Oquilia Markets Lab
Tip Check: is this tipster registered with SEBI?
Got a stock tip on WhatsApp, Telegram or a call? Check the person against SEBI’s own registers of investment advisers and research analysts, by name, SEBI number, phone or e-mail. Free, and nothing you type is kept.
1,059
investment advisers on SEBI’s register
2,315
research analysts on SEBI’s register
25 October 2026
last copied from sebi.gov.in
Six signs the tip is a trap
01
A fixed or guaranteed return
“2% a day”, “double in a month”, “sure-shot” or “jackpot” calls. No one registered can promise a return on shares.
02
No SEBI number, or someone else’s
Ask for the INA or INH number and check it here. If the phone or e-mail on SEBI’s list is not the one that reached you, assume impersonation.
03
Pay into a personal UPI ID
Fees asked into a UPI ID or bank account in a name other than the registered adviser’s.
04
A share of your profits
Registered advisers and analysts charge a fee agreed in advance. A demand for a cut of your trading profits is a warning sign.
05
Your login, OTP or password
Requests to “manage” your trading or demat account, or to share an OTP. No genuine adviser needs them.
06
An app or group you must join today
Paid Telegram or WhatsApp “VIP” groups, screenshots of profits, special apps for IPO allotment or “institutional” trading. Trade only through your own broker’s app.
If you have been cheated, or nearly were
Money already gone
Call 1930, the national cyber-crime helpline, at once, or file at cybercrime.gov.in. The sooner you report, the better the chance the bank freezes the money.
A registered adviser or analyst
Complain to SEBI on SCORES, giving the SEBI number. SEBI acts against registered advisers too.
A scheme promising fixed returns
Report it on Sachet, the RBI portal for unauthorised deposit and investment schemes, and to the police.
What Tip Check does, and what it does not
Tip Check looks up SEBI’s public registers of investment advisers and research analysts, which SEBI publishes on sebi.gov.in. Oquilia copies both every night and keeps the name, SEBI number, validity, city and state, and the e-mail and phone that SEBI prints. It does not keep street addresses or contact persons, and it does not keep anything you type into the search.
A result tells you only what the register says. Being registered is not a recommendation: registered advisers can be wrong, and SEBI has penalised registered ones. Not being registered, for anyone charging for stock calls, is the clearest warning there is. Where SEBI orders in Oquilia’s archive mention the name, Tip Check lists them; the archive starts on 12 October 2026, so search SEBI’s enforcement orders for anything older.
Tip Check is not investment advice. See also the True Cost Calculator for what a trade really costs, and Market X-Ray for how the market is positioned.
Questions
How do I check if a stock adviser is registered with SEBI?
Ask for their SEBI registration number. Investment advisers have numbers starting INA, research analysts INH. Enter the number, the name or the phone number they use in Tip Check, or look it up on SEBI's own register at sebi.gov.in. Then compare the phone and e-mail SEBI holds with the ones that contacted you.
What is the difference between an investment adviser and a research analyst?
An investment adviser (INA) gives you personal advice on your own money for a fee. A research analyst (INH) publishes research and buy, sell or hold recommendations on particular securities. Both are registered and supervised by SEBI, under separate regulations.
The SEBI number is real but the phone number is different. What does that mean?
Treat it as a likely impersonation. Fraudsters copy the names and registration numbers of real advisers. Contact the registered adviser only through the phone or e-mail on SEBI's register and ask whether the person who reached you works for them.
Do finfluencers and Telegram tip groups need SEBI registration?
Anyone who charges for advice on what to buy or sell, or who makes recommendations on particular stocks, has to be registered with SEBI as an investment adviser or research analyst. Teaching how markets work does not need registration. SEBI also bars the brokers and advisers it regulates from tying up with unregistered people who give such advice or claim returns.
Does Tip Check cover brokers and mutual fund distributors?
Not yet. Stock brokers are on SEBI's register of intermediaries and mutual fund distributors on AMFI's list. Tip Check covers investment advisers and research analysts, the two registrations a person giving stock tips needs.
How current is the data?
Tip Check copies SEBI's two registers every night. An entry SEBI removes is shown as no longer on the register from the next night's copy. SEBI's own website is the final word.