Rising investment frauds are among the biggest challenges facing the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) as more retail investors enter the markets, Sebi chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey said on Monday, while giving some thumb rules for investing.Speaking at the launch of Project Jagruk, an investor awareness campaign, in Chandigarh, Pandey said many of these frauds do not involve the securities market at all, with victims being made to believe that they are investing while their money is transferred through mule accounts.“One of our biggest concerns regarding first-time retail investors is the increase in investment frauds. In many cases, these are actually non-investment frauds. The money does not even enter the securities market, although victims are made to believe that they are investing in the securities market,” Pandey said, as quoted by ANI.“The money is transferred through mule accounts and, by the time victims realise what has happened and approach the cyber police, it is often too late,” he added.Pandey urged investors to first verify whether the entity they are dealing with is regulated and to check the channel through which they are being approached. He said Sebi has developed tools to help investors verify such details, including the verification facility available through the Google Play Store and Sebi Check.Pandey further urged investors to understand financial products and the risks involved before putting money into the market. “Do not invest because someone told you to. Do not invest because everyone else is investing. Invest because you understand,” he said.Pandey said India’s capital markets have become deeper, broader and more accessible over the past decade, giving companies more avenues to raise capital and households a wider range of investment choices.Technology, he said, has also made market access faster and easier, while more savers are moving towards market-linked investments and younger Indians are entering the markets earlier.But the wider reach of the market has also created a challenge in ensuring that new and potential investors understand the products they are considering and the risks involved.According to a Sebi survey cited by Pandey, 63 per cent of households were aware of at least one securities market product, but only around 9.5 per cent participated in the market. Further, only 36 per cent of investors had high or moderate securities market knowledge. The survey also pointed to a rural-urban divide, with market participation at 15 per cent in urban India compared with 6 per cent in rural areas.“We currently have around 15 crore unique investors, with the number growing at about 20 per cent annually. The challenge is how to provide new and potential investors with accurate information so that they understand the risks and opportunities before making investment decisions. For this purpose, we have launched Project Jagrook,” Pandey said further.He said investors come from diverse demographic and linguistic backgrounds, including young people, senior citizens, salaried employees and retirees. “Investors are very diverse. They speak different Indian languages and belong to different demographic groups—young people, senior citizens, salaried employees, retirees and others. Therefore, the awareness campaigns, educational material and content they access also need to be tailored to their needs,” he said.Project Jagruk will be rolled out in English, Hindi and 11 regional languages. The campaign will use television, print, radio, cinema, outdoor media, digital platforms, social media, OTT and WhatsApp, besides physical outreach.
Sebi’s WhatsApp channel and overall campaign objectives
Sebi chief anonunced that, “As part of this effort, we have launched a WhatsApp channel today. Initially, it will be used to send messages, but progressively we can make it more interactive.”Meanwhile, the overall campaign brings Sebi, market infrastructure institutions, the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) and the National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM) together under a coordinated investor education programme.Pandey said investor education would have to be tailored to different groups rather than follow a one-size-fits-all approach. “Project Jagruk cannot be one language, one medium campaign,” he said.The first media campaign begins on Monday, with sustained communication planned until March 2027.For rural India, Sebi is working with the ministry of panchayati raj to take financial literacy to the last mile. The initiative will also cover universities and colleges and include a National Securities Market Awareness curriculum and a free SEBI Investor Awareness test through NISM.This comes as Pandey mentioned that awareness of Sebi’s investor-focused initiatives remained limited.
