“The J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. trader known as the “London whale” tried to alert others at the bank to mounting risks months before his bets ballooned into more than $6 billion in losses, according to people familiar with emails reviewed by J.P. Morgan and a U.S. Senate panel.

“The apparent reservations of Bruno Iksil, who earned the nickname after making outsize wagers in debt markets, are among the details being examined by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, according to people familiar with the probe.

“In one instance, Mr. Iksil told another trader that the size of his bets was getting “scary,” according to emails in a Jan. 16 report by J.P. Morgan and to the people familiar with the emails.

“Mr. Iksil’s emails, according to people familiar with them, show there was concern within J.P. Morgan’s chief investment office before Chief Executive James Dimon dismissed as a “tempest in a teapot” reports on the whale trades, including an April 6 article in The Wall Street Journal. The New York company first disclosed the trading losses in May, and Mr. Dimon subsequently said he was wrong to have played down concerns raised by the news report.”

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