Cosmofeed, a Gurugram-based creator-focussed platform, has been found reaching out to influencers, who are not registered research analysts, offering them a space to sell stock ideas and trading calls.
It is to be noted that the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (Sebi’s) regulations allow only registered research analysts (RAs) to give investing advice to a large group of people.
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Moneycontrol spoke to a few finfluencers, who were approached by the platform with such offer. One of them said that the platform’s aggression grew after a competitor platform announced that they would only associate with registered advisors, fearing increased regulatory scrutiny. “Since then, Cosmofeed has been open to any kind of deal,” the influencer said.
Another insider told us that such content-creator platforms earn 50-60 percent of their Rs 30-35 crore monthly income through such trading tips, which translates to approximately Rs 15-21 crore per month.
Moneycontrol has reached out to Cosmofeed for a response but is yet to hear from them.
The conversation
A WhatsApp screenshot forwarded to Moneycontrol shows a conversation between a salesperson of the platform and a finfluencer, who is not a registered research analyst. The salesperson offers a safe environment for the finfluencer to sell stock ideas. The conversation shows the salesperson offering the finfluencer a “business collaboration”.
Though the finfluencer replies saying that they are not interested in any kind of collaboration, the salesperson persists with the offer.
One of the chats reads, “With Cosmofeed, you can also continue to give tips or calls on Telegram”. “Annd (sic) you will be safe and sound!”
When the finfluencer insists that they are not interested, the Cosmofeed employee reminds them of the trouble the finfluencer’s peers have gotten into on the platform that the finfluencer operates on.
The platform’s employee persists, “You might have known what has been going on with creators of your platform! None of our creators have ever been penalised by any board”.
“You could start with us… we will help you to create a telegram channel! You could sell premium memberships!” the employee says. Premium memberships/channels/services are ‘industry jargon’ for channels to sell stock ideas.
Finfluencers are widely known to build their following and direct them towards paid, private Telegram channels, where they give stock tips and trading calls. This is against Sebi regulations.
Other offers made
A influencer, who goes by the name of Supertrader Lakshya, told Moneycontrol that he had been approached by Cosmofeed too. They had offered to run a channel through which he could provide stock tips.
He refused the offer but used that opportunity to point out to Cosmofeed how people are running fake channels on their platform.
“They have poor KYC (know your customer) process, so someone was running a channel in my name and collecting fees for providing stock tips,” Lakshya told Moneycontrol.
“I informed them about it and their team responded by asking how they are to know if I am real Lakshya! What kind of KYC process do they run?”
Lakshya sent them documentation to prove his identity, but the fake channel is still running in his name.
Also read: Veteran stock trader Mark Minervini has a go at fake market gurus
Another finfluencer, who did not wish to be named, told Moneycontrol that they had offered to run a stock-tip channel for him for free. Usually, such platforms take a cut for running these channels. It can range between 2-3 percent for finfluencers with 1 million-plus followers and 5-10 percent for those with lesser numbers.
“I think they wanted me on board so that they can use my name to get other finfluencers to come on board. They don’t have credibility otherwise, since they have a lot of fake channels running,” he said.
This finfluencer refused the offer but he is among others, who ask their team to keep checking if there are fake channels running under his name.
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