“I understand there are videos of me on various social media purporting to give advice on investing, especially in individual stocks. These are fake and the perpetrators should be reported to the relevant authorities. I do not give investment advice to the public, and have never touted individual stocks,” Rajan said.
Rajan, who is currently a Professor of Finance at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business said this in a LinkedIn post.
The former RBI governor also advised against investing directly in individual stocks or stock options saying that the danger of becoming a lot poorer is much more than people getting lucky and striking it rich. In his post, Rajan suggested investors to have a diversified portfolio of bank deposits, bonds, and stocks (through mutual funds and ETFs).
“Each individual has their own financial needs and risk appetite. Furthermore, investors are typically better off holding diversified portfolios of bank deposits, bonds, and stocks (through mutual funds and ETFs) rather than buying individual stocks or stock options. You may be extremely lucky and strike it rich, but more likely, you will be a lot poorer following the latter strategy. Please disregard all videos where I tout specific investments,” Rajan said. Rajan is not the only victim of this malice. Earlier NSE had warned investors about fake videos of its CEO and MD Ashishkumar Chauhan recommending stocks, doing the rounds on social media.”We observed the use of the face and voice of Ashishkumar Chauhan to falsely create advisory and investment video clips. Such videos seem to have been created using sophisticated technologies to imitate the voice and facial expressions of Ashishkumar Chauhan,” NSE had said in a statement.Following this, the exchange requested to take note of the same and verify the information coming from NSE or its officials from only its website as the official information.
Later, BSE also cautioned investors against some fake, unauthorised, and fraudulent videos and audio impersonating its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Sundararaman Ramamurthy doing the rounds on social media recommending certain investments and advisory in stocks/shares.
NSE and market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) have been warning investors to remain wary of such online/ digital media frauds. From time to time, NSE issues releases pertaining to unregistered and illegal operators.
Also Read: Stock market frauds on the rise: 6 ways to protect yourself
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