Some of you might have encountered that soon after opening a demat account with a broker, you may start receiving calls offering advisory or recommendation services.
These calls can be misleading, as people often mistake them for legitimate broker communications or are enticed by the promises of high returns.
It’s crucial to verify the details before investing your hard-earned money.
These calls are often from scammers who hack brokers’ data and misguide traders and investors with false information.
Recently, one victim, Mr. Prem (name changed), was scammed by such a group on WhatsApp. Here is a summary of what happened.
Prem: Hello, ADB Team. I need your help with an issue I encountered recently.
ADB: Hello. We’re here to help. Please tell us what happened.
Prem: On May 23rd, I received a random call asking if I was interested in investing. I said yes, and they told me they would provide leads, and I needed to invest in them. They also recommended buying a Nifty CE option, but I ended up incurring a loss.
ADB: That sounds suspicious. What happened after you agreed to invest?
Prem: The broker, who was not listed with SEBI, gave me leads to two companies. Neither company was listed or had a registered ID. The IDs provided were fake.
ADB: What were the names of these companies?
Prem: The first company was called Horizon Research, and the second was Blackacer Research. I invested ₹20,000 in the first and ₹15,000 in the second. In both cases, I lost all my money. All this information was communicated to me via WhatsApp.
ADB: Do you have records of these communications and the transactions?
Prem: Yes, I have all the WhatsApp messages and transaction records.
ADB: Great, please share those documents with us. We’ll review them and start an investigation. It’s crucial to avoid investing based on unsolicited calls, especially when the broker and companies are not registered.
Prem: Thank you. I really appreciate your help. This has been very stressful for me.
ADB: We understand your frustration and will do our best to assist you. Avoid any further investments or communications with these brokers until we have more information. We’ll keep you updated on our progress.
Prem: Thanks again. I’ll send over the documents right away.
ADB: We’ll await your documents and get started on the investigation immediately. We’re here to help you through this.
So, here are some key takeaways that you can learn from this incidence.
