Cryptocurrency is definitely a risk as its intangible nature aids unscrupulous people to carry out scams.
In 2020, a group of highly recognized Colombian influencers, – most of them have over 4.5 million followers – Yefferson Cossio, Mateo Carvajal, Elizabeth Loaiza, and Alejandra Serje, started promoting a cryptocoin called Daily Cop. Allegedly, the first Colombian cryptocurrency.
However, it was a scam that collected funds from over 200,000 people and collected over USD$25,000,000.
The influencers posted in their social networks, that they were earning profits of 0.5% per day or 12% a month, inviting others to invest. Now, said influencers are claiming to be victims themselves.
The thing with influencers is, that they are responsible for their promotions if they are not paid to promote, as they are affecting the consumer’s decisions. As of now the Prosecutors office is considering if they shall be criminally charged with aiding and abetting the fraud as they should have known that their investment was not generating the income, they claimed it was producing,
Nonetheless, this case goes further, as the liability is not merely as advertisers, but also criminal for aiding and abiding the illegal collection of funds, which is a regulated activity that requires the prior authorization from the Financial Superintendence.
The authorities have issued a Blue Notice from INTERPOL to collect additional information, location or activities of Juan David Caicedo, Sebastián Betancourt, Sandra Patricia Esquivel, Juan José Benavides and Jackeline Saavedra, who were the creators of Daily Cop.
Consequently, influencers must be careful of what they promote, since their saying carries an impact on the decisions of others and their responsibility can be deeper than that of an advertiser.