not a Kotak Bank customer a public record of their spam

For months, and still arriving as of August 2026 · uncountable messages · 3 channels · 0 accounts

Take on your crazy claim.

A satire on Kotak Mahindra Bank, built entirely from what Kotak Mahindra Bank sent me.

Avail a pre-approved personal loan of ₹40,000, by SMS, by WhatsApp and by email. No account required. No application required. No consent required.

Consent hai toh ho jayega.

Check the offers What I did about it

T&C apply. This page is a parody. The line the bank prints under its own advertisement reads: "Credit at the sole discretion of Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited and subject to guidelines issued by RBI from time to time. The bank may engage the services of marketing agents for the purpose of sourcing loans."

0
Accounts I have ever held with them
7
Sender identities, across SMS, WhatsApp and email
26+
Messages still on my phone — I deleted many before I began keeping them
Feb
When I first complained in public, tagging the bank. Still arriving in August.

The claim

A bank cannot approve a stranger. It can only advertise to one.

An approval is a decision about a person. To approve someone for credit you have to know who they are, look at what they earn, and check what they already owe. None of that happened here, because the bank has no relationship with me to check.

So the word is doing something else. It is there to make an advertisement feel like a decision already taken in my favour, so that ignoring it feels like losing something I had. On 6 July the message went further than pre-approved. It said the approval had been completed.

If a stranger sent that message, we would call it phishing and report it. This came from a verified business account with a blue tick, a toll-free number, and a corporate address in Bandra Kurla Complex.

Certificate of pre-approval
"Hi Vinish, we have completed the approval. Rs.40,000 from Kotak Personal Loan offer is live. 100% online."

JM-KOTAKB-P · 6 July 2026, 2:23 pm

Application
None submitted
Account
None held, ever
Consent
Never given
Documents seen
None
Approved by
Unstated

The evidence

Fifteen screenshots, in order

All from my own phone. Nothing is cropped to change meaning and nothing is colour-treated — these are documents, not pictures. Oldest first, because the sequence is the argument: the messages come, I block the sender, and then three shortcodes I had never seen before take over. Select any one to open it full size; arrow keys move through the set.

The earliest messages I still haveJM-KOTAKB-P · 17, 26 and 30 April 2026. The earliest ones left on the phone, not the first ones sent — I deleted many before this. They address me by name.
Email, 21 April: a bank whispering"Psst… ₹40,000 is almost yours" — with emoji, from retailproducts@mail.kotak.in. A bank whispering to a stranger about money.
Three messages in four daysJM-KOTAKB-P · 8, 10 and 11 May 2026. "Don't wait for funds" — sent to someone who never asked for any.
The limit was ₹28,500 in MayJM-KOTAKB-P · 16, 18 and 22 May 2026. By July the same pre-approved card carried a limit of ₹71,500. Nothing about me changed in between.
Approval "completed" · key exhibitJM-KOTAKB-P · 6, 10 and 15 July 2026. The approval is stated as finished, then the same ₹40,000 is re-offered as debt consolidation.
A loan for a wellness breakJM-KOTAKB-P · 15 and 28 July, 15 August 2026. The reason for the loan changes each time; the amount never does.
A second sender IDVA-KOTAKB-P · 16, 17 and 20 August 2026. Same offers, new shortcode. The 16 August message returns word for word on 20 August.
A third sender IDVM-KOTAKB-P · 21, 22 and 27 August 2026. The Times Prime message has now arrived four times from three different shortcodes.
A fourth sender IDVK-KOTAKB-P · 26 to 29 August 2026. The most recent message arrived at 12:23 pm on the day these screenshots were taken.
Email, 24 August: a second sending domainFour months and one Unsubscribe later, the same ₹40,000 arrives from mail.kotakalert.bank.in instead of mail.kotak.in. Now it is a gift for someone I love.
Timestamp, from the phone itselfMessage details for 30 April 2026, 11:30 am. Sent and received in the same minute, from JM-KOTAKB-P.

The exhibit that matters most

I blocked them. The texts did not stop.

JM-KOTAKB-P is blocked on this phone — the screenshot is the phone's own confirmation. Blocking is a per-sender action, so a sender holding several shortcodes simply sends the next message from the next one.

Received after the block

  • VA-KOTAKB-P, and
  • VM-KOTAKB-P, and
  • VK-KOTAKB-P, and

Nine messages in fourteen days, after the block, from three shortcodes I had never seen before. The most recent arrived at 12:23 pm on , while I was taking these screenshots.

Offers and announcements: onThe verified business profile, offers toggle enabled, toll-free numbers, and a registered address at 27BKC, G Block, Bandra Kurla Complex. Nobody at that address asked me first.
₹45,000, ready to be disbursedThe same offer on WhatsApp, ₹5,000 larger, addressed to me by full name. There is a Get Cash Now button and an Opt-Out button. One of them works.
Reported in public, six months ago"Who gave you the permissions to send me such fraud messages?" Asked in public, tagging the bank. Never answered.

The word for it

To keep offering money to someone who has refused it is not marketing

My case is the clearest version of this, because I never applied and never held an account. But nothing here depends on that. Someone who closed an account ten years ago, or who banks with them today, has the same right to be left alone once they have said no. Consent is not a thing that quietly matures into permission.

To offer loan or money to someone who has denied it once or twice, is FRAUD.

You are committing a crime—what if I take the loan and then cannot afford to pay the EMI? Will you admit that you persistently lured me into the loan hundreds of times via texts and emails?

This is Fraud.

Vinish Garg, who has never held an account with the bank

The refusal is on the record

Blocked on the phone. Opt-Out pressed on WhatsApp. Unsubscribe available on both emails. Reported as spam. Posted publicly, tagging the bank, six months ago. Every one of those is a refusal, and every one of them was followed by more offers.

Who carries the consequence

If a person worn down by offer after offer finally taps Get Instant Funds and then cannot pay the EMI, the default is recorded against them, not against the campaign that pursued them. The bank's own fine print says credit is at its sole discretion. The pursuit, apparently, is at nobody's.

Not a stranger's scam. Worse.

A fraudulent SMS from an unknown number can be reported and blocked, and the system will back you. These came from a verified sender carrying the bank's own name, so every safeguard built for stopping scams was pointed at the wrong target.

The senders

Blocking one shortcode when there are seven

Each of these carries the bank's own name in the sender ID or the sending domain. Blocking and unsubscribing are per-sender actions, so a sender with seven identities across three channels cannot be shut off by a person with one thumb.

Sender identities and channels observed in these screenshots
Sender Channel Active in this record Status on my phone
JM-KOTAKB-P SMS 17 Apr – 15 Aug 2026 Blocked. Still delivered.
VA-KOTAKB-P SMS 16 – 20 Aug 2026 Appeared after blocking
VM-KOTAKB-P SMS 21 – 27 Aug 2026 Appeared after blocking
VK-KOTAKB-P SMS 26 – 29 Aug 2026 Appeared after blocking
Kotak Mahindra Bank WhatsApp, verified business account Joined Aug 2018; offer at 15:45 Opt-out used. Offers toggle still on.
mail.kotak.in Email, "Kotak Fastrack Personal Loan" 21 Apr 2026 Unsubscribe offered
mail.kotakalert.bank.in Email, "Kotak Fastrack Personal Loan" 24 Aug 2026 A second domain, four months later

The log

Every dated message in these screenshots

Transcribed from the screenshots above, in the bank's own words. These are the messages that survive on my phone; many earlier ones were deleted before I began keeping them. Two more are partly visible at the edge of a screenshot and are not counted here. The two emails are dated from their own headers. There is no June screenshot in this set; the gap is mine, not theirs.

Every dated unsolicited message from Kotak Mahindra Bank still on my phone, up to 29 August 2026
Date, 2026 Sender What it offered
JM-KOTAKB-PPre-approved lifetime free credit card, limit ₹28,500 — "Your next 8 movies are FREE!"
Email · mail.kotak.in"Psst… ₹40,000 is almost yours" — "A plan on hold? Your ₹40,000 can make it happen."
JM-KOTAKB-P₹40,000 personal loan, "pre-approved. Instant & 100% Digital."
JM-KOTAKB-PThe 26 April message again, word for word
JM-KOTAKB-PUp to 8 reward points, pre-approved card, limit ₹28,500
JM-KOTAKB-P"Don't wait for funds" — ₹40,000, instant disbursal
JM-KOTAKB-P8 free PVR INOX tickets plus 8 reward points, pre-approved card
JM-KOTAKB-PUp to 8 PVR INOX tickets, pre-approved card, limit ₹28,500
JM-KOTAKB-PUp to 8 reward points, pre-approved card, limit ₹28,500
JM-KOTAKB-PThe 18 May message again, word for word
JM-KOTAKB-P"we have completed the approval" — ₹40,000 offer "is live"
JM-KOTAKB-P"Stop juggling multiple EMIs!" — consolidate into ₹40,000
JM-KOTAKB-PPre-approved card, limit now ₹71,500
JM-KOTAKB-P"plan your wellness break" with ₹40,000
JM-KOTAKB-P₹40,000 "instantly", 100% digital
VA-KOTAKB-P₹1,299 Times Prime plan with pre-approved card
VA-KOTAKB-P"Your pre-approved Rs.40,000 is ready!"
VA-KOTAKB-PThe 16 August message again, word for word
VM-KOTAKB-P"stay ready for the unexpected" with ₹40,000
VM-KOTAKB-P₹1,299 Times Prime plan, third time
Email · mail.kotakalert.bank.in"₹40,000 – to create memories they'll cherish" — pre-approved ₹40,000 as a gift
VK-KOTAKB-PLifetime free pre-approved card, limit ₹71,500
VM-KOTAKB-P₹1,299 Times Prime plan, fourth time
VK-KOTAKB-PUp to 8 PVR tickets, pre-approved card, limit ₹71,500
VK-KOTAKB-P₹40,000 "instantly", pre-approved, 100% digital
Undated, 3:45 pmWhatsApp"Your ₹45,000 Kotak Personal Loan is ready to be disbursed in real time!"

Their own words

Everything below is on the bank's own website, today

I did not have to write the satire. It is already published, on the same homepage, in the same week the messages arrived.

What they publish

Screenshot of the Kotak Mahindra Bank homepage. The navigation bar shows Personal, Business, NRI, About Us, Learn and Help, with a red Login button. The hero reads: Take on your crazy dream. Avail a Personal Loan up to ₹1 Crore. Hausla hai toh ho jayega. A blue Check Offer button sits below. Fine print at the bottom right reads that credit is at the sole discretion of Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited and subject to RBI guidelines, and that the bank may engage the services of marketing agents for the purpose of sourcing loans.
Their homepage: a personal loan up to ₹1 Crore, offered to anyone with the courage to want it.

What they send

"Hi Vinish, we have completed the approval. Rs.40,000 from Kotak Personal Loan offer is live. 100% online."

"Psst… ₹40,000 is almost yours"

"Your ₹45,000 Kotak Personal Loan is ready to be disbursed in real time!"

My inbox: the same product, sized for someone whose income they have never seen, sent without being asked.

The courage in their line is the customer's. The loan is the bank's. The consent is nobody's.

"Take on your crazy dream. Avail a Personal Loan up to ₹1 Crore."

Homepage hero. My version of the same offer arrives by SMS and stops at ₹40,000.

"Join us in the #MaukaGanwao campaign… let's learn how to spot and avoid common online scams in a fun way"

Their own anti-scam campaign, promoted on the homepage.

"Do Not Call Registry"

A link in their own footer. It exists. It is listed. Every message on this page says it was not consulted.

"Psst… ₹40,000 is almost yours"

An email subject line, 21 April, with two emoji. This is a bank whispering to a stranger about money.

"The bank may engage the services of marketing agents for the purpose of sourcing loans."

Fine print under the homepage hero. This is the closest thing to an answer I have received.

Hausla toh hai. Consent kahan hai?

The reply

They asked me for my phone number

I did post about this in public, and the bank's support account did answer. This is the entire response I received, over two tweets in May 2026.

Two replies from the verified KotakCares account on X. On 21 May 2026: Hi! We understand that this can be quite frustrating. Please send your contact details via DM so that we can prioritize looking into this. Team Kotak. Below it a Send us a private message button. On 23 May 2026: Hi! With reference to the concerns you raised, we attempted to get in touch with you to obtain your contact details; however, we did not receive a response. Please feel free to reach out to us at 1800 4100 should you require any assistance in the future.
@KotakCares, and . Two replies, forty-eight hours apart. I never answered, and I never felt like answering — the first one told me why.

If they do not have my contact details, how have they been sending me texts, WhatsApp messages and emails for months?

There are only two answers, and the bank has to pick one. They should not need me to hand over a number they have already been using.

  1. Either they have my details

    In which case the request was never about finding me. It was a public gesture, performed where other customers could see it, asking me to move the conversation somewhere nobody else could.

  2. Or they genuinely do not

    In which case a bank has been sending pre-approved credit offers, addressed to me by name, to a person it cannot identify when asked. That is not a support failure. That is a much deeper problem than the messages themselves.

"we attempted to get in touch with you to obtain your contact details; however, we did not receive a response."

Two days later, the file is closed and the failure is mine. Nothing was attempted that I did not already receive: no message from them arrived on any of the three channels they had been using without difficulty for months. Then a toll-free number, so I could queue to report messages I never asked for.

What I already did

Four exits, all taken, none of them an exit

  1. 01Blocked the sender. JM-KOTAKB-P is blocked on my phone. Four other shortcodes carrying the bank's name kept delivering.
  2. 02Used the opt-out, and the unsubscribe. The WhatsApp message has an Opt-Out button and a Stop button. Both emails carry an Unsubscribe link. The offers toggle on their profile is still on, and the second email came from a new domain.
  3. 03Reported it as spam. Marked and reported through the phone's own reporting flow, more than once.
  4. 04Said it in public. Posted on LinkedIn six months ago, tagging the bank, asking who gave them permission. No reply. The messages continued for six more months.

Manage your preferences

Opt out of these messages

A working, honest opt-out. Press it as many times as you like — exactly as I did.

Recourse

I have not filed a formal complaint. That is part of the point.

I blocked the senders. I pressed Opt-Out. I reported the messages as spam. I posted about it in public, tagging the bank. Then I stopped, because the next step would have been to open a case file, cite a regulation, keep a complaint number and follow it for thirty days — against a bank I have never done business with, over messages I never asked for.

So I am not going to tell you what to do. Every exit that was offered to me, I used, and none of them worked. This is not only a non-customer's complaint, either — someone who banks with them, or used to, has the same right to refuse and the same trouble making a refusal stick. Asking the person being messaged to become a case-filer is how this continues.

For completeness, these are the bodies that exist. I am listing them, not recommending a path — and if you do take one, keep the screenshot with the sender ID and the timestamp visible, because that is the whole case.

TRAI, for the spam itself

Unsolicited commercial communication is regulated in India. Preferences and complaints against a sender ID are handled through the DND service and the government's Sanchar Saathi portal.

sancharsaathi.gov.in

The bank's own channel

The bank publishes a grievance redressal page. A complaint number from it is normally required before the ombudsman will consider a case.

Grievance redressal

RBI, if the bank does not answer

The Reserve Bank runs an integrated ombudsman scheme, reached through its complaint management system, for complaints a bank has not resolved.

cms.rbi.org.in

Cybercrime, where money is lost

Where money has been lost to a link, or a sender is impersonating a bank, there is a national cybercrime portal and the helpline 1930.

cybercrime.gov.in

An open note

To the people in whose name this is being done

  • Uday Kotak
  • C S Rajan
  • Ashok Vaswani
  • Amit Desai

Named here as I named them in public on . This note concerns the conduct of the institution they lead, not the private conduct of any individual.

I have never been your customer, and I am not writing as one. I am writing as a person your institution has been messaging for months — by SMS, by WhatsApp and by email, addressed by name, in your name, without ever being asked.

Nothing on this page needs an investigation. It needs a decision, and only one of you can make it:

  1. 01Stop sending credit offers to people who have no relationship with the bank, and to anyone who has asked you to stop.
  2. 02Honour a block, an opt-out and an unsubscribe the first time, across every sender ID and every channel.
  3. 03Say who supplied my name and number, and on what basis the word "pre-approved" was attached to it.

None of that requires my phone number. Your systems have had it for months.

It is possible that none of you knows this is being done. Campaigns get outsourced, sender IDs get rented, agents get engaged — your own fine print says as much. If so, that is not a defence. It is the finding: offers of credit go out in your names, to strangers who never asked, and nobody at the top of the institution is watching.

Either you know, and it continues with your consent. Or you do not, and you are equally responsible for what your bank does in your name. There is no third position.

I am not asking for compensation and I do not want a loan. This page is the only channel left that you cannot close as resolved.

I never applied. I never consented. I am still being approved.

If a bank can complete an approval for a person it has never met, the word approval means nothing — and neither does the consent it is supposed to rest on. Not mine, and not yours either, whether you bank with them or not.