Investors should be wary of bogus notices requesting payment of Securities Transaction Tax (STT), as the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) issued a warning on Thursday about con artists utilising its letterhead to deceive the public.
According to SEBI, con artists are contacting investors through bogus notices stating that they owe STT dues under the Finance Act, 2004, and threatening to sue them under the SEBI Act, 1992, if they do not pay up. Investors will never get notifications from the regulator requesting STT, and the regulator will never work in tandem with the RBI to collect taxes.
It went on to say that brokers are responsible for collecting STT directly from investors for each deal on the stock exchange. In a separate warning, SEBI said that scammers are posing as its officials and sending messages from phoney email accounts that seem like legitimate ones.
Following the discovery of fraudulent messages demanding STT payments using SEBI’s letterhead, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also issued similar advice earlier this week.
