Kerala Cyber Police thwart fraud attempt by 'gang' using AI

Thiruvananthapuram, July 17 (IANS) In a swift move, the Cyber wing of the Kerala Police successfully prevented a cyber fraud and stopped the payment made online by a Kozhikode-based senior citizen to his ‘friend’ who appeared on a WhatsApp video call stating that he was stuck and needed money.

Senior police official K.E. Baiju, investigating the case on Monday, told the media that there is a large gang who is operating using AI.

"Through our quick action, we have been able to stop the payment made by the Kozhikode resident who got duped when he saw his friend on WhatsApp video call. Even though he transferred the money, we have now been able to track down the payment and a stop payment instruction has gone to the bank and his money is safe," said Baiju.

"There is a big gang involved in this and they use an app called 'Deep Faith' to hack the social media accounts of their victims and using AI creates this to deceive people like what happened to the victim from Kozhikode. We have identified the account to which the transfer was made and the payment has been stopped. Once we give the full report to the bank, the bank will release the money to the victim,” Baiju added.

The senior citizen, who retired from Coal India Limited, received a few calls from an unknown number but he did not pick up. Later, he received a WhatsApp message from the same number which said it was his former colleague from Andhra Pradesh, presently in Dubai.

After this, the Kohzikode resident called his friend and they spoke, later a WhatsApp video call came and he was convinced that it was his friend who asked for Rs 40,000 from him and soon transferred the money.

But soon came another call asking for another Rs 35,000 and before sending the money, he felt something fishy and said he will do it soon and disconnected the call.

Later, he took the number of his friend from his phone that he calls at times and called.

To his surprise, when asked about the money, both were startled and both realised that it was fake.

Later, the complaint was made and the National Cyber Crime division stepped in and handed over the complaint to the Kozhikode Cyber Police, which acted swiftly and the victim was able to breathe easy when he was told that his money was safe.

The police on Monday called the victim Baiju to inform him about the progress in the case.

"The probe is underway and my mobile phone has been sent for further scientific probe. The lesson is be wary of calls that come from unknown numbers," Baiju added.