In January 2026, a video started circulating on WhatsApp and Telegram showing Sundararaman Ramamurthy — the actual CEO of the Bombay Stock Exchange — personally recommending stock tips and promising viewers they could turn into millionaires “within a short time.” The video was completely fake. BSE had to issue a public advisory calling it out. Two months later, in March, the same video resurfaced, and BSE had to warn the public a second time.
This is the new face of India’s biggest cyber fraud category — and it isn’t digital arrest. It’s investment fraud, and it now accounts for roughly 75–77% of all money stolen through cyber crime in India.
The scale nobody talks enough about
Digital arrest scams get the headlines because they’re dramatic — fake police uniforms, video calls, hours of psychological torment. But quietly, investment fraud is where the real money is going. Three-quarters of all cyber fraud losses in India now flow through fake WhatsApp and Telegram “stock tip” groups, spoofed brokerage apps, and advisory channels promising guaranteed returns.
The reason it works so well comes down to one word: credibility. And nothing builds credibility faster than a familiar, trusted face.
The celebrity deepfake playbook
Scammers have deepfaked some of India’s most recognized names to endorse fraudulent trading platforms — Mukesh Ambani, Ratan Tata, N.R. Narayana Murthy, Virat Kohli, Sadhguru, and Akshay Kumar have all had fake videos circulate promoting investment schemes they have nothing to do with. The results have been devastating: a Pune man lost ₹43 lakh after watching a fake video of Narayana and Sudha Murthy, and a Bengaluru chartered accountant lost ₹23 lakh to a similar deepfake.
It’s not limited to celebrities either. In a landmark case, Delhi High Court granted relief to personal finance educator Ankur Warikoo after AI-generated deepfake videos used his face and voice to convince viewers to join fraudulent WhatsApp stock-advisory groups. The videos replicated his expressions and voice so precisely that even his own followers — people who trusted his real content — couldn’t tell the difference. The court ordered Meta to take down every infringing link within 36 hours and disclose user details behind the fake accounts.
What actually happens once you’re hooked
The pattern shows up again and again in recent cases:
A Khammam businessman was drawn into what looked like a legitimate crypto-forex platform by someone posing as “Jessica Meenakshi” on WhatsApp. Between mid-December 2025 and late January 2026, he transferred over ₹1 crore across his own and his friends’ accounts. When he tried to withdraw his apparent balance of nearly $3.9 lakh, the scammers demanded ₹64 lakh in “income tax.” He paid it. Then they asked for ₹34 lakh more as a “currency exchange fee.” He paid that too. Only when they demanded a further ₹51 lakh “security deposit” did he realize he’d been scammed — by then he’d lost over ₹2 crore.
This isn’t a one-off. In a separate case in the same district, a deputy manager lost ₹33.5 lakh to a stock scheme that used a deepfake video of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. In Vizag, eight residents collectively lost nearly ₹3 crore to fake stock and crypto schemes in a single month — including a tech employee who lost ₹1.4 crore after being contacted by a woman on Instagram.
At the top end, the Enforcement Directorate uncovered a scheme where a Faridabad woman lost ₹7 crore, a Noida businessman lost ₹9 crore, and a Bathinda doctor lost ₹6 crore — all through fake investment apps advertised on Facebook, Instagram, and X. The stolen funds were routed abroad and converted to cryptocurrency; five arrests were made and ₹25 crore recovered.
Why this fraud is exploding right now
The technology behind it has become almost disposably cheap. The cost of producing a convincing executive-impersonation deepfake video has dropped by more than 99% since 2022 — a synthetic identity kit capable of generating a CEO deepfake now sells for around $5 on dark web markets. That collapse in cost is exactly why detection hasn’t kept pace: only 32% of corporate executives believe their organizations are even prepared to handle a deepfake incident targeting their own leadership.
And India is uniquely exposed. Nearly half of Indian adults — 47% — have either been a victim of, or personally know a victim of, an AI voice or deepfake scam, which is almost double the global average of 25%. With over 170 million retail demat account holders in the country, many of them first-time investors, the pool of potential victims is enormous.
Underneath all of it sits UPI — the very infrastructure that makes India’s digital economy work. In 2025, UPI processed 228.3 billion transactions worth ₹299.7 lakh crore. That speed and convenience is exactly what scammers exploit: money moves instantly and irreversibly, which means once it’s gone, it’s usually gone for good.
How to actually protect yourself
- No real financial institution or public figure promotes trading tips through WhatsApp or Telegram groups. BSE, SEBI, and genuine executives don’t run investment advisory channels on messaging apps — treat any that claim to be theirs as fraudulent by default.
- Assume any “celebrity investment endorsement” video is fake until proven otherwise. Verify through the official, verified channels of the exchange or the individual — not through a forwarded link.
- Never invest based on a WhatsApp or Telegram group promising guaranteed or unusually high returns.
- Check whether a platform or intermediary is actually SEBI-registered before transferring any money — SEBI’s own registered-intermediary list is public and searchable.
- If you’re asked to pay additional “taxes,” “fees,” or “security deposits” to withdraw money you supposedly already made — that is the clearest sign of a scam. Stop immediately.
- Report the moment something feels wrong. Call 1930 or file at cybercrime.gov.in — fast reporting is often the only way banks can freeze the receiving account before the money is layered away.
The bottom line
Digital arrest scams weaponize fear. Investment scams weaponize trust — in familiar faces, in the promise of easy wealth, and in platforms that look just real enough to pass a quick glance. As deepfake technology gets cheaper and more convincing, the line between a genuine market tip and a fabricated one is only going to get thinner. The only real defense left is treating every unsolicited investment “opportunity” — however credible the face behind it looks — with the same skepticism you’d give a stranger’s cold call.
Sources: BSE public advisories, SEBI warnings, Delhi High Court order in Ankur Warikoo v. John Doe, Enforcement Directorate press releases, Telangana Cyber Security Bureau case data, and media reporting from January–June 2026.