A 54-year-old woman from Bengaluru's CV Raman Nagar was cheated of over Rs 33 lakh by cyber criminals, after she watched a Facebook video that seemed to show Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman endorsing a trading platform.
Lured by the deepfake video, the woman signed up to the trading account, gave her banking and KYC details, and kept sending money until she realised she had been duped.
How Much Money Did She Lose?
In her police complaint, the woman stated that immediately after registering, she was added to a WhatsApp group and told to transfer Rs 21,000 to "start trading".
She revealed that she then started receiving calls from someone identifying herself as "Varnika Reddy, a senior finance adviser from Naka Solution Ltd", claiming that she had earned a profit of $88,000. She was told that she could withdraw the amount if she paid multiple charges, including securities transaction tax, a "one-time tax", Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) tax and atomic wallet fees.
She stated that the emails and communications she received appeared to "come from the Reserve Bank of India and another bank".
Between October and December, the woman allegedly transferred Rs 33,25,413 in nine transactions to six different merchants across several banks.
When she eventually realised that the platform was fake and that she had been cheated, she approached the police for help.
However, a TOI report notes that even after the police complaint, the WhatsApp group "remains active".
A case has been registered under the Information Technology Act and BNS section 318 (cheating).