Yeferson Cossio sold a course on getting rich like him — SIC called it misleading

Yeferson Cossio, a Colombian influencer with more than 12 million Instagram followers, sold 'Método Cossio', a digital course of some 100 hours on editing, photography and monetisation, marketed as his personal formula for wealth. The promotion promised fast results: buyers were told they could pay off the purchase 'with their first video', and '¿Qué van a pensar ustedes ya en cinco meses cuando todos los que sí compraron el curso estén tapados en seguidores, en plata?' Priced at more than a million pesos, later cut to 250,000, it became a bestseller on the Hotmart platform.

Colombia's SIC found the advertising misleading: it presented Cossio's personal success as objectively replicable for buyers. The promises were not commercial exaggeration, the regulator said, but objective affirmations that induced error by trading on trust in a public figure. In Resolution 20777 of 15 April 2025, the SIC confirmed a fine of $813,002,240 pesos against Grupo Cossio S.A.S., finding that more than 23,000 consumers bought the course under false expectations.

Cossio, who had said earlier that if the SIC ruled he broke the rules he would pay and 'se acata la ley', had not issued a statement when the decision landed. The case became Colombia's reference point for influencer advertising: a celebrity's biography is not a product specification, and outcomes sold as replicable need evidence behind them.