Scam guide
Trading Tips From a New Online Friend: The Investment Scam
By the Bakkar team ·
It starts as friendship, sometimes romance, never as a sales pitch. Weeks later your new friend mentions how well their trading is going, and offers to show you.
How it goes
- A warm, ordinary chat. They're successful, kind and patient.
- A casual mention of profits from stocks, crypto, forex or an "IPO allotment".
- An invite to a trading app or a WhatsApp or Telegram "VIP group". The app shows your money growing fast.
- When you try to withdraw: a "tax", a "fee", a "minimum balance". The money was never invested.
Example messages, written by us from reported patterns. Each one has been checked against the rule Bakkar applies to a first message.
my mentor gives daily stock tips, join our group t.me/profitclub
Bakkar holds this back as a first messageI made 40% this month on crypto, I can teach you if you want
Bakkar would deliver this
Red flags
- Guaranteed or very high returns.
- An app that isn't on the Play Store, or a website instead of your bank or a SEBI-registered broker.
- Small early withdrawals that work, to build trust, then big ones that don't.
- Pressure: "the window closes tonight".
What Bakkar does, and what it can't
The group link in the first example is held back as a first message. Bakkar has nothing to sell and no payments inside the app, so nobody on Bakkar can be asking you to pay Bakkar. Nobody can stop a friend you've chatted with for weeks from talking about money, though. Treat any investment advice from someone you met online as a scam until proven otherwise.
What to do
- Stop replying. You don't owe a scammer an explanation.
- Don't pay. Paying once never ends it; it tells them you will pay again.
- Save the evidence before you block: screenshots of the profile, the chat, any numbers, UPI IDs or links they sent.
- Report and block them on Bakkar from the chat or their profile. See what happens when you report.
- Lost money? Call 1930 at once. The national cybercrime helpline can ask banks to freeze the money while it is still moving, so the first hours matter. Then file the complaint at cybercrime.gov.in.
- Got the call or message on your phone? Report the number on Chakshu (Sanchar Saathi) within 30 days.
- Tell someone you trust. Scams work best on people who feel alone with them. If it's weighing on you, Tele MANAS on 14416 is free and open 24x7.
