Deepfake video call impersonating a former colleague used to take ₹40,000
What happened
On 9 July 2023 a retired man in Kozhikode got a WhatsApp video call from someone who looked and sounded like a former colleague. The caller mentioned other people they had worked with, said a relative was in hospital and asked for ₹40,000, which he sent online.
When the caller asked for another ₹35,000 he became suspicious, checked with other former colleagues and found that the call was not genuine. Kerala Police’s cyber wing said the fraudsters had faked the colleague’s face and voice.
- 9 July 2023
- Kozhikode, Kerala
- Finance and payments
- Synthetic mediaA face and voice faked on a WhatsApp video call. Police described an AI-based video tool that worked with a blurred background and simple movements of the chin, eyes and lips.
- Used deliberately to cause harm
- Economic or property
- A retired man in his seventies
- An official statement
- Added 01.10.2026
What followed
Police traced the money through a Jio Payments Bank account to an account at a bank branch in Maharashtra and asked the bank to freeze it. By January 2024 four people had been arrested in the case. One of them, already held in Delhi’s Tihar Jail in a similar case, was brought before a court in Kozhikode for questioning.
The account of the technology comes from the police. No forensic analysis of the call has been published.
Sources
- Coal India’s retd official loses Rs 40K after he gets deep-fake video call from ex-colleague asking for money
Onmanorama,
- WhatsApp video call scam: Kerala man robbed of Rs 40,000 by stranger pretending to be former colleague
Business Today,
- Deepfake scam: Ahmedabad-based accused questioned in Kozhikode
Onmanorama,
Something wrong or missing?
Records are summaries of what their sources report, and they can be out of date. If you can correct one, add to it, or you’re named in it and want to reply, write to hello@indiaaisafety.org with the record number.