Zerodha CEO Nithin Kamath's advice on ‘rising trend’ of stock market fraud

He was reacting to a story about how a Bengaluru-based software engineer lost nearly ₹91 lakh to people who offered him “online training” in the stock market.

Alarmed by what he sees as the “rising trend” of stock market fraud, including through platforms such as WhatsApp and Telegram, Zerodha CEO Nikhil Kamath has advised people to change their WhatsApp and Telegram settings so that strangers cannot add them to groups on these messaging apps.

"The past 9 months alone have had scams worth 11,000 crores," Kamath claimed .(Representational Image)

“The trend of these frauds are increasing. The past 9 months alone have had scams worth 11000 crores! I dread to think what it will be like once the fraudsters use AI,” Kamath posted on X (formerly Twitter).

He added, “One thing you can do to protect yourself is change the settings on WhatsApp and Telegram so strangers can't add you to groups. Here's screenshots of the settings screen that show how to do it.”

The Zerodha CEO was reacting to a story about how a Bengaluru-based software engineer lost nearly ₹91 lakh to people who offered him “online training” in the stock market and assured him of “huge profits.”

The man fell in their trap as all they asked of him was to vote for them in the “Global AI mart Trading Competition.” Subsequently, the fraudsters got the victim to make investments, which was done across 45 days.

Eventually, the victim realised he had been conned when he could not withdraw the money invested by him.

The scam began in July with the engineer receiving a message on WhatsApp offering him “training” in the stock market in exchange for “voting” in the “competition.” He voted every day and a few days later, was added to a Telegram group of 80 participants.

At one point, he was also made to download two apps, of which one showed his investment and profit details. The second one, on the other hand, was for making investments.

On November 25, days after realising something was amiss, the man contacted police. A case was registered under the Information Technology (IT) Act and Section 318 (cheating) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).