Govt plans digital campaign to protect investors from fraudulent schemes

To create awareness among investors about fraudulent investment schemes, the corporate affairs ministry has proposed to go digital by sending short message alerts, initially to about one crore subscribers to State-owned telecom service provider BSNL asking them to take informed decisions before investing their money in any scheme.

With this move, the government is planning to focus on sensitive people who continue to get duped by fraudulent investment schemes. The corporate affairs ministry is also expected to approach other telecom service providers to reach out to more people.

The SMS campaign is likely to be carried out for about three to four months. The Ministry has proposed about Rs 1 crore for the investor awareness campaign and also plans to approach Doordarshan and all India Radio to expand the reach of the campaign. The government is also in talks with internet search engine Google to develop a Google-enabled mechanism regarding this.

Moreover, the ministry has also asked all state governments to take stern action against multi-level marketing companies that are found indulging in fraudulent schemes.