Social Media Scam Artists Prey on India’s Amateur Investors

It’s an increasingly fraught topic around the world. Securities regulators from Spain to Australia are mulling ways to enforce restrictions against social media influencers. Earlier this year, SEBI shut down a Telegram channel called “Bullrun2017” that purported to specialize in penny or small-cap stocks. Group administrators bought shares of small companies, recommended them to their 50,000 or so subscribers, and then sold them for a profit, according to a SEBI order.