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The misuse of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the world of cyber crime is now crossing the boundaries of technology and attacking the most sensitive part of human emotions and trust. A shocking case has come to light before the cyber police, where a 65-year-old elderly woman, with the help of advanced AI face-swapping, deepfake video and voice cloning tools, presented herself as ‘Hasina’, a 30-year-old beautiful corporate professional.
Trapped in this high-tech digital illusion, an innocent victim was first lured into false promises of love and marriage and then, under various pretexts, ₹21 lakh A huge amount of money was extorted. When months later, the victim became suspicious and lodged a complaint about the matter with the Cyber Crime Cell, the truth that emerged during the investigation shocked not only the victim but also the police officers.
The initial investigation by the Cyber Cell has revealed the shocking modus operandi of this entire scam, which shows how systematically modern cyber criminals are using technology:
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Fake profiles on social media and matrimonial platforms: The accused created a profile of an attractive, modern and rich woman on a popular social media and dating platform. For this, photographs taken from the Internet were modified with generative AI tools to create a realistic looking face.
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Voice Modulation and AI Voice Cloning: The accused elderly woman used real-time voice-changer and AI voice cloning software while talking on a phone call. Due to this, her 65 year old voice completely changed into the voice of a young, melodious and 28-30 year old woman.
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Deepfake video calling: When the victim requested for a video call to check the authenticity of the relationship, the vicious fraudsters used a real-time deepfake filter (Real-time Face-Swapping AI). In this, during the call, a short video call of 5 to 10 seconds was made and immediately disconnected on the pretext of network failure, due to which the victim felt that the girl seen on the screen was actually talking to him.
When the emotional and digital relationship between the two deepened, the real game of cheating was started:
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Emotional blackmail and medical emergency: The accused initially showed himself to be in serious financial trouble. First, ₹ 2.5 lakh was demanded in the name of custom clearance at the foreign airport and redemption of expensive gifts.
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Critical illness and hospital bills: After this, ₹ 8 lakh was transferred in installments citing the alleged mother’s sudden ill health, fake ICU bills and surgery.
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Joint investment hoax: In the final stage, the victim was made to deposit around ₹10.5 lakh in a fake trading wallet by luring both of them with a ‘future house’ and high-return profits in crypto.
In the belief of love and marriage, the victim transferred her years’ savings, PF money and even taking loan from friends, a total of Rs 21 lakh, to different UPI IDs and Mule Bank accounts.
After the money was transferred, when the woman started postponing the talk of marriage and personal meeting and her phone calls started getting switched off, the victim realized that he had been cheated. The victim immediately lodged a complaint at the local cyber crime police station and the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (1930).
When cyber police tracked digital footprints, IP addresses, call detail records (CDR) and financial transactions of bank accounts, the location was traced to a remote suburban area. When the police team raided the suspected hideout, instead of a high-profile 30-year-old woman, they found a 65-year-old woman from whom high-end laptops, voice modulator software, multiple SIM cards and several fake bank passbooks were recovered. Interrogation revealed that some of his technically proficient relatives were also involved in this syndicate who were operating AI tools on the backend.
According to cyber security experts, in the growing era of AI, it is mandatory to take the following precautions while trusting any unknown digital person:
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Avoiding long video calls: If a person always avoids long video calls by making the excuse of poor network or shows the face only for a few seconds, it can be a clear sign of deepfake technology.
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Check facial expressions and blinking: In AI deepfake video calls, the person’s eyelids (blinking) often do not blink normally and there is a slight lag (delay) in lip movement (lip-sync) and voice.
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Be alert immediately on demand for money: Never transfer money to anyone you meet online, no matter how helpless they appear to be. In 99% of the cases, stories of medical emergency or custom clearance are fabricated.
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Reverse image search: Search the pictures sent on social media on Google Reverse Image Search (Google Lens) to see if those pictures have been stolen from any foreign model or stock photo on the internet.
If any online fraud happens to you, immediately contact National Cyber Helpline number without wasting time. 1930 call and cybercrime.gov.in Register a complaint so that the accounts can be frozen in time.