Zerodha CEO Nithin Kamath’s advice after Bengaluru techie loses ₹91 lakh in stock market fraud

Zerodha CEO Nithin Kamath raised concerns over a spike in financial frauds after a Bengaluru-based techie lost nearly ₹91 lakh in a stock market scam.

Published on: Nov 29, 2024, 11:52:29 IST

By Sanya Jain

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Zerodha CEO Nithin Kamath raised concerns over a spike in financial frauds after a Bengaluru-based techie lost nearly ₹91 lakh in a stock market scam. The billionaire highlighted the latest case while sharing a small but crucial step that can prevent people from falling prey to such scams.

Nithin Kamath raised concerns about a rise in cyber frauds.

Kamath, 45, said that the trend of cyber frauds had reached alarming proportions, with more than ₹1100 crore lost to such frauds in the last nine months alone.

He cited the most recent example of a Bengaluru software engineer who lost ₹91 lakh by trusting scammers who promised huge profits in the stock market.

Nithin Kamath’s advice

“The trend of these frauds is 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.

The Zerodha founder flagged the role of WhatsApp and Telegram groups in such scams, where scammers often add unsuspecting people and promise them rich dividends.

Kamath cautioned against joining WhatsApp groups unless added to them by a trusted person.

“One thing you can do to protect yourself is change the settings on your WhatsApp and Telegram so strangers can't add you to groups. Here's screenshots of the settings screen that show how to do it,” he wrote, sharing screenshots that explain how exactly one can change WhatsApp settings.

WhatsApp users can change the settings to ensure only their contacts can add them to WhatsApp groups.

People in the comments section were thankful for the advice. “I’m going to do this for my parents. Old people are at much higher risk of fraud now,” wrote one X user. “Good information. I have updated my whatsapp privacy settings accordingly,” another said.

(Also read: Billionaire Nithin Kamath says air quality should determine property prices in Delhi, Bengaluru)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sanya Jain
Sanya Jain is an Assistant Editor with Hindustan Times Digital. She has nearly a decade of experience in covering offbeat stories that speak to the everyday experience - from viral videos to human interest copies that spark conversation. Her interests stretch across business, pop culture, social media trends, entertainment and global affairs. Before joining Hindustan Times, Sanya spent two years with Moneycontrol and five years with NDTV. She holds an undergraduate degree in English literature from St Stephen’s College, Delhi, and a master’s in journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications, Mumbai. Sanya has a sharp eye for spotting emerging trends and looking for newsworthy angles to elevate viral posts into meaningful narratives. She was the first one, for example, to cover Narayana Murthy’s remark on 70-hour work weeks that sparked a national conversation. She is equally at ease writing about business leaders as about the common man, about issues of national importance and memes that amuse social media. Sanya enjoys speaking with content creators, newsmakers and entrepreneurs to transform everyday moments into engaging, slice-of-life stories that resonate with readers. When she is not working, Sanya can be found curled up with a good book. Born and raised in Lucknow, she has spent the last several years in Delhi. She is deeply interested in animal welfare and now spends a lot of her time running after her destructive orange cat.Read More

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