NEW DELHI: The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has issued an advisory requesting people to beware of fraudulent investment schemes, fake job offers and other online scams.

The I4C under the MHA stated in the advisory that, in most of such advertisements, “scamsters use deepfake videos to misguide the users leading to devastating financial losses” for victims across the country who could be deceived by “convincing visuals, false claims and professional-looking online pages.”

The advisory also highlighted a few cases of cyber fraud.

In a recent case, a 25-year-old medical representative from Ahmedabad lost Rs 44 lakh in a trading scam that began with an Instagram advertisement.

“Drawn by the promise of high returns, he joined a Telegram group managed by fraudsters posing as financial advisers. The group initially showed rising profits on screen to build confidence before the victim’s entire investment suddenly disappeared,” the advisory said.

In another case, a 40-year-old woman from Ashok Vihar in Delhi lost Rs 21 lakh after falling for a fraudulent stock trading advertisement on social media. She had downloaded a fraudulent mobile application that closely resembled a legitimate brokerage platform.

“At first, small profits appeared in her account, convincing her of its authenticity. She was then added to a WhatsApp group of more than one hundred members where a woman posing as an expert guided her on investments. Believing the scheme to be genuine, she transferred money across three different bank accounts in Punjab, Bengal and Odisha. When she declined to invest a further Rs 70 lakh, she was blocked from the application and realised she had been cheated,” the MHA said.