In the eerie crossroads of technology and cybercrime, a 26-year-old Bengaluru resident has been caught in a sophisticated "AI Honey Trap"; this is the latest in the city's web of fraud against him; this victim was swindled out of ₹1.53 lakh by fraudsters using Artificial Intelligence to make a ‘non-existent’ woman, a kind of new danger set in the city's digital crime-scape.
The ordeal started when the victim set up a profile on the popular dating app Happn. Soon after he received a friend request from a profile called ‘Ishani.’ The profile images, which would later be revealed to be AI generated, were so hyper realistic that they demonstrated no indication of digital manipulation, allowing them to fall within a victim’s initial suspicions.
After a couple of days of friendly chit chat, things turned to WhatsApp. The fraudsters posing as Ishani held intimate conversations to convince people before proceeding to the next step in their plan: the video call. A "Naked" deception: a video call was started with Ishani's number.
When the victim answered, he saw a video on the site showing a woman who appeared to be undressed. Feeling like it was a real-time exchange, the victim was forced to undress himself. He barely noticed that he was enjoying a pre-rendered video created by AI while the criminals on the receiving end were recording every motion with screen-recording software.
The Blackmail Phase
Suddenly, as soon as the call ended, that online “virtual girl” disappeared, and the criminals emerged under the guise of their victims. They showed the victim recorded clips of moments from his private life and threatened to leak them to his family and friends on social media if he didn’t pay up.
In panic and fearing social ostracism, the young man committed ₹1.53 lakh in numerous installments in various bank accounts that were being used by the scammers. Police Investigation: Ghost Created by the Software The victim eventually called the Central CEN (Cyber, Economic Offences and Narcotics) Police Station in Bengaluru when the extortion demands kept on getting worse. Early investigations by the cyber police found something shocking: “Ishani” never showed up.
This wasn’t a typical honey trap
The face, voice and even the video of the call had been created using AI software. There was no woman sitting on the other side and only a cunning script targeted to deceive the victims,” said the senior police official. A case has been registered by the Police with investigations currently underway tracking the money trail and IP addresses linked to the fraudulent accounts.
