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Hindustan Times
07-07-2025
- Business
- Hindustan Times
Bengaluru men lose over ₹2 crore in WhatsApp-based stock market scam: Report
In yet another case of cyber fraud exploiting the lure of quick stock market profits, two Bengaluru residents have together lost over ₹2.15 crore to sophisticated online scams operated through fake trading platforms and WhatsApp groups, Deccan Herald reported. The victims were manipulated through staged social media interactions. According to the report, police said the victims were manipulated through staged social media interactions and professional-looking websites that simulated real-time stock trading dashboards, complete with fake returns. In the first case, a 48-year-old businessman from Visvesvaraya Layout, was targeted after he connected with a woman on Facebook who introduced herself as Ashmita Tiwari, allegedly a manager at Barclays Investment Bank in Mumbai. (Also Read: Tejasvi Surya, Sivasri Skandaprasad welcome their 'newest bundle of moo': 'She's small, has big innocent face') She directed him to a deceptive investment website and added him to a WhatsApp group named 'CATALIST CUSTOMER SERVICE'. The group appeared to be filled with satisfied investors, sharing screenshots of earnings and market tips. Over three months, Reddy made multiple transfers totaling ₹1.54 crore to bank accounts provided by the group, convinced by the phony dashboard that showed his funds growing. The scam only came to light when he attempted to withdraw his so-called profits, only to realise he'd been locked out and ghosted, the report added. In a similar incident, a 30-year-old engineer from Vijayanagar, identified as Randeep S, fell for a comparable scheme after joining a different WhatsApp group called 'India Stock HUB12'. According to the publication, he was persuaded to trade via a fake platform mimicking Citadel Securities. Unlike Reddy, Randeep initially received a payout of ₹90,000 on his first investment of ₹3.5 lakh, a tactic often used to build trust. But over two months, he ended up transferring ₹61.3 lakh before the scam unraveled. Two FIRs filed The West CEN Cyber Crime police have registered two separate FIRs and are investigating the cases. Authorities are now working with banks to trace the accounts where the fraudulent funds were routed. Investigators believe these groups are part of a larger syndicate that uses fake identities, cloned trading sites, and group psychology to dupe victims. (Also Read: Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya moves Karnataka HC over non-disclosure of metro fare report, slams secrecy)
Deccan Herald
06-07-2025
- Business
- Deccan Herald
Bengaluru: Two lose Rs 2.15 crore to stock scams
Shantanu Reddy (name changed), a 48-year-old businessman from Visvesvaraya Layout, told the police that he met a woman named Ashmita Tiwari on Facebook. She told him she was the manager of Barclays Investment Bank in Worli, Mumbai.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How Quizlet's CFO is driving growth in the ‘freemium' market
This story was originally published on To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily newsletter. With a background in investment banking and a deep understanding of consumer technology, Ismail Orujov has played a key role in shaping study app Quizlet's monetization strategy. He has helped scale its finance operations and supported its evolution as one of the most widely used learning platforms among students and educators worldwide. Operating in the competitive freemium space, San Francisco-based Quizlet's business model depends on expanding its user base and converting a portion of that audience into paying subscribers. Orujov sees finance as a strategic partner in that process that must collaborate across teams to analyze product-market fit, assess ROI on research and development and measure customer value. While his team continues to handle the core responsibilities of finance, Orujov emphasizes the importance of also being a thought partner to product and marketing leaders as the company scales its monetization efforts. CFO, Quizlet First CFO position: 2017 Notable previous employers: Barclays Investment Bank Lehman Brothers This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity. ISMAIL ORUJOV: I view finance's role as primarily being a thought partner to our cross-functional partners across the organization and providing input wherever we can. It differs depending on the team we're working with. It could range from working with a product manager and doing a total addressable market analysis for a product they're trying to build, to working with the marketing team to help measure lifetime value of different cohorts, or if you're doing some kind of research and development investment, figuring out what the ROI on that would be. That's our main responsibility. We partner well with different teams in the organization, and we've built a culture where they come to us if they need help, as an extra resource or set of eyes. That's a big part of my team's job. And then there's also the less sexy, more day-to-day blocking and tackling parts of finance — paying vendors, closing the books, the things that are table stakes for the function but need to get done correctly day in and day out. I believe a good finance team can do both of those things well. When I joined the company, I didn't have a strong background in day-to-day operations. Investment banking teaches you certain areas of finance really well, but there are a lot of things CFOs do daily that I didn't know how to do. When I started, I was a team of one. A lot of it was about just rolling up my sleeves and doing the work. We had outsourced accounting, but much of the finance function was done by me. Then I slowly grew the team as we grew. CFOs need to be curious about everything and learn, but also recognize there's only a limited amount of time in the day. You can't spend hours on things like accounting and let everything else go. You have to find that balance of understanding that portion of the business enough, then finding and bringing in the right people. Conversations around cybersecurity have grown as time has gone on, and it's my job to be actively involved and understand what precautions we're taking and what systems we're building that could come with potential threats. This applies to finance because a lot of attacks usually come in through accounting and finance. That's where we have to be careful and make sure our systems and processes are in place to prevent breaches. But as a consumer internet company, there's also broader company-level risk, like data breaches and site outages. So I've focused on making sure we're building the right security infrastructure on the engineering side. 'When I started, I was a team of one. A lot of it was about just rolling up my sleeves and doing the work. We had outsourced accounting, but much of the finance function was done by me.' Ismail Orujov CFO, Quizlet And, back to the finance and risk awareness part of the CFO job, the last piece for me is making sure we have the right insurance protection in case things go wrong and there are costs associated with it. I don't, unfortunately, and if you hear of one, let me know. Everybody is talking about AI, but I haven't seen a good implementation in the finance function yet. I'm sure it's coming, no doubt in my mind, but I don't think it's out there at the moment. Finance is conservative on this front. We're probably one of the last functions to adopt new tools. We wait until they're very robust. I do use ChatGPT and similar tools day to day, though. For example, I might have a call with a tax advisor on a specific topic I'm not up to date on. Historically, they'd do some work, then we'd have a two-hour call explaining how things work. Now I can go to ChatGPT and ask for numeric examples. When I jump on the call, I'm already pretty informed. Obviously, large language models can hallucinate, and you'll get corrected in the conversation. But the pre-work it does for you is great. It would've otherwise taken a lot more time and cost more in consulting hours. Even things like building models — asking ChatGPT to simplify a formula — are a huge help. But in terms of a broader finance tool, we haven't used anything yet. My role would change significantly. There's a lot more external-facing work. You need solid systems and processes just to meet the basic requirements. You need that alongside a solid growth trajectory and the ability to forecast and communicate that to investors. That's not easy. You need strong forecasting capabilities and confidence in communicating them. I think about it a lot, especially when interviewing, as we've grown and hired more people. The number one trait is curiosity. Do people want to learn more, no matter what they're working on? Curiosity drives people to understand things better, like why things work a certain way. If you combine that with a good work ethic and the ability to grind, you've got a powerful combination. That's something I've seen among people who've done well, and it's something I look for in people I bring onto my team. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
