Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Police on Thursday warned the public about a growing investment scam being run through fake accounts using the name of CAPITALIX, a well-known stock trading brand.

Fraudsters have been luring people on social media with promises of high returns, often using fake advertisements, the police said in a statement. In some cases, artificial intelligence has been used to produce videos of well-known business figures to make the schemes appear credible, it said.

"People who respond to the adverts are added to WhatsApp or Telegram groups, supposedly to learn trading. They are then urged to download an app called CAPITALIX from the Google Play Store and open accounts on fake websites such as capitalix.in and trade.capitalix.in. The sites are presented as offering 'institutional trading' or 'IPO investments,' but are in fact part of the scam," the statement said.

At first, victims are allowed to withdraw small amounts, which builds trust. Later, they are pushed to invest larger sums in discounted stocks or IPOs. The fraudsters then block them from selling and demand more money when they try to withdraw.

"The scale of the fraud is significant", police said, days after a leading industrialist in Kerala lost more than ₹26 crore through the scheme.

Police urged anyone who comes across such adverts or falls victim to report it immediately, either by calling 1930 or through the national cybercrime portal www.cybercrime.gov.in. Reports should be made within an hour for the best chance of recovering funds, they said.