Fake It Till You Make It: Shady Zerodha lookalikes peddle bogus P&L statements

Telegram channels sell these apps which can help a user generate a fake P&L statement for a "lifetime" fee ranging from a few hundred bucks to Rs 1,500. Some offer a demo for Rs 99.

Among the key features on one of the sellers lists, is the ability to generate fake P&L statements, and add strike prices and profit and loss for any given day, as required. It also offers a custom URL (Uniform Resource Locator) to open the P&L statement, which looks as if it is being opened on Zerodha’s platform. That is when a person is showing their P&L statement, the viewer may check the URL to see if it reflects the brokerage’s name — the app promises that it will.

One of the channels, which goes by the name Zerodha Fake Profit App – Zerodha Clone App, promises that it can even generate statements from live prices to make it look more realistic. This can help fraudsters avoid embarrassing mistakes like giving wrong lot sizes or price levels, which has happened with some.

For example, a finfluencer was called out for sharing a P&L statement with Bank Nifty orders of 1,000 units that were above the prevailing freeze limit of 900 units, and another finfluencer was booed down by fintwit for a statement with a number without the necessary comma separator.

As reported by Moneycontrol, recently, a finfluencer was caught sharing a statement where the numbers simply didn’t add up to the profits he claimed to have made. It has cost the finfluencer dearly, with leading brokerages blocking him from their referral programme.

While cloning of brokerage apps is a disturbing development, it comes with some hilarious asides. There seem to be thieves who steal from the thieves.

There is a Telegram channel that sells these fake P&L apps, warning users against paying ‘fake channels’ that claim to sell such apps. They warn that scamsters will simply take the money and not deliver the (illegal) service.

“We are the only legit group from the earliest (sic),” a post read.

“Many fake channels are being created on Telegram for PNL software/app, which are scamming people by blocking them after getting paid. It is happening on large scale so please it’s our gentle request to ask for live demo for the app / software before giving your hard-earned money to any single individual (sic),” it said, adding that they have received many client complaints in this regard.

The channel also whined—expressing its frustration with a facepalm emoji—about the fact that its content is being copied by these scamsters.