After a big shopping spree for holiday gifts, you might check your bank account and find a number that doesn’t please you. Then you remember that one influencer, who told you that you can finally become financially independent if you just follow their course or invest in their business and become rich the same way they did. But did they really get that rich, having the business model they promote to their audience, and what is the true nature of their wealth?
It is common for social-media gurus to showcase flashy, expensive cars and luxury properties on their pages. This serves as a primary marketing tool to persuade potential customers to purchase the offered products. When consumers are exposed to such displays of a lavish lifestyle, they may become envious and aspire to attain the same level of wealth and material success as the guru. In many cases, however, these symbols of wealth are staged. Luxury cars and properties are often rented or otherwise temporarily accessed solely to construct the appearance of financial success prior to, and independent of, any course sales.
Let’s say a person signs up for a course of a social-media financial guru that teaches how to invest. The person might expect the guru to teach the same trading principles they do as their main source of income, but in reality, the financial gurus make most of their money from selling courses. As a result, the incentives of the guru and the expectations of the follower are misaligned. The guru’s financial success depends less on the long-term performance of their investment strategies and more on their ability to market their courses and attract new customers.
Another way for social-media finance gurus to make money is by convincing people to invest in their “exclusive” businesses or crypto. These investments often promise huge returns and dividends. However, many of these are modern iterations of the classic Ponzi scheme. Instead of generating legitimate profit, these gurus use funds from new investors to pay “returns” to earlier investors to maintain the illusion of success. In the end, when there are no more new investors, the scheme collapses because the dividends can no longer be paid out. In this way, the investors just lose money by trusting the financial gurus. Furthermore, crypto ‘pump-and-dump’ scams are prevalent among these influencers. This scheme involves spreading misleading information to artificially inflate the price of a cryptocurrency. Once the value peaks, the fraudster quickly sells their tokens at the inflated price, securing a profit while leaving investors with losses. A well-known example involves the ‘Hawk Tuah’ girl, who leveraged her viral popularity to promote a token before allegedly dumping her holdings at the peak.
Knowing how to spot a fake financial guru and how they make money brings us to Tai Lopez (the “Here in my garage, just bought this new Lamborghini here” guy). You might be asking why I am bringing up such an old meme. Well, that’s because Tai Lopez is an expert marketer and social-media finance guru who makes most of his money from selling courses. These range from how to build and run an Amish homestead (true story!) to investment and e-commerce guides.
His luxurious lifestyle might suggest that his courses are worth your time; however, many users on Reddit and Trustpilot report that his investment courses are just repackaged free information from the internet. Moreover, the refund policy is known to be difficult and sometimes even proves impossible to get your money back. While a small minority has verified earnings of $2,000 to $10,000 per month, this typically just comes from their labor, rather than passive income. Additionally, most suspicious testimonials that report high returns are from affiliate marketers who earn commission from incentivized students.
However, that is not the primary reason I mention Tai Lopez. He also runs Retail Ecommerce Ventures LLC (“REV”), a company that acquires well-known retail brands and converts them into e-commerce shops. REV raised approximately $112 million from investors, largely by promising annualized returns of up to 25% and monthly preferential dividends as high as 2%.
In September 2025, the SEC filed a complaint against Lopez and co-founder Alexander Mehr for material misstatements regarding these projected returns. The SEC alleges the defendants transferred at least $5.9 million between portfolio companies to pay early investors with new investor capital—indicative of a Ponzi-like scheme. Additionally, the complaint states that $16.1 million of investor funds was misappropriated directly to the co-founders. This example illustrates that an online presence and luxurious life do not necessarily give legitimacy.
Ultimately, when we look at social-media financial gurus, like Tai Lopez, we can see the reality of their business model in which you are not the student or the partner – you are the revenue source. The financial success of these gurus solely depends on the conversion rate of their audience and not their actual investment strategies.
However, I have to mention that not all of these gurus are trying to scam you. Some try to genuinely showcase their strategies, but they might not work for you, because the strategy might take luck and be a one-in-a-million chance of being in the right place at the right time with their business strategy (investing, dropshipping, etc.). Therefore, financial success is very rarely found by following a map that someone else is selling for a living.
–Joris Jaloveckas