A shocking scam involving astrology, religious rituals and artificial intelligence has turned out to be true in Bengaluru where a 62 year old woman has lost gold jewellery worth around ₹40 lakh after trusting a man who is a professional astrologer to her for about a year when she trusted him as a woman.
The woman, Shantamma, is from Byatarayanapura and lives there. Venkatesh is the accused, who is accused of taking her confidence by offering to perform Chaudeshwari Devi rituals and telling her that the ceremonies would solve problems affecting her family, the complaint says. The black money was collected by someone else and the woman received gold jewellery from the accused on several occasions according to the complaint that she has been there for nearly a year.
Shantamma had first met Venkatesh when she was at Victoria Hospital for health problems. Venkatesh would give astrology services on the footpath outside the hospital. He told Shantamma that her health would improve, and she later felt improved, and she also trusted him.
She approached him to address the family problems, for instance, her son’s drinking problems and her daughter’s marriage. The accused used these personal concerns to gain access to the family and finally went to Shantamma’s house and suggested performing rituals in her name in a special way.
The fraud was not a single transaction, but one that took place in slow steps. Venkatesh allegedly told Shantamma that the gold ornaments kept at home needed to be prayed for to remove all kinds of problems from the family. He promised to collect the jewellery on Amavasya and Purnima and perform rituals before returning it.
According to him, Shantamma gave him jewellery on several occasions. The total value of jewellery taken from her, according to the report, was around ₹40 lakh. The gradual nature of the transactions reportedly meant that the woman continued to trust him until she finally asked for all the jewellery to be returned.
The alleged scam took a dramatic turn before the Varamahalakshmi festival. Shantamma asked Venkatesh to return her jewellery for the festival पूजा on August 19; Venkatesh did not return it. He said he had a serious accident. Reports said he had another person call Shantamma and send her a video which appeared to show him badly injured and having medical help.
The video was allegedly created using artificial intelligence, making it seem like the astrologer had a serious accident. He switched off his cell phone after that, so it was difficult for Shantamma to contact him.
Shantamma allegedly became suspicious and showed the video to her children. When they saw it, the family realised that it was not real and was probably made with AI technology. The discovery left more questions about the astrologer’s location and jewellery he had collected. Venkatesh’s cellphone was switched off and Venkatesh was not able to contact anyone, they said.
The incident was taken to the Byatarayanapura police, and Shantamma filed a complaint. Police have registered a case based on the complaint and have launched a search for Venkatesh, who is reported to be absconding.
Fraud strategies based on confidence are increasingly being used in the context of modern technology to deceive victims. Such fake videos and manipulated digital content can make false claims appear credible when they are utilised in an emotionally stressful situation. Bengaluru has seen cases of alleged fraudsters using religious or spiritual claims to get valuable jewellery from victims and they are not doing it by mistake in which the situation has been compounded.
People are therefore told to be careful if anyone is seeking gold, cash or other valuables for religious ceremonies and to verify the claims before transferring them. In this instance, the investigation is on by Byatarayanapura police, and more about the accused, the stolen jewellery and the AI-generated footage will be revealed as investigators follow the suspect.
