Retd doctor duped of 68L using fake video of FM Nirmala Sitharaman

Hyderabad: A 74-year-old retired doctor from Kachiguda was duped of over 68.3 lakh by fraudsters who ran a fake online stock trading platform and used a fake video advertisement featuring finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman to lure her.The victim noticed the fake video of Nirmala Sitharaman promoting a trading platform, S**e*a, on July 8, 2025. The clip promoted a scheme promising large returns by buying and selling shares through the platform. Believing the offer to be genuine, she contacted the fraudsters using the phone number provided in the advertisement.
A man who introduced himself as B Arun, manager of the company, got in touch with her and first asked her to deposit 22,000 through a QR code. He then continued to force her to transfer higher sums through RTGS transactions to different bank accounts.The victim, in 11 transactions, deposited amounts ranging between 75,000 and 20 lakh from her bank account, totalling 68.3 lakh between July and Dec 2025. "Each time I attempted to withdraw the displayed balance on the website, my request was rejected and I was asked to invest more," the victim told police.Realising she had been cheated, the victim called the cyber-fraud helpline, 1930, and subsequently lodged a formal complaint on Tuesday with the Hyderabad Cyber Crime police.Based on her complaint, police registered a case under Sections 66-C and 66-D of the Information Technology Act and Sections 111(2)(b) (organised crime), 318(4) (cheating), 319(2) (cheating by personation), 336(3) (Forgery for purpose of cheating), 338 (Forgery of valuable security, will, etc) and 340(2) (Using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.Investigators said the fraudsters operated using multiple bank accounts and an international phone number with an extension +41, and communicated via Zoom. "We have the phone details, email address and bank account particulars. We are analysing the money trail and details of the account posing fake video," a cyber crime official said.