No OTP Needed: Ahmedabad Fraud Ring Uses AI Deepfakes to Crack Aadhaar Checks

The Cyber Crime Branch of the Ahmedabad Police has arrested four men for allegedly orchestrating a sophisticated AI-driven fraud using deepfake technology to bypass Aadhaar verification.

The Case surfaced after an Ahmedabad-based businessman involved in import-export noticed he had stopped receiving OTP alerts from his bank for two days, prompting him to approach the police.

During the probe, investigators found that the mobile number linked to his Aadhaar had been changed without any OTP authentication, and his biometric credentials had also been compromised. The accused allegedly used AI tools, including Google Gemini, to generate deepfake videos of the victim, which helped them bypass biometric checks and reroute OTPs to a number under their control.

Using the stolen identity, the gang attempted to open accounts across multiple banks via e-KYC. They successfully opened one with Jio Payments Bank and secured a loan of ₹25,000. They also accessed the victim’s DigiLocker account in an attempt to retrieve sensitive documents.

Police said one of the accused worked at a Common Service Centre and misused his authorised access to Aadhaar systems and official kits to execute the SIM change and authentication bypass.

The arrested individuals have been identified as Kanubhai Parmar, Ashish Vanand, Mohammad Kaif Patel and Deep Gupta. Officials described the operation as highly sophisticated and a sign of evolving cybercrime tactics.

The case comes amid rising concerns over AI-related threats to the financial system. Recently, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman held a high-level meeting with banking officials to assess risks posed by advanced AI systems, including scrutiny of models like Claude Mythos developed by Anthropic.