New Delhi, June 22
A gang of fraudsters used a deepfake video of industrialist Mukesh Ambani to endorse a bogus share trading academy and duped a woman Ayurveda practitioner of Rs. 7 lakhs in Mumbai.
The victim was identified as Dr KH Patil (54) from Andheri. The doctor was trapped with a video on Instagram.
As per the case details, Dr Patil initially came across the deepfake video on April 15 while scrolling through her Instagram feed. The video depicted Ambani promoting the success of a trading academy named Rajiv Sharma Trade Group and urging people to join BCF Academy for high returns on investments.
Dr. Patil contacted the academy online and proceeded to invest a total of Rs 7.1 lakh between May and June. She was provided with an account where she could monitor her investments, which quickly showed a profit of over Rs 30 lakh. However, when she attempted to withdraw the profits earlier this month, her attempts repeatedly failed.
The police are investigating 16 bank accounts to which Dr Patil transferred money and contacting banks to block the same.
The police have also noted a trend of cyber scamsters exploiting social media platforms such as X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram to lure unsuspecting investors.
