We all know we should be careful about what we read on social media; everything people post isn’t always true or accurate. But just because we know this doesn’t mean we can’t still be swayed, tricked, or persuaded into doing things we shouldn’t. Because of this, it’s especially important to consider how you may be influenced when it comes to financial misinformation.

Falsehoods and empty promises are out there, in the form of bone-headed tweets and posts about the latest tips regarding stock, investments, bank accounts, credit cards, and loans.

It’s gotten worse over the past decade, says Andre Jean-Pierre, an investment adviser and managing director at Aces Advisors Wealth Management in New York City.

“Over the past 10 years, I’ve noticed more and more people relying on social media for their investment and financial advice,” Jean-Pierre says.

He thinks this is due partially to the pandemic.

“I believe that the DIY investor crowd, combined with a higher social media usage early in the pandemic, created the perfect environment for the rise of the social media ‘finfluencer,’” Jean-Pierre says, using a word that’s been coined to describe social media influencers who give financial advice to their followers.

Some of the advice, Jean-Pierre says, has been on-target, which, of course, only deepens the bond between finfluencers and their followers. But Jean-Pierre is also quick to note that plenty of financial advice that goes viral is inaccurate.

If you spend a lot of time on social media, and if you sometimes make decisions about topics such as investments and credit cards based on what you’re reading (as, of course we all do), you’ll want to first ask yourself a few questions.

Is my emotional state influencing my purchase?

Why is this important? Because virtually every financial decision is driven by psychology. Yes, there are a few spending decisions that aren’t based on your behavior, habits, or personality. You aren’t going to spend a significant amount of time thinking about paying your DMV registration or water bill, since these are competition-free markets, meaning no one is trying to persuade you to pay these. But just about everything else you spend money on involves psychology, from the clothes you buy or the vacations you take to the house you buy or the apartment you choose to rent.

Even food choice is affected by psychology. Well, especially food. You have to buy food to live, but the types of food you get — healthy foods, snack foods, cheap foods, decadent foods — are all rooted in how we feel about ourselves or our families at the time.

On social media, seeing what friends and family spend on could influence your financial decisions.

A recent real-life example has been playing out on the social media site TikTok with “dropshipping.” Influencers have been pushing the idea you too could make six figures through a dropshipping business, in which you advertise products and send them to customers, earning money through your online store without ever having to actually handle the merchandise yourself. It’s not that it can’t be done, but a lot of influencers convincing would-be entrepreneurs it’s easy to become rich this way are themselves making money with viewer traffic, not by dropshipping!

What to do: Delay making a purchase for at least a week. You may reconsider your decision. Or you could feel more assured that a purchase is right for you.

Have I vetted the source?

You’ve just read an article on social media about investing, and you’re going to put some money into commodity futures or maybe a new cryptocurrency.

Maybe the article is brilliant and right on target. But did you pay attention to the publication behind this information? Was it a credible financial source such as — ahem — the one you’re reading? Or were you reading somebody’s blog? Blogs can be a credible source of information if the author is a verifiable expert on a topic. But if you aren’t familiar with the author’s credentials, be mindful: You could be taking advice from a TikTok or internet celebrity whose net worth is determined by their platform’s traffic.

Look at it this way: If you’re single and dating, you wouldn’t go out somewhere with a complete stranger. You would look the person up first, or at the very least, meet in a public place. You would try to learn something about the person to ensure they won’t bring you harm.

If you’re going to take advice based on something an article tells you, vet the article and author — just like you would if you were going on a date with a random stranger.

What to do: Test the advice, article, and author to see if they’re worth your trust. So you read some financial advice — are other media outlets writing about it, or is this writer and publication the only one? How old is the article? Maybe you’re reading about something that would have been great to spend money on six years ago but is invalid today. Considering such points is essential.

Have I vetted the source who put the information on social media?

It isn’t only the source of the information on social media you need to be concerned about. You need to think about who is posting this brilliant financial article that you’re enamored by. Was this posted by the equivalent of your trusted and wise grandfather who is a former financial adviser … or the equivalent of your hotheaded cousin who can’t hold down a job and once lost a fortune as a day trader?

For instance, the Better Business Bureau put out a warning recently on a con artist posting on TikTok (yes, TikTok again) claiming he made a ton of cash in a few days from investing in cryptocurrency and he can do the same for you. Once you message the con artist, you’ll be asked to send money through PayPal, Zelle, or Venmo — because, you know, it’ll be invested in cryptocurrency. Or you may be asked to buy cryptocurrency and send it to the “investor” so it’ll be invested.

Either way, you’re not about to become rich.

Of course, you’re probably thinking, “Well, I’d never be dumb enough to do that.” Fair enough. But if you end up investing in a reputable cryptocurrency platform based on something you read on social media and you lose all of your money, are you any better off?

The takeaway isn’t that you should never invest in cryptocurrency, but that you should consider who is offering the advice on social media.

Of course, most things posted on social media are fleeting. It’s very easy to read an article or watch a video posted by a family member, friend, or acquaintance and forget immediately who posted it in the first place. This is one of the problems of social media: We’re able to consume information faster than we’re able to fully process it.

What to do: If you’re uncertain about the person who posted the information, scrutinize the information you’ve been given. For instance, is this article or video tied into breaking news? Sometimes websites will generate quick, sloppy conclusions or false generalizations to get hits and clicks. Or maybe investment advice falls in line with a website’s cause or agenda, and so it’s promoted without being vetted. That’s why it’s up to you to ask the hard questions. If you still like the answers, maybe the financial misinformation isn’t disinformation at all. You won’t know if you don’t question the information you find on social media.

Am I giving into the dreaded disease known as FOMO?

FOMO, or fear of missing out, is a commonly experienced sense of having lost something, an experience, opportunity, product, etc., without ever having it in the first place.

It’s easy to experience FOMO on social media. While sometimes family members, friends, and acquaintances post things about getting sick or having a bad day, more people tend to post the good stuff — photos of a new boat, for instance, without the disclaimer that they’re also getting sued for careening that new boat into a floating restaurant.

We all tend to share good news on social media, which is great. We could all use good news in our lives. But think about that old expression, “don’t try to keep up with the Joneses.” It originated in 1913, with an old comic strip called “Keeping Up with the Joneses” and has always been meant to discourage people from trying to emulate their neighbors. Live your life; don’t worry about how others spend money or live their lives.

Not trying to keep up with the Joneses is sound wisdom, but if you think about it, it may be possible to keep up with the Joneses, provided you have similar incomes. What is impossible is keeping up with the Smiths, the Johnsons, the Rodriguezes, the Khourys, and everybody else in your various social circles. You can’t possibly keep up with everybody, and if you try, you may end up going into debt, buying a boat you can’t afford and only later realizing you’re not even a boat person.

Like, maybe you get seasick or just aren’t into the smell of boat wax.

The FOMO phenomenon made national news not long ago. You probably remember when a lot of people on the social media site Reddit got investors excited about investing in the video game retail store GameStop, sending its stock surging. Then it plummeted. A lot of individual investors got rich, but plenty of innocents — late investors not wanting to miss out — were financially devastated.

Have I been comparison shopping for my money information?

This is probably the most important question you can ask yourself, and exactly what you should do before almost any purchase. Again, if you’re making an annual payment to the DMV, you probably don’t need to ask yourself a lot of questions. Simply, make the payment. But if you’re thinking of investing in cryptocurrency, future contracts or a timeshare, you’ll want to do your research first.

The more information, the better. Find out as much as you can through your favorite search engine, asking questions such as “Are timeshares a scam?” Or typing phrases such as “cryptocurrency fraud,” if that’s what you’re interested in. Much of the financial advice on social media is bite size, reduced to 30-second videos on TikTok or 280 characters on Twitter. You want more than a taste of financial information. You want an entire meal.

So read articles from trusted sources about the financial issues you’re interested in. Talk to your financial adviser. If you don’t have one, consider getting one. Or, sure, ask … sigh … ask your friends and family on social media for their thoughts.

But the important thing is that you think — think about what you’re getting into before you spend money based on information you find on social media. If you don’t, you really could miss the boat, or worse, buy one.