People in Karnataka have lost more than Rs 2 crore in recent months after being duped by an AI-generated video of Donald Trump. A video of the US President seeking investments for Trump Hotel rentals had convinced around 200 people convinced to part with their money in the hopes of ‘quick and rich rewards’.
According to the police, the fraudsters had initially asked users to pay Rs 1500 to set up accounts. They were offered lucrative returns and work-from-home opportunities before being assigned tasks such as writing company profiles. Each completed task appeared to increase their ‘earnings’ on the app dashboard — but the money never materialised. Officials said that a majority of these cases were reported from Bengaluru, Tumakuru, Mangaluru, and Haveri.
A 38-year-old advocate told Indian Express that he had deposited Rs 5,93,240 between January 25 and April 4 this year. He had first come across the scam through a YouTube video seeking investments in the Donald Trump Hotel. He was asked to pay
“Upon clicking the link, it directed me to download a mobile application. I was asked to fill out a form, which I did. It also asked me to add bank account details and IFSC code. I was paid Rs 30 every day, and I could only withdraw it after it crossed Rs 300. As the money was being paid on time, and I was able to withdraw it, they started asking me to invest more. It started with Rs 5,000 and ended at Rs 1,00,000. Finally, they asked me to pay taxes to withdraw the money, but later they did not return the money,” he told the publication.
“We were asked to pay Rs 1,500 to set up our accounts, and asked to write profiles of companies. Completion of each such task was accompanied by an increase in the money we had supposedly earned on our dashboard. In reality, I lost more than Rs 1 lakh,” one of the victims told Deccan Herald.
The police have since registered several cases in connection with the scam and investigation remains underway. The advocate also told Express that he knew “many people who are in the police, government departments, and businessmen who have lost their money”.