Bengaluru: A 66-year- old Bengaluru resident was allegedly cheated of Rs 6.88 lakh after fraudsters used a deepfake video of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to promote a fake investment scheme on social media.
According to police, the victim, a resident of Narayanapura, came across a Facebook video claiming that the Central government and the State Bank of India had jointly launched a lucrative investment scheme. The video, created using deepfake technology, falsely showed Sitharaman encouraging people to invest by promising high returns within a short period.
Believing the video to be genuine, the victim clicked on the link provided and entered his KYC details and other personal information. He was subsequently contacted through a WhatsApp number with the UK country code (+44). The caller allegedly persuaded him to invest more than Rs 6 lakh instead of the initial Rs 22,000, claiming that an investment of Rs 6 lakh would fetch returns of Rs 15 lakh within just 10 days.
Trusting that it was an official government-backed scheme, the victim transferred a total of Rs 6.88 lakh to multiple bank accounts between March and June. When no returns were credited and the fraudsters became unreachable, he realised he had been cheated and lodged a complaint with the Cyber Crime Police Station of the North-East Division in Bengaluru.
Police have registered a case and launched an investigation to trace the accused and track the flow of the transferred funds.
Cyber security experts have warned that the misuse of artificial intelligence to create convincing deepfake videos of politicians, celebrities and public figures is increasing rapidly. They have advised the public not to trust investment schemes promoted through social media without verification, avoid clicking on suspicious links and confirm the authenticity of any government or banking scheme only through official websites and authorised channels.
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