BENGALURU: A 79-year-old woman from Seshadripuram, central Bengaluru, lost nearly Rs 35 lakh to fraudsters operating a sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) trading scam. The gang not only cheated her of her savings over eight months but also tried to extort more by threatening her with a fabricated money-laundering case.
Archana (name changed) approached Central CEN Crime police for help in recovering her money. She told police she came across a Facebook advertisement promoting AI-based trading. The post featured deepfake videos of Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy endorsing trading platforms. On clicking the link, she was contacted by a woman claiming to be an executive of a UK-based AI trading firm that the deepfake videos had endorsed.
The fraudsters created a convincing facade: They registered an account in Archana's name on a fake but professional-looking website, gave her login credentials and assigned her a financial manager named Varun. He claimed the company would credit money to users' accounts as a promotional strategy, which could be withdrawn after clearing the credited amount.
The only condition was that when the customer withdrew money, they needed to clear the credit.
The website was designed to look genuine. On the homepage, they provided updates on cryptocurrency, and on another page, they displayed stock market updates. Initially, Archana invested 200 dollars in Indian currency to a bank account provided by Varun. After confirming the investment and seeing the profit displayed in her account, she transferred more money, equalling 400 dollars.
Archana told TOI, "I didn't invest further or try to withdraw the money for six months. The fraudsters would frequently make WhatsApp calls and explain they were going to purchase companies at a loss and, after a few months, resell them to other firms that were in profit. They mentioned the names of big brands in India."
The scamsters started calling her from different numbers starting with +44 — all WhatsApp calls — and began enquiring about her investment in AI trading. She would disconnect the calls, informing them that she'd invested in only one firm. In April, they showed her that the total amount in her account was over Rs 1 crore (in US dollars). They told her Varun had been sacked for committing fraud in trading. Another financial manager named Ajay Sharma was assigned, and he started forcing her to clear the credit and claim the huge amount, Archana told police."
I had some commitments, so I thought of withdrawing the money. They told me they had transferred the dollars to another person named FX, who would convert it into Indian currency and credit it to my account. For that, they asked me to pay Rs 4 lakh as declaration charge. I borrowed money from my daughter and son and paid them. They again told me Varun had committed multiple frauds and sent me screenshots of the same. They asked for Rs 9 lakh more to clear dues and I again borrowed money from my children and paid them, losing over Rs 34.6 lakh in total."