Hyderabad’s Cybercrime Police have summoned Meta, seeking a detailed accounting of how Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram detect and remove AI-generated deepfake videos being used to peddle fraudulent investment schemes. The move comes as complaints pile up from victims who say they lost substantial sums after being misled by fabricated videos showing well-known politicians and celebrities endorsing bogus trading platforms.
A Meta representative has already appeared before investigators, who laid out several cases in which victims collectively lost crores of rupees to fake advertisements and posts circulated on the company’s platforms. Police have now asked Meta to send its technical team to explain the safeguards it deploys to detect, monitor and prevent such content from spreading in the first place.
A Familiar Face, A Fabricated Endorsement
The investigation has uncovered deepfake videos of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, all doctored to appear as though they were endorsing fraudulent financial schemes. These clips were circulated widely on Facebook and WhatsApp, platforms with an enormous reach across Indian households.
Owaisi’s own complaint to Hyderabad Police in June, alleging that criminals had used his likeness without consent to promote an investment scheme, helped accelerate the probe. His case is far from an isolated one. Similar tactics have been used against other prominent figures, including Sachin Tendulkar, Ratan Tata and Mukesh Ambani, underscoring how borrowed credibility has become the fraudsters’ most effective tool.
The pattern, according to investigators, is strikingly consistent nationwide: a deepfake video builds initial trust, victims are steered towards WhatsApp or Telegram groups, small early “profits” appear on a fabricated dashboard, and losses only become apparent when withdrawal requests are met with demands for further payments disguised as taxes or fees. Government data placed before Parliament shows Indians lost roughly ₹22,495 crore to cybercrime in 2025, with investment fraud alone accounting for a substantial share of that figure, and recovery rates remaining extremely poor.
Big Tech Under the Scanner
The scrutiny of Meta follows an earlier case in which Cyberabad Police registered action against Google India’s nodal officer after a 58-year-old man lost ₹7.95 lakh through a fraudulent stock-trading application listed on the Google Play Store. Google’s executives and technical experts have similarly been asked to explain how such applications slip past the platform’s review processes.
Together, the two cases signal a shift in approach from Telangana’s cyber police, who are no longer treating platforms merely as neutral conduits for third-party content. Investigators say the aim is to establish whether social media and app-store operators have genuinely discharged their responsibility to prevent harm, rather than simply reacting once damage is done.
This scrutiny also arrives against the backdrop of the Union Government’s October 2025 amendments to the Information Technology Rules, which impose fresh obligations on large platforms to verify and label synthetically generated content, while linking their safe-harbour protection under Section 79 of the IT Act to good-faith efforts at removal. Legal experts have noted that the amended framework leaves platforms exposed if their detection systems fail to keep pace with rapidly evolving deepfake technology.
Expert Warning Over Growing Threat
Prof Triveni Singh, a cybercrime expert and former IPS officer, has described AI-powered deepfakes as among the most serious emerging threats in India’s cybercrime landscape. He noted that when criminals digitally recreate the face and voice of trusted leaders or celebrities, viewers are far less likely to question the content, making detection and rapid removal by platforms all the more critical.
He also urged the public to independently verify any investment opportunity through official channels before transferring money, given how convincingly such videos can now be constructed.
Police say their probe will extend beyond identifying the individuals running these scams to examining whether platforms such as Meta and Google have met their obligations under Indian law. Investigators believe closer cooperation with major technology companies will be essential to dismantling organised cyber fraud networks and improving online safety for millions of Indian users.
