 in HSTikkyTokky’s trading scheme, and by the end of the documentary his investment was only worth £162.
Why Finfluencer Content Gets Attention
Short-form social content has only seconds to capture attention, and our research demonstrates just how quickly money can enter the conversation: more than one in three (35%) of the popular finance TikToks analysed referenced a financial figure within the first 10 seconds.
We also identified recurring language around aspiration and financial outcomes, including ‘side hustle’, ‘millionaire’, ‘six figures’ and ‘financial freedom’.
None of these terms is inherently problematic. The important question is the context in which they’re being used and whether the content gives viewers a realistic picture of the education, work, capital and financial risk involved.
As Lewis puts it: “A really simple test is: does this person help me understand money better, or do they mainly make me want what they’ve got?”
The Get Rick Quick Dictionary
“Followers are not qualifications and virality is not regulatory approval.” That’s the advice from Lewis Cropmton when navigating financial content online. The words themselves aren’t necessarily red flags… it’s the context that matters. Here are six common terms and claims to think twice about when they’re used to make trading or financial success sound quick, easy or certain.
- Financial freedomBe cautious when it’s presented as a quick or easily achievable outcome, with little discussion of the time, education, capital or risk involved.
- Side hustleTrading can sit alongside other commitments, but be wary of claims that suggest it can easily supplement or replace a salary.
- Passive incomeTrading requires education, decision-making and risk management. Question content that makes earning money sound effortless or hands-off.
- Six figures / millionaireBig numbers grab attention, but rarely tell you the capital, timeframe, experience or losses behind them.
- Guaranteed / you can’t loseNobody can guarantee what a financial market will do. Certainty around future returns should always prompt greater scrutiny.
- Copy my trades / trading signalsAsk whether you’re learning to understand financial decisions yourself or simply being encouraged to rely on somebody else’s.
A More Measured Alternative
While Ricky Rich represents one side of the online trading conversation, there is another approach.
At STARTrading, we emphasise trading safely and managing risk effectively. We are a CPD-accredited training provider, offering a practical and manageable approach to trading.
Our method requires only 30 minutes of your day and focuses on helping individuals build an additional income stream often alongside their existing commitments. Find out more about our swing trading courses and how they can help you build wealth.
Looking Beyond the Highlight Reel
Finfluencers have undoubtedly changed the way people engage with financial content. They’ve made trading more visible, more accessible, and more widely discussed than ever before. But with this increased visibility comes responsibility both for those creating content and those consuming it.
Understanding the potential risks of finfluencer content is crucial to avoiding misleading advice and financial loss. The key rule? Anyone promoting overnight wealth should not guide your financial decisions.
Ricky Rich may not be real, but the world he represents is. As more people turn to social media for financial inspiration, the ability to separate aspiration from reality becomes increasingly important.
While making money in your sleep is an appealing idea, building something sustainable tends to look very different and often starts with the right education.
