Athira Sethu
Kochi, 4 November 2024
Two people in Bengaluru have lost almost Rs 80 lakh on the basis of deepfake videos of famous business personalities Narayana Murthy and Mukesh Ambani, according to a report by The Times of India. Separate cases have been filed at the Bengaluru South CEN police station and investigations are underway.
How the Scam Worked
In one case, Veena from Banashankari saw a video wherein Narayana Murthy promoted a trading platform by giving high returns. Unaware that the video was fake, she clicked a link and shared her personal details. An agent later called her and asked her to invest money. She first invested Rs 1.4 lakh from her credit card and made Rs 8,000 in profit. Inspired by this, she again invested Rs 6.7 lakh but never received returns.
She got another advertisement on Instagram, where she was offered a work-from-home opportunity. She was told that with this rating of an online platform called ASOS, she could earn good money. She invested Rs 67 lakh, and she did see a profit of Rs 55,000 on that site. But when she tried to withdraw her money, she was asked to pay a huge tax. Thereafter, her calls would go unanswered.
The scam was repeated with an elderly man by the name of Ashok Kumar. He received a Facebook advertisement with a deepfake video of Mukesh Ambani, stating that one could make high returns on an investment platform. Kumar made a transfer of Rs 19 lakh to two accounts that the fraudsters had sent him, but never received a word from them and figured out he was a victim of the scam.
Last year, Narayana Murthy also warned the public against fraudsters using his name. He said many trading websites were citing his endorsement. He announced on social media that false news and videos were surfacing that he was advertising automated trading apps like BTC AI Evex and similar ones. He clarified that he does not endorse any of these.
