An Army veteran in his 80s from Pune has fallen victim to an online investment scam, losing Rs 1 crore after being misled by deepfake videos featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The retired officer, residing in the Kondhwa area, reported the incident to authorities after discovering the fraudulent scheme while browsing the internet a few weeks ago.
The investigation revealed that the deepfake video he encountered was designed to promote a deceptive investment platform, which promised substantial returns on forex trading. The video claimed that a monthly investment of Rs 22,000 could yield monthly profits of Rs 1 lakh.
Upon clicking a link embedded in the video, the veteran was redirected to a website that requested his personal and financial information through a form. He was subsequently provided with a link to a fraudulent mobile application, where he was instructed to create an account.
After logging into the app, the victim began receiving phone calls from scammers impersonating forex trading platform representatives. Initially, he made the required payment of Rs 22,000, which the application falsely indicated had generated a profit of Rs 1 lakh. Believing the application to be credible, he continued to invest larger sums, which resulted in even more inflated profit figures being displayed.
Over the course of a month, the veteran transferred a total of Rs 1.01 crore, while the app claimed he had amassed profits of Rs 4.54 crore. However, when he attempted to withdraw his earnings, the scammers demanded additional payments for taxes and processing fees. It was only at this juncture that he realized he had been deceived, prompting him to contact the police.
Cybercrime investigators in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad have identified numerous instances where deepfake videos of prominent figures—such as Infosys founder Narayana Murthy, Sudha Murthy of the Infosys Foundation, Mukesh Ambani, the late Ratan Tata, and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman—are being employed to manipulate unsuspecting individuals into investing in fraudulent schemes.
These deceptive videos falsely promoted illegitimate stock trading tools and have been exploited by cybercriminals to defraud ordinary citizens seeking to profit from the stock market.
