Police arrest Valueleaf employees for sharing Facebook ad IDs with Chinese scammers

New Delhi: Four senior staffers of digital marketing company Valueleaf were arrested for allegedly providing Facebook advertising ID access to Chinese fraudsters to post deepfake videos of a famous share market expert on social media platforms with the aim of duping investors, a police official said on Saturday.

Arrested accused Jijil Sabestian (44), Deepayan Bannerjee (30), Daniel Arumugham (25) and Chandrashekhar Naik (42) got Rs 3 crore in Indian and UAE currencies for this, he added.

"The probe began after a business news channel approached the West Region Cyber Police Station and alerted police about his deepfake video on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram in the form of an advertisement. 

In his complaint, he said the video was spreading misinformation about shares in order to cheat investors," the official said.

"A case was registered under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Information Technology Act. Facebook authorities were contacted and information was taken about the people who had posted the advertisement. Three were held from Bengaluru and one from Thane. They had provided access to Facebook advertising IDs to Chinese fraudsters for Rs 3 crore," he added.