2 out of 3 cases we came across are of account handling in stock market, where traders or beginners provide their account to an unregistered entity that claims a guaranteed return on trading on their behalf.
The result is the same in all the cases where people lose their entire capital in a few days.
Here comes a list of questions:
Is Account Handling Legal in India?
Yes, it is legal in India, but only a registered Portfolio Management Services provider can provide you with these services. Under this service, a registered portfolio manager manages your equity portfolio with the help of a skilled and registered research team.
Their knowledge and years of experience help you in growing your capital. However, not everyone is eligible to use these services, as the minimum capital to avail PMS services in India is ₹50 lakh.
Even if they have years of experience, they are not allowed to claim guaranteed returns, and above all, are aware of all kinds of risks involved.
Anyone reaching out to you to provide you with account handling services with a capital of less than ₹50 lakh is either not registered or a scammer.
Now, scammers offering account handling services often approach via WhatsApp & Telegram, where they induce people by showing fake profit screenshots.
Here is an incident that we recently came across where a victim lost their capital after sharing their login details with an unregistered entity.
Case: Mr. Arif (name changed) lost ₹90k in a trading account handling with profit sharing.
ADB: Hello, Mr. Arif, we came across your case. Please provide details.
Arif: Sir, I was following one Telegram Channel ‘Grow Team’ for 3 years and usually check their profit screenshots that they used to share after market hours.
Recently, I thought of taking their services.
ADB: What kind of services did they offer?
Arif: Account handling with 30% profit sharing.
ADB: So, you shared your account details.
Arif: Yes, I have an account in Angel One, and at that time,e there was ₹86,000 capital in my account.
ADB: Did their service work?
Arif: Yes, first day, I earned a profit of ₹17,000/-. I was really happy. The other day, it was Tuesday, and it was FinNifty expiry. They opened a position where they sold a Finnifty call at ₹10, but soon the value rose to ₹170.
I lost my entire capital in a matter of a few minutes.
ADB: That’s really bad. So, were they SEBI-registered?
Arif: No, they were not.
ADB: Did you try to contact them?
Arif: I did, but they didn’t pick up my phone, and later on, deleted their channel as well.
Following a telegram channel blindly without validating the details and greed to earn quick profits eventually makes you fall into bigger scams. Stop following your influencer blindly and invest time to become more aware and to learn trading to become self-dependent.
