Mumbai: In a case of cyber fraud using deepfake technology, a 54-year-old Ayurvedic doctor from Andheri was duped of over Rs 7 lakh in a stock trading scam.
Police said the doctor was lured into the trap by an Instagram Reels video that featured a deepfake video of businessman Mukesh Ambani promoting the “Rajiv Sharma Trade Group” and his company, BCF Investment Academy, promising high profits.
However, the doctor researched the company online and found that it had offices in BKC and London, so he invested money in it. He was convinced by Ambani’s deepfake video and ended up losing the amount.
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According to a TOI report, the incident took place between May 28 and June 10, when she was lured by deepfake videos to transfer a total of Rs 71 lakh to 16 bank accounts. However, she realised she had been scammed when she tried to withdraw Rs 3 lakh that the trading platform had shown as profits from her initial investment.
Following this, she filed a complaint at Oshiwara police station on Wednesday and lodged an FIR against unidentified persons under impersonation and cheating sections of the IPC and identity theft sections of the IT Act.
“The fraudsters have created the video using deepfake technology. We are in contact with bank officials to block the money that she was forced to transfer,” police said.
This is the second time a deepfake video of Ambani has gone viral on social media after a similar video in early March saw Ambani urging viewers to follow “Student Vinit” on social media to receive free investment advice.
Deepfake videos, which use artificial intelligence to create hyper-realistic yet false video content, are becoming increasingly prevalent. Just a month ago, the Medical Dialogue team reported on a video that featured a lookalike of senior diabetologist Dr. V. Mohan going viral. In the video, the lookalike claimed that a drug could cure diabetes within 48 hours.
Terming the video as “fake”, Dr Mohan highlighted how such social media videos generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI) could affect the healthcare system. Though the video may show a person who resembles Dr Mohan speaking in Hindi, he pointed out that the video is fake and said the senior diabetologist has never learnt Hindi.
Dr Mohan had filed a complaint about the video with the Tamil Nadu police’s cyber security wing in November 2023. The authorities subsequently removed the video, but last month, the doctor claimed that the video had resurfaced.
In another incident last month, a video featuring well-known heart surgeon Dr. Devi Shetty and a news anchor began circulating on social media. In the video, Dr. Shetty was seen promoting a joint pain reliever, claiming that it would relieve joint pain within three days. However, the viral video was later reported to be “deepfake” content.
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