You Handed Over Your Account. They Handed Themselves Your Money.
You didn’t think you were doing anything wrong.
Someone confident called you. They had a track record, or at least they showed you one. They had a system, an “algo,” a “strategy,” a “managed approach”, and all they needed was access to your account to make it work for you.
It felt like hiring an expert. Like trusting a professional with something you didn’t fully understand yourself.
But here is what nobody told you before you shared that OTP, before you handed over your login, before you said: “yes, go ahead, manage it for me”.
What they were doing was illegal. And the losses that followed were never yours to carry alone.
Rahul Thought He Was Getting Expert Help But He Was Getting Robbed
Rahul (name changed) found the Telegram channel at a moment when he was desperate to make the markets work for him.
He tried managing his own trades. Some losses, some recovery, more losses. He had a full-time job, family responsibilities, and no time to study charts for hours every day.
Meanwhile, he couldn’t spend hours studying charts. After all, he had a full-time job, family responsibilities, and other commitments.
So when he stumbled across a channel run by someone calling himself a “market expert” with screenshots of crores in profits, it felt like the answer he had been looking for.
The pitch was polished.
“We trade on your behalf. You share your account details, we handle the rest. Fixed monthly returns. Zero stress for you.”
Rahul paid a registration fee. Then a monthly subscription. Then a “strategy upgrade” charge. At each step, the representative had a smooth answer ready for every doubt he raised.
He shared his demat account details as instructed.
He gave them the OTPs they asked for when they said they needed to “set up the algo.”
He trusted the process because the person on the other end sounded like they knew exactly what they were doing.
For a few weeks, he was shown statements that looked profitable. Then the communication slowed. The “profits” he was shown turned out to be fabricated.
The trades placed in his account were real, and almost all of them had resulted in real losses. When he tried to withdraw, the responses became evasive.
When he demanded his money back, the number stopped connecting.
What Rahul had experienced wasn’t just fraud. It was a clear, documented violation of SEBI regulations, the kind that SEBI has investigated, adjudicated, and penalised in formal enforcement proceedings.
Operators running exactly this kind of scheme have been investigated and penalised by SEBI in formal enforcement proceedings.
Can Advisor Trade in My Account or Not?
No. A SEBI-registered Investment Adviser cannot legally trade in your account. This is not a grey area. This is not something that depends on the arrangement or the paperwork you signed.
The law draws a clean line.
Under SEBI Investment Advisors guidelines, an adviser’s role begins and ends with advice.
They can tell you what they think you should buy or sell. The decision to actually execute that trade, the login, the order, the confirmation, must come from you and only you.
The moment someone else logs into your account, places orders using your credentials, requests your OTPs, or operates your demat account in any capacity, that arrangement has crossed from legal advisory into territory that SEBI explicitly prohibits.
There is only one legal structure under which someone can manage your trading account on your behalf: a SEBI-registered Portfolio Management Service, or PMS.
And even that comes with strict conditions, minimum investment of ₹50 lakh, a separate managed account in your name, complete transparency, and heavy regulatory oversight.
Anyone offering to “manage your account” outside that structure is not offering you a service.
They are offering you exposure to something that has already destroyed the savings of thousands of investors across this country.
Red Flags To Watch Out For
The people running these operations are skilled at making illegal arrangements sound reasonable.
They have language for everything. They have answers for your doubts before you even voice them.
But the red flags are always there.
Here is what to watch for:
- They ask for your trading account login ID or password, for any reason, under any label: “Setting up the algo.” “Syncing your account.” “One-time access for configuration.” It doesn’t matter how they frame it. No legitimate, registered entity needs your login credentials.
- They ask for OTPs: This one should end the conversation immediately. An OTP is your personal authentication. It exists to confirm that you, and only you, are authorising a transaction. Sharing it with anyone else bypasses the only protection standing between your account and someone else’s decisions.
- They promise fixed monthly returns, guaranteed profit percentages, or “no loss” strategies: Markets carry risk. SEBI explicitly prohibits any registered entity from promising returns. When someone guarantees you money, they are either lying or operating outside the law, usually both.
- They operate through Telegram channels, WhatsApp groups, or Instagram pages without any formal risk disclosures or client agreements: Every piece of investment advice in India must come with proper documentation, risk profiling, and disclosures. Tips sent through a chat message with a screenshot of profits attached are not advice. They are bait.
- They collect fees through multiple bank accounts, personal UPI IDs, or accounts in firm names you’ve never heard of: Legitimate registered entities have transparent, traceable fee structures. When the money trail is deliberately complicated, ask yourself why.
They reframe account management as something else: “assisted trading,” “algo execution,” “copy trading support,” “portfolio handling.” The label changes.
The violation doesn’t.
You feel pressured to act fast: ‘Offer closes tonight,’ ‘Limited seats,’ ‘Market opens tomorrow.’ Legitimate financial services don’t have closing dates.
Urgency is a sales tactic, not a feature.
How to File a Complaint Against RIA?
If you are reading this and realising that you have already handed over credentials, already shared OTPs, already let someone trade in your account, do not panic.
But do act, and act today.
1. Secure your account first
Log into your broker’s platform immediately and change your password. Call your broker’s customer care and ask them to flag any suspicious activity on your account.
If you believe someone still has access, ask the broker to temporarily freeze the account while you sort this out.
2. Document everything before you do anything else
Take screenshots of all conversations, including Telegram chats, WhatsApp messages, and emails.
Save every payment receipt, transaction record, written promise of guaranteed returns, and any message requesting your OTP, password, or login details.
Back everything up in multiple locations immediately.
Further, preserve all written promises, especially any claims of guaranteed returns. Also, keep records of messages requesting your OTP, password, or login details.
Most importantly, back up this evidence in multiple secure locations immediately.
3. Write to the entity formally
Put your grievance in writing. Ask them to explain every trade placed in your account, to refund fees collected, and to account for losses.
Send this as a formal communication, email with a read receipt, not just a WhatsApp message. Keep the record.
4. File a Complaint with SCORES
If the entity is or claims to be SEBI-registered, file your complaint on the SCORES portal. Attach your evidence. Describe the arrangement.
SEBI takes complaints about account access solicitation and guaranteed return claims seriously, as the enforcement record shows.
5. Raise a Complaint in Smart ODR
SEBI’s Online Dispute Resolution platform is specifically designed for investor disputes and is faster than going through arbitration directly.
6. Stock Market Arbitration
For significant financial losses, exchange arbitration provides a legally binding forum that can compel a registered entity to respond and compensate.
Need Help?
We were not involved in Rahul’s case. His resolution came through SEBI’s enforcement process, not through us.
But the investors we do work with often arrive in the same state he was in: confused about what exactly happened, unsure which documents matter, uncertain whether what was done to them even qualifies as a formal violation.
We help investors understand their options. First, we review the facts of the case.
We review the facts, compare them against applicable regulations, identify the violations, and prepare a well-documented complaint.
We have helped investors recover money from investment advisors and supported clients affected by unauthorised account access. Register with us today.
Conclusion
Rahul gave someone his trust. He gave them access because he believed he was buying expertise and convenience.
What he actually bought was exposure to an illegal arrangement that SEBI has spent years trying to stamp out, operators who use the language of finance and the promise of returns to turn ordinary investors into sources of fee income and trading fodder.
The law is not ambiguous on this. Your account belongs to you. Every order placed in it must come from you.
Anyone who told you otherwise, who asked for your credentials, who placed trades without your explicit, contemporaneous instruction, who promised you returns that markets cannot guarantee, was not serving you.
They were using you.
And that is not something you have to simply accept.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. My adviser said they have a power of attorney that allows them to trade in my account. Is that legal?
A general power of attorney does not give an Investment Adviser the legal right to trade in your account; that permission is reserved only for SEBI-registered Portfolio Management Services under strict conditions.
If an unregistered entity or an IA is using a PoA to justify trading your account, that arrangement likely violates SEBI regulations and can be formally challenged.
2. I paid fees to someone who traded my account and I lost money. Can I get that money back?
Potentially yes, especially if the entity was unregistered or made prohibited claims like guaranteed returns. SEBI has directed entities in similar cases to fully refund fees collected from clients.
The strength of your case depends on your documentation, payment records, communication, and evidence of the arrangement.
3. The person managing my account was on Telegram. How do I even file a complaint against them?
SEBI accepts complaints against entities operating through any channel, including Telegram, WhatsApp, and Instagram.
File on SEBI SCORES with screenshots of the channel, your conversations, payment records, and any promotional material they shared.
SEBI has previously investigated and penalised operators running purely through social media platforms.
4. I voluntarily shared my OTP. Does that mean I have no case?
Not necessarily. If you shared your OTP because someone misrepresented who they were or what the access was for, particularly under the guise of “algo setup” or “account configuration”, that is a form of fraud.
The fact that you shared it under false pretences does not automatically absolve the other party of responsibility for what they did with that access.
5. How do I verify whether an entity offering to manage my account is actually registered?
Visit SEBI’s official website and use the intermediary registration search tool.
Check whether the entity holds a valid PMS registration; that is the only registration that permits account management.
If they claim to be an Investment Adviser, that registration does not permit trading in your account, regardless of what they tell you.
