Zerodha co-founder and CEO Nithin Kamath is an avid social media user. He often shares his candid views on several topics. Now, in his recent post, the billionaire raised concerns over a spike in financial frauds, particularly those targeting individuals on social media platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram. Taking to X, Mr Kamath highlighted a recent case in Bengaluru where a techie lost nearly Rs 91 lakh in a stock market scam. The victim was reportedly lured into a fraudulent scheme via a WhatsApp group, where scammers promised high returns on investment.
Mr Kamath said that the trend of cyber frauds had reached alarming proportions, with more than Rs 1,100 crore lost to such frauds in the last nine months alone. He also shared a small but crucial step that can prevent people from falling prey to such scams.
"The trend of these frauds are increasing. The past 9 months alone have had scams worth 11000 crores! I dread to think what it will be like once the fraudsters use AI," Mr Kamath wrote in his post.
Take a look below:
In the following line, he flagged the role of Whatsapp and Telegram groups in such scams, where scammers often add unsuspecting people to random groups and promise them rich dividends. He cautioned against joining such groups unless added to them by trusted people. He also emphasized the importance of changing privacy settings on these platforms to prevent unauthorized additions to groups.
"One thing you can do to protect yourself is change the settings on your WhatsApp and Telegram so strangers can't add you to groups," the billionaire wrote, sharing screenshots to guide users through the process.
Mr Kamath shared the post just a few hours back. Since then, it has accumulated more than 336,000 views and several likes. His advice also garnered a lot of reactions from social media users.
"I'm going to do this for my parents. Old people are at much higher risk of fraud now," wrote one user. "Good information. I have updated my whatsapp privacy settings accordingly," commented another.
"Changing group settings is a great tip! but we need more awareness campaigns to educate people," expressed a third user. "Everyone should use the privacy & security feature strictly. Better to stay away from strangers on WhatsApp," said a fourth.
