Bengaluru, 11 Sep

A 57-year-old retired woman was duped of Rs 3.75 crore by fraudsters who allegedly used an AI-generated deepfake video of spiritual leader Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev to trick her into investing in an online trading platform, police said on Thursday.

The woman, a resident of CV Raman Nagar, who claimed to be unaware of the deepfake technology fell for the AI-generated video of Sadhguru while she was scrolling through Youtube videos, they said.

In her complaint, the woman alleged that on 25 February, when she was watching Youtube videos, she came across an "AI-generated Youtube video" of Sadhguru stating that he had been trading with the firm, of which link was provided below and if you click and put your name, email, phone number for an amount of USD $ 250, your finances will improve greatly.

Believing that the link provided in the description of the alleged video was genuine, she clicked on it and was later contacted by a person named Waleed B, the FIR stated.

According to FIR, Waleed reached out to her through multiple UK-based mobile numbers and asked her to download Mirrox application.

He also conducted trading lessons for her over Zoom app. Another person, identified as Michael C gave lessons when Waleed was unavailable.

From 25 February to 23 April, the woman invested a total of Rs 3,75,72,121 from her bank accounts to those provided through the alleged trading platform application, it added.

The woman realised that she was duped when she tried to withdraw her profits and approached the police with a complaint nearly five months after the incident, a senior police officer said.

"Based on the complaint, we have registered a case on 9 September under relevant sections of Information Technology Act and section 318 (4) (cheating) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the matter is being investigated," he said.

The officer, however, said recovery of the lost money would be difficult, but they are coordinating with banks to freeze the alleged accounts into which money was transferred by the complainant as demanded by the fraudsters.