Nithin Kamath On Scams: Zerodha CEO says his friend lost Rs 5 lakh due to a WhatsApp message – Times of India

Several cybersecurity reports have suggested that hackers and scammers are using new ways to trick people which leads to financial losses. One such incident has been shared by Nithin Kamath, CEO of Zerodha, an online stock trading platform.
Kamath said that someone he knows ended up losing lakhs after he was scammed on WhatsApp. In a series of tweets, he said that the person lost around Rs 5,00,000 after falling prey to a part-time job offer fraud.
Victim promised money in exchange for fake reviews
Kamath said that the victim responded to a part-time job offer on WhatsApp in which the victim was asked to leave fake reviews for resorts and restaurants in random places, like Peru, in exchange for Rs 30,000.

The victim was then added to a Telegram group wherein group members claimed that they had also completed these tasks.
The next task for the group was to trade on a mock crypto platform, following a bunch of rules. At this stage, profits generated were allowed to be withdrawn, even without transferring any real money, he said.
“By the way, this wasn’t Bitcoin or Ethereum, but random crypto tokens whose prices fraudsters could easily manipulate,” Kamath noted.
The group was then told to transfer real money to generate higher returns. He pointed out that other people in the group nudged his friend to do so, claiming they have invested in the platform.

‘Greed took over’
Kamath said that his friend transferred 30,000 earned from profit but the others in the group pressured the victim to make “large transfers” and earn larger profits.
“The person tried to withdraw but couldn’t and was told that a certain number of traders was required. The fear of being unable to withdraw the money took over, and more money was added to trade. This amounted to Rs 5 lakh, a large amount for any person,” he said.
According to Kamath, the crypto platform also offered a loan “when the person said there was no more money to add.” Soon, after telling the incident to the spouse, the victim realised that the whole operation was a fraud.