The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has appealed to the media to use its platform to help in the fight against fraudu­lent investment schemes through education and awareness creation of the citizenry.According to the Acting Dep­uty Director General of SEC, Mr Mensah Thompson, although it had issued a number of state­ments to caution the citizenry on the issue of fraudulent invest­ment schemes, those statements did not receive the needed media attention.Mr Thompson said this on behalf of the Director General of SEC, Dr James Klutse Avedzi, when he engaged a delegation from the Ghana Journalists Asso­ciation (GJA), led by its President, Mr Albert Kwabena Dwumfour, in Accra on Monday."In the few months, we have had to issue two public statements on these fraudulent investment activities.

Unfortu­nately, these public statements we issued did not receive the much attention it needed by the media because it was a few media stations that picked it up," Mr Thompson lamented.He also noted that SEC, over the past few months, had taken notice of various strategies such as the edited videos of public officials developed by individuals involved in fraudulent investment schemes activities through the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to deceive the citizenry."Over the past few months, we have noticed some devel­opment in our market which is disturbing.

We have seen the emergence of fraudulent invest­ment activities in the market.

We have seen, for instance, where on social media channels and platforms, unlicensed investment activities are being promoted, including edited videos of public officials developed with the help of AI to deceive the citizenry," Mr Thompson said.According to him, although some arrests have been made in the Northern Region in relation to the ongoing fraudulent invest­ment activities, SEC could not address the issue alone, and there­fore needs the collaboration of key stakeholders to help sanitise the investment space.Moreover, Mr Thompson said that SEC, as part of measures to help address the issue of fraudu­lent investment schemes, would soon launch a short code to ensure easy verification of unli­censed investment operators."Once somebody comes to market any investment product to you or you come across such product online, you can text the name of that product or compa­ny to the short code for verifica­tion," Mr Thompson said.He also indicated that SEC had received assurance for other key stakeholders, including the Cybersecurity Authority of their support.For his part, Mr Dwumfour pledged the Association's com­mitment to collaborate with the SEC to enhance financial literacy and reinforce investor confidence.Mr Dwumfour said, partner­ing with SEC was not just a good move but a national necessity."Together, we can build a more transparent, robust, and prosperous financial future for all Ghanaians," he said.To bring this partnership to fruition, Mr Dwumfour recom­mended among other initiatives, a joint training workshop to equip journalists with a deeper under­standing of capital market regula­tions and investment trends.He added that there was the need for the two organisations to jointly launch investor education campaigns to reach a wider audi­ence, particularly in rural areas. BY CYNTHIA ASAMPANA