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In a major breakthrough, the Mumbai Cyber Police have exposed a sophisticated fraud network that used deepfake videos of prominent Indian stock market experts to deceive investors. The police have arrested four individuals from Bengaluru for their alleged involvement in the scam. Investigations have revealed that Chinese companies had hired Indian marketing firms for multi-crore contracts to circulate these misleading investment advertisements online. Among those arrested are two engineers and an MBA graduate a clear indication that the racket was well-planned and technically advanced. According to investigators, this could be the first case in India where deepfake technology has been used to commit investment fraud. The case came to light when a reputed stock market expert approached Mumbai Cyber Police after discovering fake videos of himself being circulated on social media. These manipulated videos were spreading false and misleading information about share trading. Taking note of the complaint, DCP (Cyber Crime) Purushottam Karad ordered an immediate inquiry. A special team led by Senior Police Inspector Suvarna Shinde from the Cyber Police (West Region) began tracing the source of the fake videos. Police found that the videos were first uploaded from an account belonging to a woman in Assam. On questioning, she revealed that she worked for a Bengaluru-based advertising agency named "Valueleaf", which had been running the advertisements. Following this lead, the police raided the company’s Bengaluru office and confirmed that it was responsible for uploading and running the deepfake promotional videos. The police arrested four individuals identified as Jijil Sebastian (44) – Bengaluru, Karnataka, Dipayan Tapan Banerjee (30) – Bengaluru, Karnataka, Daniel Arumugham (25) – Bengaluru, Karnataka and Chandrashekhar Bhimsen Naik (42) – Kopri, Thane (East). During interrogation, the accused admitted that the videos were created and promoted on behalf of a Hong Kong-based company named First Bridge. The company had reportedly paid around ₹3 crore to the Indian firm for executing the campaign. Investigators revealed that the accused were fully aware that the videos were fake and could cause financial harm to the public. However, they continued to promote them. When Meta (Facebook) flagged the content for spreading misinformation, the accused increased the number of advertising accounts from 18 to 38 and changed their registered domain location to Dubai to escape detection. The fraudulent videos were circulated between July 1 and July 18, after which Meta took them down. Mumbai West Region Cyber Police have registered a case under Sections 418(4), 419(2), 420(2), and 465(2) of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), along with Sections 66(A) and 66(D) of the Information Technology Act. The court has remanded all four accused to police custody till October 20. Officials are now investigating how many investors were defrauded through these fake advertisements and whether similar campaigns are being run on other digital platforms. DCP Karad emphasized that this case highlights the emerging threat of deepfake technology in cybercrime, warning that the misuse of AI-generated videos poses a serious risk to public trust and financial security in the digital space.

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