SEBI AI Flags 20K Finfluencer Frauds: Project Sudarshan Success

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) launched Project Sudarshan in November 2025, deploying an AI-powered intelligence platform to combat the escalating issue of fraudulent financial influencers, or ‘finfluencers’, on social media.

Within a few months of its inception, this platform successfully identified over 20,000 instances of fraudulent content and posts across various social media platforms, as detailed in the SEBI Annual Report 2025-26.

Understanding Project SUDARSAN’s Advanced Surveillance

Project SUDARSAN, which stands for “Surveillance of Unauthorized Digital Activity via Real-time Scanner for Anti-fraud,” represents a significant strategic shift in regulatory oversight.

This initiative moves from a reactive monitoring approach to proactive, real-time intelligence gathering, enhancing market integrity against deceptive online practices.

• The platform utilizes advanced multimodal AI.
• It analyzes spoken language, visual cues, and contextual intent, including content in regional languages.
• Signals are integrated with behavioral and regulatory parameters to assign risk scores.

The system generates structured, audit-ready alerts, thereby automating critical surveillance processes previously reliant on manual oversight.

Detecting Deceptive Financial Practices

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

It is specifically engineered to detect a range of deceptive practices that often mislead investors.

• Claims of “guaranteed returns“
• Fraudulent certifications
• Impersonation of regulated entities
• Provision of unregistered investment advice

Finfluencer Influence on Investor Behavior

SEBI Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey underscored the necessity of this digital vigilance, referencing findings from a recent Investor Survey.

The survey revealed a significant proportion of investors are swayed by finfluencers, many of whom lack accountability or verified performance data.

• 62% of investors are influenced by finfluencers.
• 93% of respondents considered finfluencers moderately to highly credible.

For information on securities market products, investors most frequently sought out specific social media platforms.

• YouTube: 91%
• Instagram: 64%
• Facebook: 61%

By leveraging advanced AI, SEBI aims to safeguard market integrity and protect investors from unchecked online financial advice, transforming regulatory oversight.