India Ministry of Home Affairs warns of deepfake welfare scams

The Indian Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has issued an advisory warning citizens about financial fraud involving deceptive advertisements on Facebook and Instagram. Fraudsters are using deepfake and manipulated videos of prominent political figures, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Union Finance Minister, and various Chief Ministers, to promote fake government welfare schemes.

According to the National Cybercrime Threat Analytics Unit (NCTAU), these scams promise financial assistance to lure victims into paying purported taxes, processing fees, registration charges, and other administrative expenses. In some instances, scammers use fake cashback rewards, scratch-card contests, or spin-and-win games to trick individuals into approving Unified Payments Interface (UPI) requests, which results in unauthorized debits from their bank accounts.

The advisory also cautions the public against suspicious calls from international numbers, specifically those beginning with the Pakistan country code (+92), where callers claim to represent public figures or their offices to facilitate these fraudulent schemes.