Investment Fraud

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Fraudsters may impersonate Stock Broking Firms, Online Trading Advisors, or misuse reputed organisation names & logos to gain your trust towards investments.

How does this fraud happen?

Method 1

The fraudster will share attractive advertisements through a social media platform about free online trading tips or investment schemes with unusually high returns/profits in a short period of time!

Once you connect with the fraudster, they will first add you to a WhatsApp/Telegram group, and then convince you to make a payment to their account for the particular investment, or they will share a fraudulent link/app to proceed with the payment.

The fraudster will also send you a fake link/website which displays high returns for your invested amount and advise you to keep making such payments for investments.

Once you stop making the payments and request for withdrawal of invested amount and the profits, they will disappear by blocking your social media account & switch off their contact number. It’s now that you realise that it was actually an investment fraud.

Method 2

You will receive phishing calls from unknown people with regards to investments. The fraudster will ask you to download a screen sharing app and make a payment of Rs. 1 or 5 for registration/verification purpose. Through screen sharing apps, the fraudster may get access to your mobile device and may compromise your account credentials.

The fraudster can now view the UPI PIN inputted by you. They will now link your account through the UPI app and with the help of UPI PIN, carry out subsequent unauthorised transactions!

Here’s how you can stay safe:

Do not trust investment schemes assuring unusual high returns/profits that sound too good to be true.
Refrain from clicking suspicious links/advertisements from unknown sources.
Do not trust unsolicited investment schemes received on social media.
Refrain from dealing with unregulated financial entities operating on social media.
Before investing, verify if it is a legitimate financial institution & governed by regulatory bodies through their official website.
Do not share any sensitive details like OTP, CVV, PIN, etc with anyone.
Do not click on any unknown link or install any unknown app or link.
Do not accept the messages as genuine simply because they name well-known companies.
Any person that asks you to pay an amount upfront should be ignored and/or reported to the right authorities.

To report a cybercrime to the police, dial the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal on 1930 or lodge a complaint through their website www.cybercrime.gov.in

To report a fraud or any suspicious activity to Kotak Bank, click here.