Securities regulators in India and the United States spent the first day of this week saying much the same thing. The investment offer that turns up after weeks of friendly chat, or from someone who claims to be an official, is the one to treat with the most suspicion.
The occasion is World Investor Week, a yearly campaign run by the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO). This is its tenth edition. In India, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is running it from 5 to 11 October 2026 as the national coordinator.
What the US bulletin warns about
On 5 October the US Securities and Exchange Commission released a joint investor bulletin with five other bodies: the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the North American Securities Administrators Association, the National Futures Association and the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC). On fraud, it singles out two kinds that it says are rising: relationship investment scams and impersonation.
The bulletin calls the first one a long con. A stranger gets in touch by text, social media or a messaging app and spends weeks building a friendship or a romance. Only then does an investment opportunity come up. The victim is sent to a website or app that looks genuine, shows growing gains on screen and keeps asking for bigger deposits. A small early withdrawal is sometimes allowed, simply to build trust.
The trap closes when the person tries to take out a large sum or shut the account. The regulators say the scammers then find reasons why it cannot be done, ask for more money, or announce for the first time that fees or taxes must be paid first. Questions are met with anger or silence, the contact may be blocked, and the site or app can disappear.
On impersonation, the bulletin says tools such as artificial intelligence have made fake calls and messages far more convincing. Calls, voicemails, texts, emails, letters and even certificates may appear to come from the SEC, FINRA, the CFTC or another agency. Anyone claiming to be from a regulator who asks about shareholdings, account numbers, PINs, passwords, digital wallet private keys or seed phrases should be treated with deep suspicion.
Two smaller points in the bulletin are worth knowing. SIPC never charges anyone for protection or for help in recovering assets. And some fraudsters have made real filings with the SEC, such as Form D or exempt reporting adviser filings, and then shown them to investors as proof that they are registered. Others have pointed to Form 4 filings as proof of share purchases that never happened. The regulators suggest calling an organisation on a number taken from its own public website, never one supplied by the caller.
What SEBI is doing this week
SEBI's theme for the week is Samajh Se Investing Simple, a push on the basics of investing. In his message for the week, SEBI Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey said that as more people join the market, the need for vigilance against misleading advice, unauthorised recommendations, manipulated narratives and inducements on digital and social media becomes even greater.
His message points to safeguards already in place. SEBI Check lets an investor confirm the payment details of a registered intermediary, and validated UPI handles are meant to make those payments safer. Broker trading apps on the Google Play Store can carry a verified label, and complaints go through SCORES 2.0, which is linked to the online dispute resolution system.
SEBI is also running Project Jagrook, a multilingual awareness drive, and a framework called Mentoring of University/College Students through Trainers (MUST) to reach students through their colleges. Market bodies including BSE, NSE, MCX, CDSL, NSDL and the Association of Mutual Funds in India have each been assigned states or union territories where they will run programmes. Pandey closed by asking investors to rely only on verified sources, deal only with registered intermediaries and stay alert to promises of assured or unrealistic returns.
Why the two warnings sound alike
The markets are very different, but the scams start in a chat window, not a branch office, so they cross borders easily. Closer home, an Italian designer recently got a case registered with Gurugram Cyber Police over an alleged romance scam, and a Varanasi resident recovered Rs 97,250 after calling the 1930 cyber fraud helpline quickly. SEBI's other recent decisions, such as the new PRIM route for mutual fund portfolios, are covered separately.
The simplest check the regulators keep coming back to is also the cheapest: confirm that a firm or adviser is registered, on the regulator's own website, before any money moves. This is information, not advice.
