Mumbai Cyber Police exposed a sophisticated fraud network that used deepfake videos of prominent Indian stock market experts to deceive investors, arresting four individuals from Bengaluru who created and promoted fake investment advertisements for a Hong Kong-based company.
The Mumbai Cyber Police uncovered a sophisticated fraud operation involving deepfake technology used to create fake videos of prominent Indian stock market experts. The case began when a reputed stock market expert reported that manipulated videos of himself were being circulated on social media with false investment information. Police investigation led to the arrest of four individuals from Bengaluru: Jijil Sebastian (44), Dipayan Tapan Banerjee (30), Daniel Arumugham (25), and Chandrashekhar Bhimsen Naik (42). The accused worked for a Bengaluru-based advertising agency called 'Valueleaf' and created the deepfake videos on behalf of Hong Kong-based company First Bridge, which paid approximately ₹3 crore for the campaign. The fraudulent videos were circulated between July 1 and July 18. When Meta flagged the content for misinformation, the perpetrators increased their advertising accounts from 18 to 38 and changed their registered domain location to Dubai to evade detection. The accused admitted they knew the videos were fake and could cause financial harm to the public. Police have registered cases under multiple sections of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita and Information Technology Act, and officials are investigating how many investors were defrauded through these fake advertisements.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
Using AI systems to gain a personal advantage over others such as through cheating, fraud, scams, blackmail or targeted manipulation of beliefs or behavior. Examples include AI-facilitated plagiarism for research or education, impersonating a trusted or fake individual for illegitimate financial benefit, or creating humiliating or sexual imagery.
Human
Due to a decision or action made by humans
Intentional
Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed