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Medium reported severity Investigation Opened

Bengaluru: a security guard says a WhatsApp video call in which an alleged deepfake 'Chief Minister Vijay' offered him financial aid led to fake 'processing' charges and a fake CBI fine, and he lost more than Rs 1.04 lakh; Byappanahalli police register an IT Act case (September 2026)

A security guard in Bengaluru, originally from Odisha, told the Times of India that on 9 September 2026 he answered a WhatsApp video call in which a face and voice presented as Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay introduced himself in Hindi, asked his name, work and where he lived and pressed him to accept financial help. A 'manager' then promised Rs 11 lakh, said Rs 5 lakh had been allotted to him and asked for a Rs 5,000 exchange charge, then Rs 18,000 to unlock a supposedly locked PIN; a caller posing as a CBI officer demanded more than Rs 50,000 as a fine. The fraudsters sent a fake allotment letter and a purported CBI officer's identity proof. He paid more than Rs 1.04 lakh through a digital payment app before refusing a further Rs 50,000 demand, called the 1930 cybercrime helpline and went to Byappanahalli police, who registered a case under the Information Technology Act. The Times of India says the fraudster allegedly used a deepfake AI-generated video and calls it the first such case reported in the city. No arrest is reported, and no link to the Tamil Nadu CB-CID deepfake case or its Alwar arrest has been established.

AI system
Unidentified video tool
Occurred
9 Sept 2026
Reported
13 September 2026
Event location
India
What the AI did
Communicated with the person
Reported harm
Financial Loss
Whose AI use
Someone else’s AI use
Setting
Finance · Everyday life
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account
4 claims: 4 reported. 5 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

AI system as recorded: An alleged deepfake AI-generated video likeness and voice of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Vijay shown in a WhatsApp video call (Times of India); the tool and whether the call was live or pre-recorded are not reported

What Happened

The Times of India (Bengaluru, 13 September 2026, updated 14 September) reports the complainant's own account. On 9 September he received a WhatsApp video call; the face and voice on screen presented as Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and actor C. Joseph Vijay, introduced himself in Hindi, asked his name, profession and where he lived, and offered financial help from Vijay's personal account. He says he refused, but the person on the call repeatedly urged him to accept, saying he was helping many people, and told him a manager would contact him. The 'manager' offered Rs 11 lakh, to be transferred from Vijay's foreign account in dollars, and later said Rs 5 lakh had been allotted to him. He was asked to pay Rs 5,000 as exchange charges, then told his PIN was locked and that Rs 18,000 was needed to release it, and that he would lose the first payment if he refused. A man claiming to be 'Thakur' from the Central Bureau of Investigation then demanded more than Rs 50,000 as a fine; fearing the loss of what he had already paid, he transferred the money. The fraudsters sent a letter saying Rs 5 lakh had been allotted to him and identity proof purportedly belonging to a CBI officer. He made payments totalling more than Rs 1.04 lakh through a digital payment app, refused a further Rs 50,000 demand and realised he had been duped. He called the 1930 helpline and then Byappanahalli police, who registered a case under the IT Act; a senior officer urged people not to believe such calls. The Times of India states that the fraudster allegedly used a deepfake AI-generated video and describes this as the first such case reported in the city. CNBC TV18 (16 September) retells the same account, placing it alongside the Tamil Nadu CB-CID investigation into Hindi-language deepfake videos of Vijay, and states that the available information does not establish that the man arrested in Alwar was involved in the Bengaluru fraud. The two outlets give different ages for the complainant (29 and 39). No forensic finding about the video is reported.

Reported harm

The complainant says he lost more than Rs 1.04 lakh after a WhatsApp video call with an alleged deepfake of the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister led to staged fee and fake CBI-fine demands (his account to the Times of India and his police complaint).

Outcome

Ongoing

After calling the national cybercrime helpline 1930, the man approached Byappanahalli police, who registered a case under the Information Technology Act (Times of India, 13 September 2026). No arrest, recovery of money or identification of the callers is reported. CNBC TV18 notes that the Tamil Nadu CB-CID's 12 September arrest of an Alwar man over Vijay deepfake videos has not been shown to be connected to this fraud.

What remains unknown

  • Whether the video was a live face-swap or pre-recorded clips, which tool was used, and whether police have examined it.
  • Who made the calls and from where; no arrest is reported.
  • Whether this fraud is connected to the Facebook deepfake videos investigated by the Tamil Nadu CB-CID.
  • The exact dates of the individual payments after 9 September.
  • The complainant's age (TOI says 29, CNBC TV18 says 39).

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The Times of India reports that the fraudster allegedly used a deepfake AI-generated video of the Chief Minister in the WhatsApp video call; the complainant describes a face and voice presenting as Vijay that spoke to him in Hindi and asked him questions. The AI attribution is the complainant's and the newspaper's; no police or forensic finding on the video, the tool used, or whether the call was live or pre-recorded is reported. The synthetic likeness depicted the Chief Minister, not the complainant, and was used to speak to and question the complainant in the video call; the relation is recorded as communicated_with.

4 claims: 4 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported On 9 September 2026 a Bengaluru security guard received a WhatsApp video call in which a face and voice presented as Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay introduced himself in Hindi and offered him financial aid; the Times of India reports that the fraudster allegedly used a deepfake AI-generated video.

Causal attribution. Complainant's account and TOI's description; CNBC TV18 repeats it. No forensic or police finding on the video is reported.

  • timesofindia.indiatimes.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'a voice and face appearing on a WhatsApp video call allegedly convinced a 29-year-old security guard that he was speaking to Tamil Nadu chief minister and actor C Joseph Vijay'; 'a fraudster allegedly used a deepfake AI-generated video'; 'he received a WhatsApp video call from the number'; 'on Sept 9'; 'After introducing himself as CM Vijay in Hindi'; 'I was offered financial help from Vijay’s personal account'
  • cnbctv18.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'the familiar face speaking to him was allegedly an AI-generated deepfake'
Reported After the call, a 'manager' promised Rs 11 lakh and demanded exchange and PIN-unlock charges, and a man posing as a CBI officer demanded more than Rs 50,000 as a fine; the complainant paid more than Rs 1.04 lakh through a digital payment app before refusing a further Rs 50,000 demand.

Causal attribution. The complainant's first-person account to TOI. The loss followed the video call; the later demands came from human callers posing as a manager and a CBI officer.

  • timesofindia.indiatimes.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'The manager offered Rs 11 lakh in aid'; 'was asked to pay Rs 5,000 as exchange charges'; 'he needed to pay Rs 18,000 to release it'; 'claiming to be Thakur from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) contacted me and demanded over Rs 50,000 as a fine imposed by the agency'; 'I made a few more payments totalling over Rs 1.04 lakh through a digital payment app'; 'When the fraudsters demanded another Rs 50,000, I refused and realised I had been duped'
Reported The complainant called the 1930 cybercrime helpline and went to Byappanahalli police, who registered a case under the Information Technology Act; TOI calls it the first such case reported in the city.

Causal attribution. As reported by TOI; the FIR itself was not read.

Reported The available information does not establish that the man arrested in Alwar in the Tamil Nadu CB-CID deepfake investigation was involved in the Bengaluru fraud.

Causal attribution. CNBC TV18's own statement; supports recording this as a separate case from 2026-tamil-nadu-cm-vijay-deepfake-financial-aid-fraud.

  • cnbctv18.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'The available information, however, does not establish that the person arrested in Rajasthan was directly involved in the fraud reported by Giri in Bengaluru.'

Sources

2 sources inspected, from 1 underlying account. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read live in English on 2026-09-28 (Times of India, Bengaluru, byline H M Chaithanya Swamy, published 13 September 2026 22:57 IST, modified 14 September). The complainant's account given to TOI and to police; a senior officer quoted. Applies to s1.

Read live in English on 2026-09-28 (CNBC TV18, 16 September 2026). Retells the TOI account without new sourcing (same chain); gives the complainant's age as 39 where TOI says 29. Adds context on the Tamil Nadu CB-CID case and the statement that no link to the Alwar accused is established. Applies to s2.

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

The complainant lives and works in Bengaluru and reported to Byappanahalli police in Bengaluru (Times of India). Where the callers were located is not reported. No court proceeding is reported, so court_countries is empty.

Reviewed for publication 2026-09-28: Published under the 2026-09-15 charter as a core case: an alleged deepfake of a public figure communicated with the complainant in a WhatsApp video call, and he reports a loss of more than Rs 1.04 lakh with a police case registered. One reporting chain (TOI, retold by CNBC TV18); the AI attribution is reported, not forensically established. The complainant is not named.

People described

A security guard in Bengaluru, a native of Odisha who has worked in the city for about 20 years (not named here; the Times of India gives his age as 29, CNBC TV18 as 39)

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

1 AI participant · 0 other people harmed

One person, the Bengaluru complainant who says he paid more than Rs 1.04 lakh after the video call (Times of India). Chief Minister Vijay, whose likeness was allegedly faked, is not counted as a harmed person here. Exact 1.

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

Tags

#deepfake#public-figure-impersonation#video-call#whatsapp#fraud#fake-cbi-officer#india#karnataka#bengaluru#tamil-nadu-cm-vijay

Cite this case

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

APA

NOPE. (2026). Bengaluru: a security guard says a WhatsApp video call in which an alleged deepfake 'Chief Minister Vijay' offered him financial aid led to fake 'processing' charges and a fake CBI fine, and he lost more than Rs 1.04 lakh; Byappanahalli police register an IT Act case (September 2026). AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-bengaluru-byappanahalli-cm-vijay-deepfake-whatsapp-video-call-aid-fraud

BibTeX

@misc{2026_bengaluru_byappanahalli_cm_vijay_deepfake_whatsapp_video_call_aid_fraud,
  title = {Bengaluru: a security guard says a WhatsApp video call in which an alleged deepfake 'Chief Minister Vijay' offered him financial aid led to fake 'processing' charges and a fake CBI fine, and he lost more than Rs 1.04 lakh; Byappanahalli police register an IT Act case (September 2026)},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-bengaluru-byappanahalli-cm-vijay-deepfake-whatsapp-video-call-aid-fraud}
}

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