The evil forces lurking in cyberspace have stopped to a new low. Now they have now started stealing the most credible faces the faces of the country to propagate their evil scheme.
The flood of deepfake videos flooding India’s social media platforms, especially in the recent past, points to one very disturbing reality—the bad elements lurking in the dark alleys of cyberspace have grown bolder, and more importantly have become frighteningly sophisticated and far more brazen in their evil machinations. In their never-ending search for making quick money by any means, these con men have not even spared the highest political offices of the land. The latest victims include none other than Shri Narendra Modi,Prime Minister of India; MsNirmala Sitharaman, Union Finance Minister, Government of India; Shri Narayana Murthy Founder, of technology Infosys and Ms Sudha Murty, , Founder-Chairperson, Infosys Foundation/ Athenian Tech, a digital risk monitoring company, has been tracking and exposing these dubious campaigns and has raised the alarm with the relevant authorities in a timely manner.
The bait. To con men made use of the social media giant Facebook to disseminate their evil designs, which was primarily built on fabrication and psychological manipulation. Deepfake videos showing Prime Minister Modi purportedly endorsing an AI-powered trading platform caused ripples. To create further authenticity to the fishy campaign, fake testimonials claiming massive daily payouts were also circulated, all in a bid to convert eyeballs into possible victims. The Athenian Tech’s Threat Intelligence Report documented one such deepfake, which promised a return of ₹9 lakh in just seven days for an initial investment of only ₹21,000 to lure victims.
The machinery of the threat. Underneath the shiny surface of these viral deepfakes, there is a wilfully evasive fraudulent infrastructure. These campaigns are amplified with paid Meta Ads that direct users to bogus domains, where lookalike forms collect personally identifiable information before organised scam call centres launch coordinated outreach, transforming a single click into a multi-stage assault on the financial security of an ordinary citizen.The greater danger. Misuse of AI-generated deepfakes of Indian leaders is a serious national security challenge that undermines public confidence and paves the way for large-scale information warfare, Athenian Tech grimly warns. When the face of the Prime Minister of India can be digitally stolen for criminal purposes, the damage is not only monetary – it undermines the very foundations of democratic trust. Ordinary Indians still have the most potent weapons against this deepfake menace: awareness, vigilance and timely reporting.
