MUMBAI: The bourses on Wednesday warned investors to not fall for social media posts offering high returns through specialised apps that use names of established brokers and other intermediaries. While NSE said in its warning that there have been cases where people impersonated representatives of Choice Broking and R K Global Shares & Securities, BSE didn’t name any broker or market intermediary.
“It has been brought to the notice of (NSE) that persons named “Makhan Prajapati” and “Rakesh Sharma” claiming to be associated with entity named “Choice Broking” operating through mobile number “9977690997” and person named “Kuldeep Valiya” claiming to be associated with entity named “R K Global Shares & Securities” and operating through mobile number “9112569388” are providing securities market tips for trading and assured returns on investment in the stock market.He is also offering to handle investors’ trading accounts by asking them to share their login ID/passwords,” NSE said. “Investors are requested to take note that Choice Equity Broking and R K Global Shares & Securities, registered trading members of (NSE), have informed that the above-mentioned person is not associated with them in any manner,” it added.
“Generally, impersonators carry out their activities via social media platforms and messaging apps such as Facebook pages and WhatsApp groups. They make enticing promises of guaranteed high returns,” BSE said. When investors start to believe they are dealing with legitimate registered intermediaries, they download the app and invest through it.
“Reality is that their investments never actually occur on the stock exchanges. Instead, these transactions remain as paper trades within the app. When investors try to withdraw substantial amounts, the app suddenly becomes non-functional.”
BSE, in its letter, said Sebi had been receiving complaints from investors/intermediaries about fraudulent trading activities in name of prominent Sebi-registered financial institutions.
