Ghaziabad, 30 Nov (HS): A 76-year-old retired IPS official was threatened and harassed by fraudsters who used a deepfake image to intimidate and harass him. The police have opened an inquiry and have lodged a case.
Arvind Sharma, 76, was harassed for more than a month after purchasing an Android phone and creating a Facebook profile. According to authorities, Sharma received a video call on the app on October 20 and answered it, with a nude woman on the other end of the line. Sharma ended the call, but his problems began there, according to cops.
“Sharma was shown a modified image of himself with a nude woman. He later received a video call from a man who introduced himself as a senior police official from Dwarka and said he was made an accused in the woman’s suicide case,” said Kavi Nagar Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Abhishek Srivastav on Saturday.
Sharma became terrified and deposited ?24,000 in the accused’s account. He then borrowed ?50,000 and sent it as well. However, the extortionist sought additional money from him. The old man was pushed to the edge of suicide because he was afraid his name would be sullied and he couldn’t find any more money. Finally, he told his family, who contacted the police.
“We learned that a deepfake video of retired IPS officer Prem Prakash from UP was shown to the elderly as the senior officer from Dwarka. A case has been opened in connection with the incident, and investigations are underway,” added the ACP. Deepfakes are digitally changed material (audio or video) of people that make them appear to be someone else.
“It appears that the accused changed the audio and background voice in an old video of the officer (retired IPS). Close inspection reveals that the voice and lip movement do not match. The video may be described as altered or deepfake, according to the ACP. On November 21, the police filed a FIR and began an investigation based on the complaint.
The Ghaziabad Police Department has also written to Meta requesting help with the matter and has supplied the deepfake video for forensic analysis.
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