Billionaires, it seems, have taken up a new hobby&mdash;randomly blessing strangers on the internet with guaranteed wealth. At least, that&rsquo;s what a deepfake video of Sudha Murty wanted people to believe. Because what else would an author, philanthropist, and former Infosys Foundation chairperson be doing other than personally ensuring your ₹21,000 magically turned into ₹1,70,000? In case you missed it, a video claiming just that was making the rounds on social media. It showed Murty passionately endorsing an &ldquo;investment platform&rdquo; called Quantum AI. According to the clip, she wasn&rsquo;t just recommending it&mdash;she was guaranteeing returns. Just invest ₹21,000, and watch it balloon to ₹1,70,000. Easy money. There was just one problem: it was completely fake. For perspective, this scam promised a 709% return&mdash;which made even the most absurd Ponzi schemes look humble. Let&rsquo;s compare: Fixed deposits: 7% (and a glare from a grumpy bank employee) Stock market: 12% (if you weren&rsquo;t terrible at it). Crypto: 100% (if you liked living on the edge). This scam: Guaranteed riches&hellip; or at least, guaranteed regret. Experts analysing the video found Murty&rsquo;s mouth movements didn&rsquo;t sync with the words&mdash;because, surprise!&mdash;scammers had slapped fake audio onto a real speech of hers. Tools like Contrails.ai and Hive Moderation confirmed that both the voice and visuals were AI-generated, meaning the only real thing about this scam was how much effort went into making it just barely believable. The rabbit hole got even better. The link in the video directed users to a website named &ldquo;Castle Hotel Sultan India&rdquo;&mdash;because nothing screams financial legitimacy like an investment pitch that sounds like an abandoned Airbnb listing. Even better, there was also a fake webpage pretending to be a Times of India article and also randomly featured Elon Musk. Why? Because scammers apparently believed that if you threw enough rich people into a scam, someone, somewhere, would fall for it. Keep your guard up! For those who don&rsquo;t want their ₹21,000 funding a scammer&rsquo;s next EMI, here&rsquo;s a quick survival guide:
<ul>
<li style="font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;">Billionaires do not personally help you get rich. If they did, Ambani would be sending DMs with &ldquo;U up?&rdquo; and a stock tip.</li>
<li style="font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;">If a video looks even slightly &ldquo;off,&rdquo; assume it&rsquo;s fake. Murty wasn&rsquo;t suddenly going to develop the mouth-syncing skills of a 90s dubbed action film.</li>
<li style="font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;">Check the URL. Real financial opportunities do not involve links that sound like dodgy hotel chains.</li>
<li style="font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;">Urgency is a scammer&rsquo;s favourite trick. If you&rsquo;re being told to &ldquo;act now,&rdquo; you should probably do the opposite.</li>
</ul>
Scammers are getting better at making deepfakes&mdash;but thankfully, their intelligence hasn&rsquo;t kept pace with their technology. As long as they keep relying on misspelled URLs, Elon Musk cameos, and the assumption that billionaires are just dying to turn your ₹21,000 into riches, there&rsquo;s still hope. But here&rsquo;s the real concern: scams are evolving fast. Yesterday, it was Nigerian princes, today, it&rsquo;s Sudha Murty. Tomorrow--since nothing commands urgency like a shaadi--it could well be a shady wedding invite with a .apk attachment. Clicking on that &ldquo;exclusive wedding card&rdquo; from a distant relative could give hackers full access to your phone. From banking details to personal data, everything is fair game once you install one of these rogue apps. The best defence? Assume everything is suspicious until proven otherwise. Because if a billionaire truly wanted to help you get rich, they wouldn&rsquo;t be doing it through a shady WhatsApp forward.

Some doctored images are harder to spot than others.

Nigerian princes may no longer need your help, but that doesn’t mean billionaires are offering you theirs

Could Sudha Murty Help You Get Rich?

Nigerian princes may no longer need your help, but that doesn’t mean billionaires are offering you theirs

February 13, 2025 | 14:58 IST