A 45-year-old woman from Kerala lost Rs 49.2 lakh in an online trading scam after she fell prey to a doctored Facebook video of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman endorsing an online investment scheme and promising huge returns on investment.
She believed the video was genuine and invested money through the link shared in the Facebook post, but instead of getting the profits promised by the video, she allegedly lost everything to cyber fraudsters. The incident once again highlighted the misuse of artificial intelligence and manipulated videos for defrauding social media users and carrying out financial scams.
The Kozhikode Rural Cyber Crime Police registered a case on Wednesday after the woman, who lives in Maikkavu in Thamarassery, Kerala, filed a complaint. The woman came across the video while surfing Facebook. In it, Nirmala Sitharaman was shown promoting an online trading platform and saying people could earn huge profits by participating in the investment programme.
Since her face and identity were used to advertise the scheme, she thought it was genuine. She clicked on the link given in the Facebook post and followed what these people said to do.
Police officials told news agency PTI that the woman started transferring money to various bank accounts given by the accused. The transactions reportedly took place between July 15 and September 22, 2026. She transferred Rs 49.2 lakh from her bank accounts at State Bank of India and Puthuppadi Service Cooperative Bank.
“The fraudsters had convinced her to continue investing by promising her huge profits,” police said. But she did not get any of those profits even though she transferred so much money as they had promised her. The fraudsters didn’t return her original investment either, and when she asked them about her money, they were unresponsive.
Realising she had been cheated, the woman approached cybercrime authorities and lodged a complaint about the transactions and the misleading advertisement. Kozhikode Rural Cyber Crime Police registered a case against the suspected fraudsters under relevant provisions of BNS and the Information Technology Act after her complaint was filed.
Investigators have started checking into bank accounts from which money was transferred and trying to trace people who operated the fraudulent investment network. Police are also freezing the suspected beneficiary accounts so that the accused cannot withdraw or transfer stolen money to other accounts. They are identifying people behind Facebook advertisements, tracking financial transactions and how the victim was targeted.
The incident is a reflection of the growing cybercrime in which fraudsters use AI and advanced video-editing technology to create convincing fake endorsements of political leaders, celebrities and public personalities (deepfake technology). Manipulated videos (like those used for deepfakes) can make people believe that famous faces are personally recommending investment opportunities, financial products or online trading platforms.
Using public trust in familiar faces, they try to get people to transfer large sums of money into fraudulent schemes. Videos of Union ministers like Nirmala Sitharaman have reportedly been misused to promote suspicious investment advertisements on social media sites.
Cybercrime officials have been warning people for years not to believe investment advertisements just because they are shown by famous personalities or government representatives. Fraudsters promise guaranteed profits, unusually high returns and limited-time investment opportunities to make people feel urgency so they can take financial decisions quickly.
Victims are first shown fabricated profits or misleading account balances to convince them their investments are yielding returns; once larger amounts are transferred, the scammers stop responding, demand more money or disappear altogether. In the Kerala case, even professionally manipulated video clips could be used to make a fraudulent investment opportunity look real.
People should independently verify investment platforms and financial schemes before transferring money, authorities said. People must not click on links shared through Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, etc. Any investment opportunity which claims to be endorsed by a Union Minister or government official should be verified through official government websites and authorised financial channels only.
Citizens should remember that a video of a familiar face is not proof of the authenticity of an investment scheme. If anyone suspects they have been cheated online, he/she can contact the national cybercrime helpline number 1930 immediately or report the incident through the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCCC). The Rs 49.2 lakh fraud case investigation continues, as AI-generated misinformation and fake investment endorsements are strong warning signals about financial risks in such cases.
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