Mumbai Police Bust Massive Deepfake Investment Scam with China Connections: How Criminals Used Fake Videos of Market Experts to Steal Crores

A sophisticated cybercrime operation utilizing deepfake videos of prominent market analysts and business news anchors has been uncovered by Mumbai Police.

Mumbai authorities revealed that the criminal network had connections to China and deceived victims into believing they were investing through a renowned stock market expert.

The scheme came to light when a SEBI-registered stock market analyst discovered counterfeit videos of himself promoting a fraudulent trading application and investment opportunities circulating on Facebook and Instagram.

Following this complaint, authorities filed charges under both the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act. After analyzing data provided by Facebook, police arrested four individuals: Jizil Sebastian (44), Dipayan Tapan Banerjee (30), and Daniel Arumugham (25) from Bengaluru, along with Chandrashekhar Bhimsen Naik (42) from Thane.

Investigators determined that these individuals were employed by "Valuelip India Services Pvt. Ltd.," a digital marketing firm. They had illegally provided access to their Facebook Ad IDs to Chinese cybercriminals who then distributed the fabricated videos.

Victims who trusted these videos followed links that directed them to WhatsApp or Telegram groups where they were promised substantial returns through stock trading. However, no actual investments were made, resulting in losses amounting to crores of rupees for numerous victims.

The arrested individuals reportedly received approximately Rs 3 crore, paid in both Indian rupees and UAE dirhams, for providing unauthorized access to these platforms.