How SEBI's AI-powered platform identified over 20,000 fraudulent finfluencer posts

In a bid to curb the rise of fraudulent finflunencers across social media platforms, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), launched Project Sudarshan, an AI-powered intelligence platform in November 2025.

"Since its commencement in November 2025, the platform has identified over 20,000 instances of fraudulent content and posts across social media, significantly reducing the manual oversight burden while upholding market integrity," the report said.

How has Project Sudarshan identified fraudulent posts?

Project SUDARSAN (Surveillance of Unauthorized Digital Activity via Real-time Scanner for Anti-fraud), is an AI-powered intelligence platform. SEBI says this AI-powered RegTech platform "represents a paradigm shift in surveillance, moving from reactive monitoring to proactive, real-time intelligence gathering."

According to the report, Project SUDARSAN utilised advanced multimodal AI to analyse spoken language, visual cues, and contextual intent, including content in regional languages.

"By integrating these signals with behavioral and regulatory parameters, the platform assigns risk scores and generates structured, audit-ready alerts, transitioning surveillance from manual to automated," SEBI said.

The Sudarshan system also provides continuous surveillance of public content across platforms including major social media platforms scanning videos, messages, images, and advertisements.

"It is specifically engineered to detect deceptive practices such as “guaranteed return” claims, fraudulent certifications, impersonation of regulated entities, and the provision of unregistered investment advice," SEBI said.

62% investors are influenced by finfluencers

In the annual report, SEBI chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey, noted, "This digital vigilance is further necessitated by our latest Investor Survey, which revealed that 62 per cent of investors are influenced by finfluencers - many of whom operate without accountability or verified performance data."

Earlier a SEBI Investor Survey had found that 62% of respondents had made some investment decisions based on finfluencer recommendations, while 93% of respondents found finfluncers to be moderately to highly reliable.

"Financial influencers on social media have emerged as highly trusted sources of information. Ninety-three percent of surveyed investors consider them moderately to highly credible. The impact is tangible as 62 percent of investors make some of their investment decisions based on finfluencer recommendations. YouTube (91 percent), Instagram (64 percent) and Facebook (61 percent) are the top sought social media platforms among investors for information on securities market products," SEBI Investor Survey 2025 said.