Mumbai Cyber Cell Arrests Four In Chinese Share Market Scam Using Deepfake Videos Of Indian Business Anchors

Mumbai: The Western Cyber Cell has arrested four persons for allegedly giving Chinese share market scammers access to their social media accounts. The fraudsters created deep fake videos of Indian news anchors from business channels and share market experts, uploading them on these social media platforms to lure people into investing in the share market, eventually cheating them.

Four Educated Professionals Held in Scam

Three persons were arrested from Bengaluru on October 9, and one from Thane on October 16. All four hold degrees such as MTech, MBA, and Engineering. The court has remanded them in police custody till October 20.

The cyber police said Prakash Gaba, 73, a SEBI-registered research analyst, filed the complaint, and the case was registered on September 29. The probe revealed that an advertisement account belonged to a woman in Assam. She was working with a Bengaluru-based digital company, Valueleaf, and had left the job in 2024; however, her account continued to be operated.

Senior police inspector Suvarna Shinde said, “The four accused were associated with Value leaf, which had provided social media access to fraudsters for advertisements for Rs3 crore, even after being aware that these advertisements were being used to deceive people.”

Meta Flags Suspicious Scam Ads, Accused Expand Accounts

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Mumbai Cyber) Purushottam Karad said, “The advertisements began on July 1. Within seven days, Meta (which runs Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) flagged these as suspicious (yellow flag) after a complainant reported them. In response, the accused increased their accounts from 18 to 38 and continued to advertise aggressively. On July 18, Meta closed those accounts based on complaints. The accused then ran the ads through another company based in Dubai. The terminology ‘No Eye Gaming Black Hat Campaign’ was found to be associated with the scam.”

The accused have been identified as Gigil Sebastian, 44, a Bengaluru resident and account head (BCom); Deepayan Banerjee, 30, a Meta coordinator from Bengaluru, BTech; Chandrashekhar Naik, 42, a Thane resident and sales team head (BTech); and Danial Arumugham, 25, from Bengaluru (MBA). Under the supervision of Suvarna Shinde, a team travelled to Bengaluru and arrested the accused.

Mumbai Cyber Police Bust First Share Market Scam Gang

DCP Karad further said, “This is the first share market scam gang to be busted in the country, which will help uncover other share market scams. So far this year, the cyber police have received 640 complaints related to share trading scams, with losses amounting to Rs400 crore. We appeal to citizens not to fall for such online advertisements and to avoid losing their hard-earned money. If anyone notices such advertisements, please contact 1930 or approach the nearest police station.”

He added, “Normally, when anyone invests in the share market, the money is transferred from their personal bank account to their Demat account. However, in these scams, victims transferred money to various unrelated accounts."

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