Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID) has registered a case over an AI-generated deepfake video impersonating Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay, which was allegedly circulated on social media to defraud people with fake promises of financial assistance, officials said on Wednesday.

The case was registered on September 1 following a special report from the cyber crime team, which detected the manipulated video during routine online surveillance. The state police's social media centre had initially flagged the video, following which a cybercrime wing inspector launched an investigation.

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The fabricated video features a person resembling the Chief Minister speaking in Hindi and directing people seeking financial assistance to contact a particular WhatsApp number.

Police said the video was created and circulated widely on Facebook and other major social media platforms with the alleged intention of cheating unsuspecting members of the public.

Preliminary investigations have also found several similar AI-generated deepfake videos featuring the Chief Minister and making promises of financial assistance circulating across various platforms.

According to police sources, some of the fraudulent videos have been traced to Facebook accounts purportedly based in Pakistan.

The authorities have approached Meta seeking details of the fake accounts, including information on their upload activity and logs. The cybercrime wing is continuing its efforts to identify those behind the videos and initiate stringent legal action.

Steps have also been taken to block and remove the fake videos from social media platforms to prevent their further circulation.

The CB-CID has warned the public against responding to phone numbers or joining WhatsApp groups promoted through such videos. Police stressed that the clips are fabricated deepfakes and urged people to ignore any instructions or financial assistance offers made through them.

(PTI)