Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday said the finance ministry is working with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to restrict ponzi apps. This will protect investors from losing their hard-earned money, she said. While warning gullible investors, Sithatraman said they must always be careful to not fall prey to claims of lucrative returns on their money, reported news agency PTI.
The Minister said this while speaking at the Thinkers Forum at Tumakuru (Karnataka), and said a strong sense of alertness is needed to protect the money.
She was quoted by PTI as saying, "There are also apps that are reaching out to people, saying they can do this, they can do that and your money will fetch you this much.” The minister described most such apps as ponzis that are used to take away the hard-earned money from people.
She said, "Many of them are ponzi, the apps on which we are working with the MeitY and with the RBI and clamping down on them like never before."
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While speaking during the event, she said a strong sense of caution is needed to ensure while checking and double-checking in order to avoid becoming the victim of such scams. However, the minister acknowledged the important role of social influencers and financial influencers.
On the question of regulating social influencers and financial influencers, Sitharaman said, "I do not have any proposal before me for regulating them at this stage." Although, she asked investors to be cautious of influencers as there are many of them who are not so objective in their advice.
In the year 2019, the government brought in the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Act, 2019. This was done to stop unregulated organisations from accepting deposits. Among other objectives, it was also brought in order to restrict from the poor getting duped.