Deepfakes Of Market Experts, China Links: How Gang Conned People Of Crores

A big cybercrime racket in which deepfake videos of market experts and popular anchors from business news channels were used to dupe people into 'investing' has been busted in Mumbai.

Officials from the cybercrime department of the Mumbai Police said the gang running the racket had links to China, and people were led to believe they were investing with a prominent stock market guru.

The police got wind of the scam when a well-known stock market analyst registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) filed a complaint stating that fake videos of him promoting a fake trading app and investment links were being shared on Facebook and Instagram.

Based on the complaint, a case was registered under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) as well as the IT Act. The police began their investigation and, after obtaining data from Facebook, arrested four people - Jizil Sebastian (44), Dipayan Tapan Banerjee (30), Daniel Arumugham (25), all of whom are from Bengaluru, and Chandrashekhar Bhimsen Naik (42) from Thane.

Officials said the four men were associated with a digital marketing company called "Valuelip India Services Pvt. Ltd." They illegally sold access to their Facebook Ad IDs to Chinese cybercriminals, who used the accounts to promote fake videos.

Trusting these videos, people followed the links and joined WhatsApp or Telegram groups in which they were promised attractive returns through the purchase and sale of shares. No money was invested in stocks, however, and people were scammed of crores.

The four men who have been arrested received approximately Rs 3 crore, in rupees and dirhams, in exchange for the illegal access.