While there have been a lot of cases, news, and studies based on financial market scams and frauds floating in the market, a new one has just risen. The Asmita Patel scam – Asmita Patel – the lady who calls herself the “She Wolf of the Stock Market”
She claims that as an investor, you can start trading within 15 minutes. Their courses even claim that the student will earn 100% profit by learning it from them. Thousands of people signed up for these courses. But what happened is that SEBI has frozen their funds of Rs. 54 crores and issued a show cause notice on why they should not freeze the further Rs. 50 crore amount? Let’s understand.
Who is Asmita Patel?
Asmita Patel, being the owner of a company called “Asmita Patel Global School of Trading”, provides training on the stock market. She provides courses like,
- Master’s in Price Action Trading (MPAT)
- Let’s make India Traders (LMIT)
- Option Multiplier (OM)
- Trend following Income System (TFIS)
- The Freedom Project (TFP)
- OneLife
- Unleash the Trader Within (UTW)
If you notice, the names of these courses are cool and fancy to attract more people.
How do these courses work?
These courses work in a particular pattern: they teach you no-loss trading, which means the student will only earn profit. The academy first offers a Pre-MPAT course, which actually doesn’t teach anything about the stock market but prepares you for the MPAT course, its objective, necessity, and all it includes.
But the catch here is the price of the MPAT course, which is Rs. 8.26 Lakh. However, a common person won’t pay such a hefty amount for a stock market course. And this is where the company’s strategy is to sell out their expensive courses.
The company suggested that the students sell their mutual funds, provident funds and other investments, break their fixed deposits, sell out a part of their businesses, invest in the course, and start earning directly. They guaranteed 100% profit from the beginning of the course which made many people sign up for their course for Rs. 8.26 lakhs.
People with knowledge of the stock market and its working will probably not invest in such courses as 100% profit is a myth and not possible practically. But a lot of people in search of making quick money invested their hard-earned money here and after signing up for the course they realised all the promises were fake.
A lot of people were even advised to leave their jobs and attend to the suggestions and earn a lot more. However, when they understood that all their money, savings, and even their jobs were gone it was too late.
Complaints to SEBI
SEBI has a grievance redressal website called score.sebi.gov.in. 42 of Asmita Patel’s clients filed complaints against her to SEBI through Scores. After the complaints were filed, SEBI started its investigation and When the investigation team called those 42 people, a lot of secrets against the company and Asmita Patel were revealed.
SEBI understood that even if the courses taught many tips and tricks, strategies and an understanding of the stock market, the students would not benefit as none of their teachings would work in practical life.
The company started to add those people to their Telegram group, where they would share tips and tricks on the stock market, call and put options, in which asset category to trade, which shares to purchase, etc… However, this made people lose their money further after making investments through such tips.
If a company or a person wants to work as an investment advisor, they need to obtain a license from SEBI. But neither this institute nor Asmita Patel had any such licence. This means the illegal advisory services were working under the veil of these courses. Because of such advice, people were losing money through course fees and further through stock market investment with the tips.
It was also revealed that Asmita Patel gathered a hefty amount of Rs. 104 crores through such courses. But what did she earn by trading in the stock market? Well, Asmita hardly earned somewhat about Rs. 12 lakhs in the past 4-5 years through trading.
What action did SEBI take?
In fact, SEBI revealed that the tips and tricks on the stock market are not authentic and baseless.
SEBI has frozen their funds of Rs. 54 crores and issued a show cause notice on why they should not freeze the further Rs. 50 crore amount.
If someone’s money gets stuck in this or the future, can the money be recovered?
Well, the answer is that there is a minute to zero probability of recovering the money, as such institutes first ask you to sign some contracts that make it impossible to recover the money.
In addition, the recovery process involves many court cases, laws, and disciplinary actions, making it even more difficult to recover money, especially in India. People are able to recover their money in only 2-4% of cases.
A lot of institutes and companies run similarly and scam a lot more people.
How can people earn money in the stock market?
More than 98% of Millionaires and Billionaires in India who earn income from the stock market have made their money from long-term investments. Patience is the key to the stock market. Companies like HDFC Asian paints have done well in the past 20-25 years and made good money. Now, to earn in future you have to understand and pick the companies which have the ability to grow strong in the future and give you good returns.
It takes a lot of research and patience to make money in the stock market, which can sometimes be boring and monotonous, but it is way better than losing your hard-earned money on such fake courses.
C0nv€¥https://youtu.be/gY6unuo8Q9I?si=7BBLj9WO6weLHGb3
Conclusion
So in conclusion, such scams are a result of people running behind quick money, with such practices, you will end up with scammers and fraudulent courses and lose your hard-earned life money. They say, “Learn from your mistakes, and if you want to become a smart investor, you need to learn from others’ mistakes, too.”
If you want to earn real money, you need to be patient and understand the basics of the market right from its foundation.