With the growth of platforms on the Internet where anybody can go ahead and dish out advice, users and browsers must start being more wary of where they get their financial information. Anybody could claim to be an expert, but who can really be trusted, what is their experience and background in the field and why should you listen to one person over another?
One of the first and most important steps you need to take is to verify that who you're reading and listening to is really who they are supposed to be. For celebrity accounts, Twitter offers a verification status to let you know if they are the real deal. But not all accounts can do this, which is why you see many accounts with "Real" or something along those lines in front of the user's name. When Shaq first got started with Twitter somebody else was pretending to be him, so he had to have The_Real_Shaq as his name.
However, perhaps even more important is learning that just because somebody is claiming to be an expert it doesn't mean that they are. Even the experts get it wrong sometimes, so when you're listening to a guy that read a financial advice book once and know is trying to make a lot of money online by having people buy his advice and visit his website, you can get into big trouble real quickly financially.
So when you're online and looking for financial advice and services, take care to pay attention to who you are listening to. Find credible, reliable and true experts who can help guide you along and provide the information that you're looking for. Don't fall for fraudulent celebrity impersonators, or self proclaimed experts with no real experience.
