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A Bengaluru woman lost Rs 3.75 crore to fraudsters between February 25 and April 23, according to reports. The fraudsters deceived her by using a deepfake video of Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev promoting a stock-trading platform.
The complaint filed by the 57-year-old, a resident of CV Raman Nagar, said she had no idea about deepfake videos of celebrities. During the February-April period, social media platforms were flooded with multiple fake advertisements that featured Sadhguru, using AI generated voice. In June this year, the Delhi high court had passed an order granting protection of personality rights from rogue websites using AI to impersonate him.
While scrolling on the phone, the woman came across a reel of Sadhguru investing in stocks and improving the financial situation by investing an amount of just $250. She started investing, believing that this was the actual Sadhguru. With no knowledge of such frauds, she clicked on the link in the reel, media reports quoting investigators said. A report in the Times of India said, this directed her to a page, asking for personal details such as her name, phone number and email ID. She was then contacted by someone named ‘Waleed B’ who called himself a representative of ‘Mirrox’ firm.
The representative used to text her from +44 753731307, +44 7441958898. +44 770142144, +44 7441941614 and other numbers, the report said. She was then added to a Whatsapp group containing around 100 members and was asked to download an app called Mirrox.
She was taught to trade by Waleed, through Zoom. She was then contacted by Micheal C, a stand-in tutor. By sharing investment and profit details and by posting screenshots of money being credited to their accounts, they fooled the woman into investing money. The fraudsters provided her with bank accounts to which she was asked to transfer money. The platform showed that she earned high returns. When she tried to withdraw the money she invested, the fraudsters asked for additional payments such as processing fee and tax. The fraudsters stopped responding to her when she refused to make the payment.
According to reports, the woman transferred the money in multiple transactions. She has provided the details to the police.
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