A 79-year-old woman in Bengaluru lost Rs 35 lakh to fraudsters who used deepfake videos of Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy to promote a fake AI trading platform over eight months.
In Bengaluru, a 79-year-old woman named Archana fell victim to a sophisticated AI-enabled trading scam that resulted in financial losses of nearly Rs 35 lakh over eight months. The fraudsters used deepfake videos featuring Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy endorsing trading platforms in Facebook advertisements. When Archana clicked on the advertisement, she was contacted by someone claiming to represent a UK-based AI trading firm. The scammers created a professional-looking fake website with cryptocurrency and stock market updates, registered an account in her name, and assigned her a financial manager named Varun. Initially, she invested $200 and then $400, seeing apparent profits displayed in her account. After six months of inactivity, the fraudsters began pressuring her to withdraw money, claiming her account showed over Rs 1 crore. They then demanded Rs 4 lakh as a declaration charge and later Rs 9 lakh more to clear alleged dues, claiming Varun had committed fraud. Archana borrowed money from her children to pay these fees, ultimately losing Rs 34.6 lakh in total. The case was reported to Central CEN Crime police for investigation and recovery efforts.
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