Have you come across a Telegram Channel or a Whatsapp Group that regularly shows you Profit Screenshots. Lots of them.
And then claims that all these profits are made by their clients.
Such channels then share a LINK with you to become a client yourself so that you can also make a lot of money.
Tell me honestly. Have you fallen for such a scam yourself? You must have seen such channels for sure, if you have been in the stock market space for even a month.
Here is a quick conversation that our team had with one such victim who fell for these screenshots. He was shown some NSE certification as well which has nothing to do with them sharing market tips out there.
ADB Team: How did you fall for such a scam?
Victim: Too many reasons. Firstly, their open Telegram group had 4.5 lakh followers, where they lured people with massive profit screenshots. I was taken aback by so much profit that I thought, may be, they can make money for me too.
Also, they claimed to be NSE Certified but provided an unverifiable certification number (AP03948561) and refuse to share more details. I don’t know any further. But yea, I fell for it and paid them for their advisory service.
ADB Team: What happened once you paid for their service?
Victim: They offered 2 plans. After paying ₹6,999 or ₹9,999, they added me to their Stock Options and Index Trading groups.
They provided around four calls daily, but out of those 4, 2-3 would hit a stop loss. They then, would delete all losing calls and only keep the profit-making ones. Even the profitable calls came with delays, making it hard to benefit from them anyway.
Later on, they calculated profits backward and posted them as successful trades in the same Telegram Channel.
ADB Team: That’s concerning. How may such members were there who paid?
Victim: I could see at least 300 new members, on an average, joining every week. So, you can imagine their earnings.
ADB Team: So, you said their pricing was ₹7k or ₹10k. So, even if I taken an average of ₹8500 and let’s say 1000 members a month. That would be a whooping ₹85 Lakh per month.
That’s huge.
Victim: I think, they must have earned over ₹15 crores from memberships, by now.
ADB Team: And how much did you lose?
Victim: I lost 30,000 INR in trades and 10,000 INR in subscription fees. It’s devastating to see their claims of 5 lakh profits while many are being conned.
ADB Team: That’s a significant amount. Thank you for sharing this.
Learnings:
- Never believe any kinds of profit screenshots anywhere on social media or else. People showing you such stuff are just luring you.
- Always ask for SEBI registration. There are 2 kinds Investment Advisor (IA) and Research Analyst (RA).
- Check these licenses from SEBI Website. For IA, check here and for RA, check here.
- Once you get the tip, initially only paper trade for the first few recommendations. Then, start with small quantity and increase gradually based on your risk appetite.
- For any concerns, always reach out to A Digital Blogger by filling up the form given on the website or use the Chat feature to talk to us.
