Money debited but not invested in MF; Groww user’s relative accuses company of fraud

The company says it would refund the amount only if the social media post is taken down.

A Groww user took to social media accusing the financial services company of fraud after he realised the money debited from his sister’s account to invest in a mutual fund never happened. But, Groww had still allotted them a Folio number (an identification code for one’s account in a mutual fund).

Handendra Pratap Singh realised the issue when they tried to redeem their investment and it did not work. They then checked with Parag Parikh Mutual Fund and it told them the Folio number Groww had allotted does not exist with the mutual fund.

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Adding to the mess, Singh reveals Groww, after he raised a complaint, “removed the Folio details from the dashboard saying the issue is resolved.”

While such an incident worried several netizens and Groww users online, what irked everybody was Groww asking Singh to take down the post as a condition before it refunds the investment amount under question.

The financial services company took to social media and said, “A social media post by a customer’s relative is being shared, which is spreading misinformation.”  It said the money was never debited from the customer's account, it showed incorrect information because of a recon issue.

In response to a user's query, Groww said:

"To ensure that the investor doesn’t get anxious about the claimed amount, we have credited it to the investor on good faith basis. We have also asked the investor to provide the bank statement evidencing the debit of the said amount, claimed to have been invested. This will facilitate our scrutiny, as well as that of our regulators, of the claimed investment in question."

Singh has taken down his post. “Ideally, I would have not removed the post but since the amount is significant and important at the moment, I might have to go ahead and delete the post.”