MUMBAI: Emphasising the urgent need for deeper financial awareness amid rising investor participation and growing digital risks, Sebi chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey has warned that misinformation, fraudulent apps, deep fake impersonations, unregistered advisers and online persuasion are increasingly shaping household financial decisions and continue to deceive investors.
Investment choices now often begin with forwarded messages, viral videos or social media recommendations rather than verified financial knowledge, Pandey told a BSE regional seminar on investor awareness in Coimbatore on Thursday.
“They may appear harmless, yet they influence financial choices that can reshape household savings, expectations, and financial stability,” he was quoted as saying in a statement.
Noting the rapid growth of the securities market, Pandey said the number of unique investors has crossed 13.6 crore by October 2025, up from under 4 crore in FY19, while mutual fund investors have grown from 1 crore to 5.6 crore in a decade, and monthly SIP flows have jumped from Rs 3,000 crore in 2016 to near Rs 30,000 crore.
However, the chairman said Sebi’s investor survey 2025 shows a gap between awareness and actual investing: while 63% of households know about market products, only 9.5% invest, while rural participation remains significantly lower at just 6%. “These figures remind us that financial inclusion must also be geographic and social,” he said.
Warning that “misinformation spreads faster than facts,” Pandey said fraudulent trading apps, deep fake impersonations, and unregistered advisers continue to deceive investors. Sebi has escalated over 1 lakh cases of misleading online content to Meta, Google, Telegram and X in the past 18 months.
To combat scams, the regulator has introduced multiple safety features like ‘Validated UPI’ handle framework to ensure payments only to verified intermediaries; ‘Sebi Check’ to verify bank accounts of registered entities; an ‘account freeze’ option for investors to block trading accounts instantly; and the ‘spot a scam’ tool to help users detect fraudulent schemes among others. These apart, it has also been running national awareness campaigns like ‘Sebi vs Scam’ campaigns highlighting the tactics used by fake apps, guaranteed-return schemes, and dabba trading.
Pandey urged investors to “pause before acting, verify before trusting and learn before investing,” emphasising that awareness fosters resilience and confidence in financial decision-making.