Zerodha co-founder Nithin Kamath on Wednesday detailed an ‘online scam,’ stating that there was a need to create awareness, and that there was ‘no easy way to make a lot of money quickly.’
Kamath began his Twitter thread by saying someone he knew was the victim of the said ‘scam.’
“It started with a response to a part-time job offer on WhatsApp. The first few tasks were about leaving fake reviews for resorts & restaurants in random places like Peru. ₹30k was transferred to the bank for the tasks completed,” his first tweet said.
A Telegram group, he said next, was set up for those who claimed to have completed these tasks, adding that the subsequent task for the group was to trade on a mock crypto platform, and profits generated were allowed to be withdrawn, even without the transfer of any real money.
This ‘money’ was not Bitcoin or Ethereum, but random crypto tokens, Kamath further explained. “The group was now asked to transfer real money to generate higher returns. Others in the group claiming to transfer nudged my friend to do so as well,” tweeted Kamath.
The Zerodha CEO and co-founder continued: “I guess the risk didn’t seem much since the money transferred was the ₹30K earned through the platform. But greed took over, and more money was transferred, probably due to peer pressure from others in the group who claimed to have made large transfers and profits.”
What happened next?
Kamath noted that though his friend tried to withdraw, the latter could not do so as a certain number of traders was required for this. “The fear of being unable to withdraw the money took over, and more money was added to trade. This amounted to ₹5 lakh, a large amount for any person,” he wrote.
The friend’s spouse immediately realised it was a fraud after the friend finally decided to confide with her, he added.
He concluded the thread with the message that the police revealed there had been several cases, including those of well-educated people borrowing lakhs, and losing the money in such ‘sophisticated scams.’
