Medium reported severity Investigation Opened

Kanpur vegetable seller reportedly transferred Rs 1 lakh after a WhatsApp call in a voice like his nephew's; police say it prima facie involves deepfake AI

Amar Ujala (Kanpur, 10 April 2024) reports that a vegetable seller received a WhatsApp call on 27 March in which a person spoke in a voice resembling his nephew's, saying he had been picked up by police on his way to Kanpur; a second caller posing as a police sub-inspector said the nephew was named in a rape-and-murder case and demanded Rs 2 lakh. The seller transferred Rs 60,000 to one bank account and then, with Rs 40,000 borrowed from nearby shopkeepers, Rs 40,000 to a second account. When a voice note demanded another Rs 1 lakh he told the shopkeepers, phoned his brother-in-law and learned the call was a fraud. Police registered a case under the IT Act citing fraud and the use of deepfake AI, and the Central zone DCP is quoted saying the case prima facie appears connected with deepfake AI and the cyber cell is investigating. No recording or forensic finding is reported, so whether the voice was AI-generated or a human impersonation is not established.

AI system: Unidentified voice-cloning tool (suspected)
Occurred: 27 Mar 2024
Reported: 10 April 2024
Event location: India

What the AI did: Depicted or impersonated the person · Communicated with the person
Reported harm: Financial Loss

Whose AI use: Someone else’s AI use
Setting: Finance · Everyday life

Evidence: AI involvement suspected · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source; 3 claims: 3 reported. 6 open questions
People reported harmed: 1 person

AI system as recorded: Voice on a WhatsApp call that resembled the seller's nephew's, which Amar Ujala and a quoted police officer describe as deepfake AI (prima facie); no tool or recording identified

What Happened

The call. According to Amar Ujala, on 27 March a vegetable seller who keeps a stall in Kanpur was made to speak on a WhatsApp call with a person whose voice resembled that of his nephew, who lives in Gurugram. The caller said he had been coming to Kanpur but had been picked up by police on the way. Because the voice matched the nephew's, the seller believed it. A second man then took the phone, introduced himself as a police sub-inspector posted at a Kanpur station and said that four people had been arrested over the rape and murder of a young woman and that the nephew was among those named; he demanded Rs 2 lakh to let him go. The WhatsApp account's display picture showed a man in uniform; it was changed after the fraud.

The transfers. The seller, in a panic, transferred Rs 60,000 to the bank account he was given, then borrowed Rs 40,000 from nearby shopkeepers and transferred it to a second account. When the callers sent a voice note demanding another Rs 1 lakh, he told the shopkeepers what had happened; on their advice he phoned his brother-in-law in Gurugram and learned that the call was a fraud.

Police. Swaroop Nagar police registered a case under the IT Act for fraud and the use of deepfake AI and began investigating with the cyber cell. The DCP for the Central zone is quoted saying the case is on record, that it prima facie appears connected with deepfake AI and that a team is investigating. The article's own explainer describes deepfake AI as audio, video or images made with artificial intelligence that resemble a real person.

Limits. The report is a single local account built on the seller's statement and the police response. No recording of the call, forensic analysis, bank record or police document was inspected. Whether the voice was produced with an AI tool or by a human impersonator, and whether any money was recovered, is not established. The nephew's supposed arrest was the fraud's pretext and is not treated as an event.

Reported harm

The seller reportedly transferred Rs 1 lakh (Rs 60,000 and then Rs 40,000 borrowed from nearby shopkeepers) to two bank accounts, per Amar Ujala; recovery is not reported.

How Harm Occurred

A WhatsApp caller spoke in a voice the seller recognised as his nephew's, which the outlet and police describe as a deepfake AI voice (prima facie). The impersonated voice, combined with a second caller posing as a police officer and a uniformed display picture, led the seller to transfer Rs 1 lakh, part of it borrowed, before the fraud was discovered.

Outcome

Unknown

Swaroop Nagar police registered a case under the IT Act for fraud and the use of deepfake AI and the cyber cell began investigating (Amar Ujala, 10 April 2024). No later development was researched.

What remains unknown

Whether the voice was generated with an AI tool or produced by a human impersonator; no recording, forensic analysis or tool is reported, and the police assessment is preliminary.
Whether any of the Rs 1 lakh was recovered and the final loss.
The outcome of the police investigation after April 2024; nothing later was researched.
The event year is taken from the article’s own date (10 April 2024); the text states only 27 March.
How the callers obtained a sample of the nephew’s voice, if one was used; the article does not say.
An ETV Bharat item of 10 April 2024 on the same case appears in Google News but could not be retrieved and was not read.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: suspected. Amar Ujala reports that the fraudsters made the seller speak on a WhatsApp call with a person in a voice that resembled his nephew's and that this is why he believed the story and transferred the money; the outlet describes the call as made with the help of deepfake AI, police registered the case citing the use of deepfake AI, and the Central zone DCP is quoted saying the case prima facie appears connected with deepfake AI. If the voice was AI-generated, the system impersonated the nephew toward the seller (depicted_or_impersonated) and was the voice that spoke to him (communicated_with), and it is what persuaded him to pay. No recording, forensic analysis or tool is identified, and the police assessment is expressly preliminary, so the status is suspected.

3 claims: 3 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported On 27 March the seller received a WhatsApp call in which a person spoke in a voice resembling his nephew's, saying he had been picked up by police, and a second caller posing as a police sub-inspector said the nephew was named in a rape-and-murder case and demanded Rs 2 lakh; the seller believed it because the voice matched his nephew's.

Causal attribution. The seller's account as reported by Amar Ujala; single source, attributed. The call content is his recollection.

amarujala.com(opens in new tab) supports · Hindi
'27 मार्च को व्हाट्सएप पर'; 'बताया कि वह कानपुर आ रहा था, लेकिन रास्ते में पुलिस ने पकड़ लिया'; 'चूंकि आवाज भतीजे की आवाज से मिलती जुलती थी, इसलिए उन्हें यकीन हो गया। इस बीच दूसरे युवक ने फोन लेते हुए परिचय दरोगा'; 'चार लोग पकड़े गए हैं और आपके भतीजे का भी नाम है'; 'बचने के लिए दो लाख रुपये दे दो'

Reported The seller transferred Rs 60,000 to the bank account he was given and then Rs 40,000, borrowed from nearby shopkeepers, to a second account; when a voice note demanded a further Rs 1 lakh he told the shopkeepers, phoned his brother-in-law and learned it was a fraud.

Causal attribution. The transfers are reported from the seller's account; no bank record was inspected. The loss is connected to the impersonating call by his own account.

amarujala.com(opens in new tab) supports · Hindi
'हड़बड़ाहट में 60 हजार रुपये बताए गए बैंक खाते में ट्रांसफर कर दिए। इसके बाद आसपास के दुकानदारों से उधार लेकर 40 हजार रुपये दूसरे बैंक खाते में ट्रांसफर किए। फिर एक वाइस नोट भेजकर साइबर ठगों ने एक लाख रुपये और मांगे गए'

Reported Police registered a case under the IT Act for fraud and the use of deepfake AI and began investigating with the cyber cell, and the Central zone DCP is quoted saying the case prima facie appears connected with deepfake AI.

Causal attribution. The registration and the DCP's quoted assessment are reported by Amar Ujala; no FIR was inspected. The police assessment is expressly prima facie and does not establish that the voice was AI-generated.

amarujala.com(opens in new tab) supports · Hindi
'स्वरूपनगर पुलिस ने धोखाधड़ी व डीपफेक एआई के इस्तेमाल पर आईटी एक्ट की धारा में केस दर्ज कर मामले की जांच शुरू कर दी है'; 'प्रथम दृष्टया मामला डीपफेक एआई से जुड़ा हुआ प्रतीत हो रहा है। टीम जांच में लगी हुई है'

Sources

1 source inspected. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

Amar Ujala, 10 April 2024: deepfake AI used for the first time to cheat in Kanpur, uncle told in nephew’s voice to save him (Hindi)(opens in new tab)
s1 · amarujala.com · Local reporting · Hindi · Inspected · 10 April 2024 · Primary

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read in Hindi on 2026-10-07 (HTTP 200; dated 10 April 2024, Amar Ujala Kanpur news desk). English renderings in this record are the research agent’s (an AI’s) own translations; no human translator reviewed them. Applies to s1.

Event countries: India. Affected-person countries: India. Court countries: Unknown.

Amar Ujala places the seller’s stall and the police station that registered the case in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India, and the calls were received there. No court proceeding is reported.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-07: Published as a core case with AI involvement recorded as suspected: a Kanpur daily reports from the seller's account and the police response that a WhatsApp caller spoke in a voice resembling his nephew's, that this persuaded him to transfer Rs 1 lakh, that police registered the case citing deepfake AI and that the DCP calls the AI connection prima facie. The relations depicted_or_impersonated and communicated_with rest on the reported impersonating voice spoken to the seller. The seller, nephew and the scam's police persona are not named in this record. Single source; no recording or forensic finding.

People described

One vegetable seller in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India, named in the report and not here.

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

0 AI participants · 1 other person harmed

One person, the seller who transferred the money (Amar Ujala). The nephew whose voice was imitated and the shopkeepers who lent money are not reported as harmed and are not counted. Exact 1.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Kanpur vegetable seller reportedly transferred Rs 1 lakh after a WhatsApp call in a voice like his nephew's; police say it prima facie involves deepfake AI. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2024-kanpur-alleged-ai-voice-impersonation-fraud

BibTeX

@misc{2024_kanpur_alleged_ai_voice_impersonation_fraud,
  title = {Kanpur vegetable seller reportedly transferred Rs 1 lakh after a WhatsApp call in a voice like his nephew's; police say it prima facie involves deepfake AI},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2024-kanpur-alleged-ai-voice-impersonation-fraud}
}

Bhopal: a security guard lost about Rs 35,000 to a caller whose voice sounded like a friend, reported as a suspected AI voice-cloning fraud

Free Press Journal reported on 4 October 2026 that a 50-year-old security guard from the TT Nagar area of Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, was cheated of nearly Rs 35,000 after a caller impersonated a friend by mimicking the friend's voice. According to the report, the call came on 30 September from an unidentified person who claimed to need money urgently and sent a QR code. The guard made three transfers (Rs 5,000, Rs 10,000 and Rs 20,000), then reached the friend on the friend's own number and learned that the friend had not called. The outlet calls it a suspected case of AI-enabled fraud with a suspected AI-cloned voice. TT Nagar police registered a case and opened an investigation. No source confirms that the voice was AI-generated.

Medium Unidentified voice-cloning tool (suspected)

Indore play school operator reports losing Rs 97,500 after a call in a voice matching a relative's that police preliminarily attribute to AI voice cloning

The New Indian Express (9 January 2026) reported that a woman who runs a small play school in Indore said that on the night of 6 January a call came from an unknown number close to a cousin's number, in a voice that sounded exactly like the cousin's. The caller said a close friend needed urgent cardiac surgery at a private hospital in Indore and asked for money to be forwarded to a QR code. A total of Rs 97,500 was sent in four transactions. None of the money the caller had said was being credited arrived, the cousin denied making the call, and the calling number has been switched off. An Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) in Indore said preliminary investigations strongly suggest AI-based voice modulation technology was used. The Free Press Journal, The420 and Malwa Abhi Tak reported the same call. All four outlets appear to rest on the woman's account and police statements, no audio analysis or AI tool is reported, and the police case against unidentified persons was described as ongoing.

Medium Unidentified voice-cloning tool

Picos, Piauí, Brazil: a digital influencer lost more than R$56,000 when fraudsters sent him audio messages in his uncle's AI-cloned voice 'confirming' a car he was buying in Fortaleza

On Monday 10 August 2026 a digital influencer from Picos, in the centre-south of Piauí, began negotiating a car advertised online for sale in Fortaleza (Ceará), where an uncle of his lives, and asked the sellers to take the car to the uncle so he could inspect it. On Tuesday 11 August a contact using a different number but the uncle's photo sent him audio messages in a voice identical to his uncle's, generated with artificial intelligence, saying the car was in good condition and telling him to make the bank transfer. Believing he was speaking to his uncle, he transferred the money; when he then called the uncle's real number he learned he had been defrauded. The loss exceeded R$56,000, money he says he had saved for years. He registered a police report on 11 August; the Piauí property-crimes unit (Depatri) is investigating and he is seeking a refund from the banks. The account is the victim's own, reported by G1 Piauí on 13 August 2026 from his social-media posts and an interview; the police unit did not respond to G1 before publication.

Low Unidentified voice-cloning tool

Natore, Bangladesh: callers told a health-complex employee that his son had been arrested with drugs, then used an AI-cloned copy of the son's voice to win his trust and took Tk 40,000; two men were arrested in Gaibandha in September 2026

According to a press release from Special Response Battalion-13 (SRB-13), relayed by Ajker Patrika, DBC News and NTV, on 20 July 2026 a man who works at the Natore Sadar upazila health complex received a call saying that his younger son had been arrested by police with drugs. The callers then used AI to imitate the son's voice so that the father believed the story, and demanded money to get the son released. He sent a total of Tk 40,000 in two payments through the mobile financial service Nagad, and realised it was a fraud when he reached his son directly. He filed a fraud case at Natore Sadar police station on 25 September 2026. That evening SRB-13 arrested two men, described as the ring's leader and an associate, at their homes in Gobindaganj, Gaibandha, seizing nine mobile phones, a passport and Tk 14,100 in cash; SRB says they admitted involvement during initial questioning and handed them to the police for further legal action, and NTV reports they were sent to Gaibandha district jail through the court on 26 September.

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