A message, deepfake and one fatal decision… All you need to know about Faridabad AI blackmail mystery case

A 19-year-old Faridabad student died by suicide after being blackmailed with AI-generated obscene videos of his sisters. Police launched an investigation as the case highlights rising misuse of deepfake technology.

In Haryana’s Faridabad, a 19-year-old college student is reported to have killed himself after being blackmailed by a man using AI-generated obscene images of his three sisters.

The Extortion

The victim is said to be a resident of Baselwa Colony in Faridabad and a second-year college student whose phone was allegedly hacked by unknown people who then used the artificial-intelligence technology to create deepfake nude images and videos of his sisters and, in some cases, of himself.
The accused later demanded around ₹20,000, the family claimed, and threatened to upload the images and videos on social media and to WhatsApp groups if the sum was not paid.

The mental distress

The father of the teen said his son had become “restless” in the fortnight leading up to his death, cutting off from friends, not eating much and not wanting to be left alone because he was feeling threatened.

On Saturday, the last messages exchanged between the teen and the man’s phone contained the usual threat to leak the morphed content. But the family has also alleged that the accused then egged the student on to commit suicide, even sending him a message on how to go about it. Around 7 pm on Saturday, the victim allegedly drank poison. He was taken to a private hospital where he was declared dead during treatment.

The Case

After lodging a complaint, the father has registered a case at the Faridabad Police Station against two individuals – one named by the victim and the other identified as a known associate of the family.
A senior investigating officer (SIO) told the media that the mobile phone of the deceased is being analyzed and the deepfake images and videos, the hacking of the phone and the conversation leading to the blackmail and suicide will be probed.

The SIO called the incident “a serious example of cyber-crime and the misuse of AI technology.”

The Takeaway

In the last year or so, generative AI tools have become a cyber-criminal’s one-stop-shop for creating deepfakes and other fakery to perpetrate everything from financial fraud to false-content extortion. In this case in Faridabad, Haryana, the fact that no “real” images of the sisters even existed to be morphed seems to have not mattered in the blackmail attempt.

It is also a sad reminder that the proliferation of deepfake technology to potentially any user or bad actor is taking an extreme and heavy human toll.

The death of the 19-year-old student in India should serve as an example to parents and children across the world of the extent to which their lives and safety can be threatened online and to the devastating feelings of isolation and shame that a victim of this crime can go through.

The Way Forward

Awareness about such sextortion, blackmail threats and the possibility of fake and AI-generated content should be widely known. Families should also be aware that these AI-generated threats of non-consensual sexual images are on the rise and must be taken seriously. No family should suffer what the family of the teen in Faridabad has had to endure in this case. If someone is receiving such threats, they should talk to someone they trust – such as an adult, a teacher or a counselor – as well as mental-health professionals or helplines in their area.

Screenshots should be taken of any evidence, including messages and the accused persons’ number and social media accounts, while police and cyber-crime units should be notified at once and no ransom or payment should be made.

Policy makers and tech platforms need to work on more-robust safeguards against the use of generative-AI technology and creation of deepfakes, as such synthetic-content technology is getting into more and more users’ hands.