Stock Market Traders and Investors in India are spammed every day with unsolicited STOCK Advisory SPAM SMS.
This is an problem on a large scale that every investor in India has to deal with everyday.
The concerned authorities are either turning a blind eye or do not know how to deal this situation.
Who sends these unsolicited STOCK Advisory SPAM SMS ?
These messages are send out by unregulated stock market SCAMMERS with an intention to rip off the savings of Investors in India.
They use the service of Online BULK SMS Delivery Companies to SCAM the investors out of their hard earned savings.
Why do these SCAMMERS keep sending these messages ?
These STOCK Advisory SPAM SMS contain recommendations of listed Stocks that are ILLIQUID.
The SCAMMERS quietly accumulates these stocks over a period of time from the market float.
By sending these unsolicited STOCK Advisory SPAM SMS to millions of investors in India, they now wants to inflate the demand.
This fictional demand increases the price of these stocks. The SCAMMERS then use this opportunity to Sell these under-performing stocks to unsuspecting investors.
In the hope of getting very high guaranteed returns offered in these SMS, the retail investors in India fall prey to such SCAMS.
Can these STOCK Advisory SPAM SMS be Stopped ?
90 percent of these SPAM SMS messages that keeps arriving does not have a Sender Telephone Number.
Instead they are replaced with a Alphabetic NAME. The people who send these messages can change this to any name they like.
This makes it difficult to track the origin of these messages and is impossible to block them using the settings of your phone.
This is technically called a SMS Branding Service. On the outside, these SMS looks like being sent by Reputed Brokerages in India.
Those messages that arrive with a telephone number ( which rarely does ) can be blocked using your phone settings.
From where do these SPAMMERS get your Mobile number ?
- Stock Market related whats app groups are the main source. Since your telephone number is visible to all members of the group you sign up to.
- From Stock Market related websites, software services where you have signed up using your email or mobile number.
- Allegedly, the staff of some brokerage firms are tempted to sell your telephone numbers for CASH to data miners.
How to reduce the amount of STOCK Advisory SPAM SMS ?
As discussed earlier, if your number is already out there in the SPAMMERS database, its difficult to put a full stop to such unsolicited ADVISORY messages and calls.
They do not follow any law of the land and wants to operate above the law, they keep calling and messaging you, even if you are registered for DND.
You can discourage Unsolicited Stock Market ADVISORY Services ringing you by being bold and asking them not to bother you again.
Also, You can take some logical steps to reduce such SPAMS being delivered to your mobile.
- Stop giving out your email or phone numbers to websites offering you free stock market course, pdf, newsletter etc.
- When signing up for new brokerage related service, make sure you sign up directly in the brokers website and not with third party middlemen.
- Avoid joining whats app groups without knowing what you are signing up to.
- Also ask your friends not to add your number to stock market whats app groups without your permission.
Follow these steps to Stop The Trading Messages completely.
Can the SEBI / Government track these SCAMMERS ?
Yes. It is possible for SEBI / Government to track down these unregulated STOCK Advisory SCAMMERS.
- By looking at the CDSL/NSDL databse, SEBI can quickly track the details of the SCAMMERS holding these illiquid stocks in bulk and now distributing SMS to SCAM the unsuspecting retail investors.
- The Ministry of Communication in India, can further discourage unidentified STOCK Advisory SPAM SMS being delivered to Investors Mobile phones. By holding BULK SMS delivery companies responsible for their actions and making a KYC mandatory, such unregulated SMS SCAMMER activities in India can be brought under supervision.
- The current method of reporting such activities to SEBI or the Government is far too complex, need to implement simplified methods to fight this problem.
Is it time for the SEBI / Government to act on this ?
The government is currently making an effort to bring more Investor participation in to the Financial Sector in our country.
The government is encouraging citizens to save up for SIP, Mutual Finds, Planning for retirement etc.
However, these unsolicited SMS ADVISORY SCAMMERS activity that operate on the sidelines is a slow cancer that counter acts the governments good efforts.
The unsolicited SMS ADVISORY SCAMMERS that traps retail investors out of their savings, brings a negative feeling to the Stock Market Concept in India.
Yes. It is time for them to act now.
How can you Contribute ?
- Retweet this article on social media for more awareness among people.
- If someone you know works in SEBI, please ask them to wake up do something about this.
Updates:
SEBI decides to act on this subject in Co-Operation with TRAI.
Thank you SEBI.