How a click on deepfake video of Nirmala Sitharaman cost Bengaluru homemaker ₹43 lakh

The video showed a digitally altered version of the minister urging citizens to invest in a particular stock trading company, promising high returns.

A 57-year-old homemaker from East Bengaluru has lost ₹43.4 lakh after falling victim to an online trading scam that used a deepfake video of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to lure investors.

Believing the video to be genuine, she clicked on a link provided with the post and entered her personal information.(Pixaby)

Police said the woman, came across the video on Instagram in August. The video showed a digitally altered version of the minister urging citizens to invest in a particular stock trading company, promising high returns. Believing the video to be genuine, she clicked on a link provided with the post and entered her personal information, as per a report by The Times of India (TOI).

The next day, on August 4 around 10 am, she received a WhatsApp message from a man identifying himself as Aarav Gupta, who claimed to be an executive of the trading firm. He added her to a WhatsApp group named ‘Aastha Trade 238’, which had over 100 members. Aarav later shared the contact number of one Meena Joshi, who introduced herself as a customer service agent and offered to train the victim in trading.

In September, Meena sent a link to the victim to download an app called ACSTRADE and helped her register on the platform, assuring her that it was secure. Following Meena’s guidance, she linked her bank account and made her first transfer of Rs5,000. Encouraged by apparent profits displayed on the app, she continued investing.

Initially, the returns seemed promising — a Rs1 lakh investment appeared to yield Rs2 lakh, and a later Rs5 lakh investment showed ₹8 lakh in returns. However, when she tried to stop participating in an initial public offering (IPO) feature on the app, she faced technical issues. Meena advised her on how to disable it, but soon after, the victim was prompted to invest even larger amounts, totalling ₹23 lakh.

When she ran out of personal funds, the so-called agents offered her a loan through the app. But when she attempted to withdraw her profits, the system displayed an error message. Meena claimed the withdrawal was blocked because of an active loan, prompting the victim to pledge her gold ornaments at a bank and a gold finance company to arrange more money — all of which she transferred to the fraudsters.

The scam was uncovered only on November 1 when her bank contacted her to report that her account had been frozen due to suspicious transactions. Between September 24 and October 27, she had made 13 transfers to different bank accounts.

A senior police officer confirmed that a case has been registered at the East Cybercrime Police Station under relevant provisions of the Information Technology Act and Section 318 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (cheating).

The officer warned citizens to be cautious of deepfake videos and fraudulent investment schemes.