Low reported severity Investigation Opened

Kolkata: a 67-year-old man transferred Rs 95,990 after a call in a voice matching an acquaintance; the Times of India reports it as an AI voice-cloning scam

A 67-year-old man from the Beleghata area of Kolkata was cheated of Rs 95,990, according to a Times of India report of 19 August 2026, after a call from an unknown number in a voice that sounded exactly like an acquaintance of his. The caller said a relative had been admitted to a private hospital and needed urgent money for treatment; believing the voice, the man made several online bank transfers within less than an hour. When he later contacted the real acquaintance, that person said he had made no call and asked for no money. The man filed a complaint at Beleghata police station, and police are checking the phone number, call records and bank accounts used. The newspaper describes the scammers as having used AI voice-cloning technology; no police finding, recording or tool is described, so the AI involvement is recorded as suspected.

AI system: Unidentified voice-cloning tool (suspected)
Occurred: Event date unknown
Reported: 19 August 2026
Event location: India

What the AI did: Communicated with the person · Depicted or impersonated 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. 4 open questions
People reported harmed: 1 person

AI system as recorded: AI voice-cloning technology, as the Times of India describes the scammers' method; the call came from an unknown number in a voice that "sounded exactly like" the victim's acquaintance. No tool is named and the characterisation is the newspaper's

What Happened

The call and the transfers. The Times of India (19 August 2026) reports that the victim received a call from an unknown number; the caller sounded exactly like an acquaintance of his and claimed that a relative had been admitted to a private hospital and needed urgent money for treatment. Believing the voice was real, he made several online bank transfers within less than an hour, totalling Rs 95,990. Later he contacted the real acquaintance, who said he had not made any call or asked for money.

Complaint and investigation. The man filed a complaint at Beleghata police station; police have started an investigation and are checking the phone number, call records and bank accounts used in the fraud. The report adds that cyber experts have warned people about AI voice scams and that police advise confirming any urgent money request by calling the person on a known number.

What is and is not established. The report's opening sentence attributes the fraud to scammers using AI voice-cloning technology, but it quotes no police officer, examiner or recording to that effect; the only described evidence of the method is that the voice sounded exactly like the acquaintance. The acquaintance's first name given in the report is not repeated here. No tool is named and the date of the call is not given.

Reported harm

According to the Times of India, the man lost Rs 95,990 in several online transfers made within less than an hour after a call in a voice resembling an acquaintance; a complaint was filed at Beleghata police station.

Outcome

Ongoing

A complaint was filed at Beleghata police station and police are checking the phone number, call records and bank accounts used, according to the Times of India. No arrest, recovery or further development is reported.

What remains unknown

Whether the voice was produced with an AI tool or by a human imitator; the AI attribution is the newspaper's and no police finding, recording or tool is described.
The date of the call and the transfers; the report of 19 August 2026 gives none.
Whether any money was recovered or anyone identified; the investigation is described only as started.
Any corroborating account: no police statement or second outlet was located.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: suspected. The Times of India states that the man was cheated "by scammers using AI voice-cloning technology" and describes the caller's voice as sounding exactly like his acquaintance, who later said he had made no call. The described output toward the man is a voice imitating a specific acquaintance in a call asking for money (communicated_with and depicted_or_impersonated), and the report connects that call to his transfers of Rs 95,990. The AI characterisation is the newspaper's own; no police officer, examiner, recording or tool is cited for it, so the status is suspected and the label carries that qualifier. Whether the voice was produced by AI or by a human imitator is not established.

3 claims: 3 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported A 67-year-old man from Beleghata, Kolkata, received a call from an unknown number in a voice that sounded exactly like an acquaintance, who claimed a relative needed urgent hospital money; he made several online transfers within less than an hour totalling Rs 95,990, and the real acquaintance later said he had made no call.

Causal attribution. Single newspaper report; the victim and the acquaintance are not quoted directly and no police statement on the facts is quoted.

timesofindia.indiatimes.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
'A 67-year-old man from Beleghata was cheated of Rs 95,990'; 'The caller sounded exactly like his acquaintance'; 'claimed that a relative had been admitted to a private hospital and needed urgent money for treatment.Believing the voice was real, the victim made several online bank transfers within less than an hour'; 'who said he had not made any call or asked for money'

Reported The Times of India attributes the fraud to scammers using AI voice-cloning technology; no police finding, recording or tool is described.

Causal attribution. The newspaper's own characterisation of the method; recorded as the basis for a suspected AI involvement, not as an established fact.

timesofindia.indiatimes.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
'cheated of Rs 95,990 by scammers using AI voice-cloning technology'

Reported The man filed a complaint at Beleghata police station; police have started an investigation and are checking the phone number, call records and bank accounts used.

Causal attribution. As reported by the Times of India; no police statement was inspected.

timesofindia.indiatimes.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
'The victim then filed a complaint at Beleghata PS. Cops have started an investigation and are checking the phone number, call records, and bank accounts used in the fraud'

Sources

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

The Times of India (Kolkata), 19 August 2026: man loses Rs 95K to AI voice scam(opens in new tab)
s1 · timesofindia.indiatimes.com · News report · English · Inspected · 19 August 2026 · Primary

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read in English by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-10; no translation needed. The Times of India, Kolkata city desk, 19 August 2026 00:19 IST, HTTP 200; a short single-reporter item. Its account of the police investigation is attributed to the police only in general terms ("Cops have started an investigation"). Applies to s1.

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

The report is datelined Kolkata, places the man in Beleghata and says the complaint was filed at Beleghata police station; the transfers were made by him there. No court proceeding is reported.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-10: Published as a core case on a single attributed newspaper report: the Times of India says a 67-year-old Kolkata man transferred Rs 95,990 after a call in a voice sounding exactly like an acquaintance, that the acquaintance made no such call, and that a complaint was filed; the newspaper's attribution of the voice to AI voice cloning is recorded as suspected because no police finding or tool is described. The victim is unnamed in the report and the acquaintance's first name is omitted here.

People described

A 67-year-old man from the Beleghata area of Kolkata who transferred Rs 95,990 after a call in a voice matching an acquaintance. He is not named in the report; the acquaintance's first name given in the report is omitted here.

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

0 AI participants · 1 other person harmed

One person: the report describes a single victim ("A 67-year-old man from Beleghata was cheated of Rs 95,990"). He received the call rather than operating any tool, so he is counted as another person harmed (participant_users_affected_min 0).

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). Kolkata: a 67-year-old man transferred Rs 95,990 after a call in a voice matching an acquaintance; the Times of India reports it as an AI voice-cloning scam. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-kolkata-man-transferred-rs-95990-after-call-in-acquaintances-voice-reported-ai-voice-cloning-scam

BibTeX

@misc{2026_kolkata_man_transferred_rs_95990_after_call_in_acquaintances_voice_reported_ai_voice_cloning_scam,
  title = {Kolkata: a 67-year-old man transferred Rs 95,990 after a call in a voice matching an acquaintance; the Times of India reports it as an AI voice-cloning scam},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-kolkata-man-transferred-rs-95990-after-call-in-acquaintances-voice-reported-ai-voice-cloning-scam}
}

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 (suspected)

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.

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.

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