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Professor David Wilson investigates how online influencers and self-styled experts spread disinformation or present a false persona to gain followers.

David reveals how Scottish influencer Yvonne McCuaig, who posted pictures of herself living a supposedly glamorous lifestyle, and who had thousands of followers, was exposed as one of the people behind a phone marketing scam that was investigated by the Information Commissioners Office and given a hefty fine.

In the studio, David interviews head of the ICO, Andy Curry, who explains how multiple complaints about Yvonne’s phone marketing company Dial-a-Deal led to an investigation, and how even while Yvonne continued to present a glamorous online persona, she and her business partner were being sanctioned and fined for serious breaches of the rules.

To find out more about how the influencer industry has become a worldwide phenomenon worth huge sums, and how it creates opportunities for fraud, David speaks to Dr Emily Hund, author of The Influencer Industry – The Quest for Authenticity on Social Media. Emily has studied the history of influencers, which has grown to enormous levels over the past 15 years, and she explains how the trust between influencers and their followers can be exploited and manipulated by unscrupulous people.

To find out how serious online misinformation can become, David speaks to Dr Margaret McCartney. In addition to being a medical doctor, Margaret studies, writes and broadcasts about online health misinformation, highlighting how harmful it can be. She gives examples of how self-styled experts charge money for dubious treatments, how a lack of regulation allows scammers to operate, and how we can all be vigilant about falling for advice being offered by unqualified, so-called health experts online.