Nithin Kamath’s advice as Bengaluru techie loses

Zerodha CEO Nithin Kamath raised concerns over a spike in financial frauds after a Bengaluru-based techie lost nearly ₹91 lakh in a stock market scam. The billionaire highlighted the latest case while sharing a small but crucial step that can prevent people from falling prey to such scams.
Kamath, 45, said that the trend of cyber frauds had reached alarming proportions, with more than ₹1100 crore lost to such frauds in the last nine months alone.
He cited the most recent example of a Bengaluru software engineer who lost ₹91 lakh by trusting scammers who promised huge profits in the stock market.
“The trend of these frauds is 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,” Kamath posted on X.

The Zerodha founder flagged the role of WhatsApp and Telegram groups in such scams, where scammers often add unsuspecting people and promise them rich dividends.
Kamath cautioned against joining WhatsApp groups unless added to them by a trusted person.
“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. Here’s screenshots of the settings screen that show how to do it,” he wrote, sharing screenshots that explain how exactly one can change WhatsApp settings.

WhatsApp users can change the settings to ensure only their contacts can add them to WhatsApp groups.
People in the comments section were thankful for the advice. “I’m going to do this for my parents. Old people are at much higher risk of fraud now,” wrote one X user. “Good information. I have updated my whatsapp privacy settings accordingly,” another said.
(Also read: Billionaire Nithin Kamath says air quality should determine property prices in Delhi, Bengaluru)