The cyber police with the support of various banking firms have recovered ₹40,000 that a Kozhikode native had lost in an alleged trickery by a scammer who pretended as his friend during a WhatsApp call using deepfake technology.
The incident that took place last week had drawn wide attention as the scammer allegedly used a fake WhatsApp profile created in the name of the complainant’s friend to ask for money. Using deep fake techniques, the spoof caller had managed to recreate the original sound and image of the complainant’s friend and succeeded in convincing him to send the money.
The complainant, who was a former employee of Coal India Limited, realised that he was being cheated when the caller again asked money for ‘treatment expenses’. To win his trust, the caller had even enquired about the well-being of the complainant’s friends settled in Andhra Pradesh.
Police sources said it was for the first time that the State was witnessing such a trickery employing Artificial Intelligence (AI) during a video call. The complaint, which was first received by the National Cyber Cell, was handed over to the State police on the orders of the higher authorities, they added.
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