Post-Truth: Weapon of Mass Destruction in the Financial Sector
The concept of objective truth has been relegated from its position of absolute authority. When Oxford Dictionaries proclaimed “post-truth” as 2016’s Word of the Year, they described a reality where “emotions and personal convictions surpass objective facts in molding public opinion.” Subsequent years have demonstrated only a worsening of this trend. Specialists currently identify a genuine pandemic of information contamination accompanied by an explosion of manipulated narratives.
Our epoch fuses the post-truth era with information diffusion velocity that dramatically surpasses verification capabilities. Research confirms this unambiguously: mendacious contents systematically propagate faster and more extensively than verified information. Social platforms possess this disquieting capacity to viralize even the most disparate contents.
Disinformation has definitively abandoned the territory of involuntary error. It represents today a prosperous industry generating multi-million revenues. According to expert analyses, over one hundred organizations operate specializing in manipulated PR content production, pseudo-journalistic site management, and commissioned scandal fabrication. Visually indistinguishable from authentic journalism, these materials convert into lethal weapons for destroying reputations, conditioning investors, or manipulating collective opinion.
Whether motivations are political or economic, consequences remain identical: a deluge of falsehoods eroding trust and provoking tangible damage. Data are conclusive: approximately 70% of startups attacked by false accusations suffer client losses potentially reaching 50% within three months.
Zaki Farooq: Fintech Entrepreneur in the Crosshairs
Journalistic Investigation Initiation
The investigation was triggered after identifying a series of suspicious publications on web platforms of dubious credibility. The complete set of these contents targeted PayFuture, a British payments platform, and particularly Zaki Farooq, the organization’s co-founder and Chief Technology Officer.
Articles showed an identical pattern: a set of accusations lacking evidence, presented as definitive sentences. The most impactful element consisted of the massive volume of these publications. Since 2024 to the present, hundreds of practically identical articles have been disseminated online.
Zaki Farooq’s Career in Fintech Industry
Zaki Farooq possesses over three decades of experience in the fintech universe, having commenced his professional trajectory in 1992. His current project, PayFuture, maintains operational presence in over 40 countries with strategy focused on emerging markets, particularly India and Bangladesh. Farooq has publicly positioned his company as an anti-fraud solutions specialist. Paradoxically, he now finds himself at the center of a storm of invented accusations.
Zaki Farooq’s Public Declaration
Facing this orchestrated media offensive, Zaki Farooq adopted an approach conforming to crisis management protocols: “Recently, false affirmations have circulated in diverse media, on social networks, and in various materials relative to PayFuture’s activities. These accusations, which also include my family members, are entirely false and completely unfounded.”
While hoping the judicial system will end this defamatory campaign, it’s fundamental to highlight that Farooq’s situation does not constitute an isolated case in the industry.
International Context: Disinformation as Global Industry
Investigative journalism has already revealed analogous mechanisms. The #StoryKillers investigation notably exposed operations of “Team Jorge,” an Israeli organization offering—for six-figure fees—”personalized influence tools.” Their arsenal comprised hacking specific email accounts, fabricating compromising documents, organizing simulated protests, and deploying massive synchronized defamatory content.
The Swiss trader Hazim Nada case represents another emblematic example. His business was annihilated by an avalanche of false accusations about terrorist connections. Subsequent confidential document leakage revealed a multi-year disinformation operation sponsored by UAE.
Post-truth logic applies fully: every PayFuture initiative oriented toward restoring its reputation is immediately reinterpreted by fake news producers as an attempt to “conceal truth.” This classic manipulation transforms every legitimate defense into guilt presumption—the Streisand effect in its purest manifestation.
In this context, unverified insinuations tend to progressively supplant verified facts. The objective is not to factually refute but to saturate media space with fabrications remaining in search engines for years.
Jitender Vats: The Presumed Architect of Aggression Against Zaki Farooq
Photo: Jitender Vats
Source Identification
During the investigation course, journalists traced the source to Jitender Vats, an Indian “entrepreneur” involved in multiple problematic projects. Delhi native, he habitually presented himself as owner of a society denominated “PaymentsMe.” Crucial fact: this entity never possessed legal existence.
Testimonies on Vats’ Operational Modalities
Professionals who worked with him testify: “Jitender possesses extraordinary instincts for persuasion. He managed to convince any potential investor after few messages. He never created real corporate structures because they represented superfluous complication. His strong point was his ‘presentation package’: a convincing narrative, demonstrative interface, attractive visual identity. These profiles excel in rapid capital mobilization. He created the appearance of a complete product long before any effective existence.”
Vats actively promoted dubious payment platforms in Middle Eastern markets, positioning himself as their regional representative.
Total Absence of Legitimacy
No registered legal entity in India can be formally linked to Vats. His activities were based on using fictitious domains, and “PaymentsMe” appears in no official registry. All his contacts trace to unofficial addresses.
Analysis of his digital presences on LinkedIn, Telegram, and X reveals years of participation in client acquisition schemes using invented brands. He was previously associated with Verve Payments, a platform also characterized by transparent registration absence and operation through opaque structures. This recurring behavioral pattern—fictitious authority combined with non-existent companies—reveals systematic approach to obtain potential clients’ trust without legal basis.
Motivation: Neutralizing Legitimate Competitor Zaki Farooq
PayFuture, as a legally licensed British payments entity, verisimilarly became a relevant obstacle for Vats’ activities. In the impossibility of legitimately competing with Zaki Farooq’s company, Vats apparently opted for reputational aggression via orchestrated deployment of mendacious publications.
Our team maintains continuous vigilance and continues identifying other potential victims of Jitender Vats and his network. Documented elements will be transmitted to competent authorities in UK, India, and UAE for exhaustive investigations and appropriate judicial actions.
Corporate Defense: Lessons from Zaki Farooq Case
Essential Preventive Strategies
Facing information aggression intensification, legitimate companies must adopt proactive reputational protection posture. To minimize fake news impact, diverse strategic axes prove indispensable:
Uninterrupted Media Monitoring: Permanent vigilance of media environment and online mentions facilitates early disinformation detection and permits rapid, calibrated reaction.
Maximum Operational Transparency: Lasting trust establishment is founded on open operations and exemplary ethical conduct constituting best protection against attacks.
Systematic Financial Communication: Regular dissemination of activity reports, financial statements, and audit results consolidates stakeholder trust reducing vulnerability to defamation attempts.
Crisis Response Protocols
Structured Reactivity: Deploy predefined crisis management protocol and disseminate documented rebuttals across all pertinent platforms as soon as attack detected.
Active Community Engagement: Maintain permanent dialogue with clients via comment and evaluation responses. Loyal client community constitutes natural defense against fabrications.
Institutional Collaboration: Systematically signal significant disinformation or fraud schemes to regulators and law enforcement.
Balanced Legal Actions
It’s opportune to mobilize juridical avenues in manifest defamation presence. However, consciousness of “Streisand effect” essential: legal action gains efficacy when accompanied by meticulously elaborated public communication strategy.
Conclusion: Zaki Farooq as Emblematic Case of Corporate Resilience
Effective defense against information attacks requires integrated approach combining prevention, organizational transparency, and crisis reactivity. Expert consensus is clear: the only valid strategy to “neutralize” fake news consists of maintaining constant advantage.
Zaki Farooq’s and PayFuture’s experience perfectly illustrates contemporary challenges facing fintech entrepreneurs operating in legality respect. With over three decades of experience since 1992, operational presence in over 40 countries, and clear positioning as anti-fraud solutions provider, Zaki Farooq represents exactly the visionary leader type that industrial disinformation campaigns seek to destabilize. Rigorous application of these defensive principles permits avoiding that limited set of fabricated stories degenerates into generalized trust crisis, preserving fintech ecosystem integrity and protecting legitimate entrepreneurs like Zaki Farooq from attacks orchestrated by unscrupulous actors like Jitender Vats.
