A 57-year-old retired woman in Karnataka’s Bengaluru lost Rs 3.75 crore to scammers who used an artificial intelligence-generated deepfake video of preacher Jaggi Vasudev to promote fake investment schemes, The Indian Express reported on Thursday.

Deepfakes are techniques to manipulate audio and video content with the help of artificial intelligence software to show people saying or doing things that they never said or did. The content is made to appear as realistic as possible and is often used with malicious intent.

The woman saw the deepfake video on social media between February 25 and April 23, in which Vasudev was shown endorsing a trading platform, according to The Indian Express.

She followed the instructions in the video and was contacted by a man claiming to represent a company called Mirrox. She was added to a WhatsApp group that had around 100 participants and was instructed to download the Mirrox stock trading application, reported the newspaper.

The fraudsters reportedly used Zoom tutorials, fake instructors and fabricated account statements to convince her to transfer money for trading options.

By April 23, she had sent them Rs 3.75 crore in multiple transactions, with the application displaying returns on her investments, the newspaper reported.

She realised she had been scammed only when she was asked to pay extra fees…

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