Haryana: Cybercriminals Demand Money From Instagram Influencers, Threaten Them With Deepfakes

Three female Instagram influencers from Haryana have fallen victim to a disturbing cybercrime, where their photos and videos were tampered with and morphed into pornographic content using deepfake technology. The accused further demanded large sums of money from the victims in exchange for deleting the obscene content. The women have filed complaints at the Cyber Crime Police Station, prompting an official investigation. Initial findings reveal that the accused is a resident of Hisar.

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About 3 Influencer Victims From Haryana 

One of the influencers, who has over 1.21 lakh followers and more than 1,600 posts on her Instagram account, was alerted by a follower about a fake account resembling hers that was circulating pornographic videos with her face. Upon checking, she found that her original images and videos had been edited and used to create explicit deepfake content. When she reached out to the impersonator via direct message, she received no response initially. Later, she was threatened and asked to pay money to have the videos deleted.

The second influencer revealed that similar videos had been created using her content and that of her two influencer friends. These fake videos were even shared publicly by tagging their real accounts. The cybercriminal created at least five deepfake videos of each of her friends and seven of her. With around 30,000 followers, the influencers faced immense public embarrassment. One of them, who is married, deleted about 20 videos from her account out of fear. The cybercriminal threatened to circulate more videos unless all three deleted their accounts.

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The third influencer shared that even after multiple messages, her video remained online. The accused demanded Rs 6,000 for its removal and sent QR codes twice. Upon transferring a token amount, the barcodes were traced, revealing the accused’s location in Hisar. The police continue to investigate the case.