High reported severity Criminal Charges

Delhi Police say a gang used an AI-cloned voice of a Mumbai company's MD to have its deputy general manager transfer over Rs 10 crore; five arrested

Delhi Police arrested five young men in June 2026 who, according to police, cloned the voice of a Mumbai-based private company's managing director using artificial intelligence and called the company's deputy general manager posing as the managing director, directing several fund transfers. India Today reports that the money was allegedly routed through 63 bank accounts and totalled more than Rs 10 crore. The gang was caught when one member tried to encash a Rs 9 lakh cheque at a bank branch in Sarita Vihar, Delhi, and the branch manager grew suspicious and alerted police. Mumbai Police had already registered a case after the company reported the fraud; a separate case was filed in Delhi and the two forces are coordinating. The company and its executives are not named in the report.

AI system: Unidentified voice-cloning tool
Occurred: Event date unknown
Reported: 17 June 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 · Work

Evidence: AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account; 2 claims: 2 reported. 4 open questions
People reported harmed: Not reliably quantifiable from the sources

AI system as recorded: An AI voice clone of the managing director of a Mumbai-based private company, which police say the gang made with artificial intelligence and used in calls to the company's deputy general manager. No tool is named

What Happened

The calls. According to police, as reported by India Today on 17 June 2026, the gang cloned the managing director's voice with artificial intelligence and contacted the company's deputy general manager, posing as the senior executive and directing multiple transfers. The money was allegedly routed into 63 different bank accounts, amounting to over Rs 10 crore.

Arrests. One accused was detained at a bank branch in Sarita Vihar while trying to encash a Rs 9 lakh cheque after the bank manager alerted police; four associates were then arrested. The five are aged 21 to 28 according to the report. Their names are not repeated here.

Investigations. Mumbai Police registered a case after the company reported the fraud. A separate Delhi case was filed, and the two police forces are coordinating to trace the wider network. A Navbharat Times round-up of 8 October 2026 repeats the account, citing Moneycontrol.

What is not established. The dates of the calls and transfers, the number of calls, the tool used, and whether any money was recovered are not reported. The AI cloning is the police account; no recording or forensic finding is described.

Reported harm

According to Delhi Police as reported by India Today, the company lost more than Rs 10 crore in transfers that its deputy general manager made on instructions given in calls by a voice cloned with AI to sound like the managing director.

Outcome

Ongoing

Five men arrested by Delhi Police; Mumbai Police registered a case after the company's report and a separate case was filed in Delhi; the forces are coordinating (India Today, 17 June 2026). No charge sheet, recovery or trial is reported.

What remains unknown

The dates of the calls and transfers and the number of calls.
The tool used to clone the voice and how the police established that AI was used.
Whether any money was recovered, and whether charges have been filed.
The identity of the company; it is not named in the report.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. India Today reports that, according to police, the gang cloned the managing director's voice using artificial intelligence and contacted the deputy general manager posing as the managing director, directing multiple fund transfers that totalled over Rs 10 crore. The AI output is the cloned voice speaking to the deputy general manager (communicated_with) in the person of the managing director (depicted_or_impersonated), and the police account connects those calls to the transfers. The attribution rests on the police account relayed by one outlet; no recording or forensic finding is described.

2 claims: 2 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported According to police, the gang cloned the managing director's voice using AI, called the company's deputy general manager posing as the managing director and directed multiple fund transfers; the money was allegedly routed into 63 bank accounts and exceeded Rs 10 crore.

Causal attribution. Police account relayed by India Today; the Navbharat Times round-up repeats it second-hand.

indiatoday.in(opens in new tab) supports · English
'According to police, the gang cloned the MD's voice using Artificial Intelligence and contacted the company's DGM, posing as the senior executive and directing multiple fund transfers. The money was allegedly routed into 63 different bank accounts, amounting to over Rs 10 crore.'
navbharattimes.indiatimes.com(opens in new tab) supports · Hindi
'आरोप है कि गिरोह ने एआई आधारित वॉइस क्लोनिंग तकनीक का इस्तेमाल कर मुंबई की एक कंपनी के मैनेजिंग डायरेक्टर की आवाज की नकल की।'

Reported Delhi Police arrested five men after one tried to encash a Rs 9 lakh cheque at a Sarita Vihar bank branch and the branch manager alerted police; Mumbai Police had registered a case after the company reported the fraud, and a separate Delhi case was filed.

Causal attribution. As reported by India Today from the police account.

indiatoday.in(opens in new tab) supports · English
'The accused were intercepted while attempting to encash a cheque of Rs 9 lakh at a bank branch in Sarita Vihar after the bank manager grew suspicious and alerted police.'; 'Mumbai Police had already registered a case and initiated a probe after the private company reported the fraud. A separate case has also been filed in Delhi'

Sources

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

India Today, 17 June 2026: Delhi gang uses AI to clone Mumbai MD's voice, siphons Rs 10 crore from firm(opens in new tab)
s1 · indiatoday.in · News report · English · Inspected · 17 June 2026 · Shares an underlying account with another listed source · Primary
Navbharat Times (Hindi), 8 October 2026: round-up of five AI-enabled crime cases(opens in new tab)
s2 · navbharattimes.indiatimes.com · News report · Hindi · Inspected · Shares an underlying account with another listed source

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read in English by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-11; no translation needed. India Today, 17 June 2026 17:44 IST, HTTP 200, with inputs from a crime reporter; relays the Delhi Police account. Applies to s1.

Read in Hindi by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-11 and translated by it; Navbharat Times round-up of 8 October 2026, HTTP 200. It cites a Moneycontrol report and repeats the same police account, so it shares the India Today independence group and adds no independent support. Applies to s2.

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

The company is Mumbai-based, Mumbai Police registered the case, and the arrests were made in Delhi (Sarita Vihar bank branch); all in India. No court proceeding is reported.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-11: Published as a core impersonation case on the Delhi Police account reported by India Today: police say the gang cloned a Mumbai company managing director's voice with AI and used it in calls that led the deputy general manager to transfer over Rs 10 crore, and five men were arrested. The account has one origin; the accused are not named here.

People described

A Mumbai-based private company, whose deputy general manager made the transfers after calls in a voice imitating the managing director. Neither the company nor its executives are named in the report.

People reported harmed in this case

Not reliably quantifiable from the sources

The loss fell on the company; the report describes the deputy general manager as the person deceived but describes no personal loss or other harm to that person or anyone else, so no person count is given (zero placeholders).

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). Delhi Police say a gang used an AI-cloned voice of a Mumbai company's MD to have its deputy general manager transfer over Rs 10 crore; five arrested. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-mumbai-company-dgm-transferred-over-rs-10-crore-after-calls-in-ai-cloned-md-voice-delhi-police-say

BibTeX

@misc{2026_mumbai_company_dgm_transferred_over_rs_10_crore_after_calls_in_ai_cloned_md_voice_delhi_police_say,
  title = {Delhi Police say a gang used an AI-cloned voice of a Mumbai company's MD to have its deputy general manager transfer over Rs 10 crore; five arrested},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-mumbai-company-dgm-transferred-over-rs-10-crore-after-calls-in-ai-cloned-md-voice-delhi-police-say}
}

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.

High Unidentified voice-cloning tool

Khulna: a businessman paid Tk3.5 crore for old jute-mill machinery after WhatsApp calls in a voice presented as National Parliament Whip Raqibul Islam Bakul's, which the complaint and Khulna DB police describe as cloned with AI; four to five people arrested, the prime accused confessed

Khulna Gazette, the Daily Times of Bangladesh, Newsbangla24 and BD Today (all 29 September 2026) report from the first information report and Khulna Metropolitan Police Detective Branch (DB) statements that a businessman in Khulna city was joined on 29 July 2026 to a WhatsApp group call with a person introduced as National Parliament Whip Raqibul Islam Bakul, who discussed the sale of old machinery from Platinum Jute Mill and asked for advance payment. The businessman handed over Tk2 crore in cash that afternoon to men sent as representatives and a further Tk1.5 crore after inspecting the mill (30 July per Khulna Gazette and BD Today; 2 August per the Daily Times of Bangladesh and Newsbangla24), a total of Tk3.5 crore. When the businessman met the Whip in person in Khulna on 1 September, the Whip disclaimed any knowledge of it. The complaint filed on 18 September under the Cyber Security Act says the caller's voice had been changed with digital technology and artificial intelligence to pass as the Whip's; the DB deputy commissioner described the case to Asia Post as fraud by imitating the Whip's voice through AI. A press release from the Khulna city BNP media cell, sent on 4 September and published by Jaijaidin on 5 September, had already said a ring was using a US number and AI to clone the Whip's voice and demand money. Police arrested four people, recovered Tk12 lakh, and the prime accused gave a confessional statement before a magistrate on 28 September; on 29 September a court added two more detained men to the case. The voice-cloning tool is not identified and no forensic finding has been reported.

Medium Unidentified voice-cloning tool

Italy: Fideuram chairman Paolo Molesini is deceived by a WhatsApp impersonation of Intesa Sanpaolo's CEO and a phone call in the reportedly AI-cloned voice of a lawyer he knew into ordering about 95 million euros of transfers; at least 36 million remain missing and he resigned on 12 March 2026, weeks later

On 23 February 2026 Paolo Molesini, then chairman of Fideuram (the private-banking subsidiary of Intesa Sanpaolo), received a WhatsApp message from an unknown number from someone claiming to be Intesa's chief executive Carlo Messina, announcing a confidential acquisition that had to be executed through Fideuram. The same day a caller presenting as a lawyer of A&O Shearman whom Molesini knew, whose voice ANSA, Il Fatto Quotidiano and Corriere della Sera, reporting from the Milan court papers, describe as created with artificial intelligence (today.it, which also cites the seizure decree, writes that the court papers do not yet answer whether the voice was imitated), had him sign a confidentiality agreement and sent eleven payment instructions; Fideuram's treasury head was separately contacted by someone posing as Fideuram's CEO. Between 23 and 25 February eleven transfers totalling about 95 million euros went to accounts in Portugal and at Bank of China; the bank's alarm systems and the Milan prosecutors recovered about 40-42 million from China and 13 million seized in Portugal, leaving at least 36 million (39.5 million per the court papers) missing after conversion into cryptocurrency. Molesini, who Corriere writes is not under investigation, resigned as chairman on 12 March 2026, which Fideuram announced as being for personal reasons; a 48-year-old Israeli citizen is under investigation as a member of the gang.

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.

If you or someone you know is struggling, free and confidential support is available. Find a helpline near you at Signpost.

Back to all incidents