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| - Fact Check: Ratan Tata's deep fake video is being used to lure people to betting app
The deep fake was created using an eight-year-old video of the industrialist.
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India Today Fact Check
This video is AI-generated. Ratan Tata hasn’t endorsed any such game
After Rashmika Mandanna, Katrina Kaif, Sara Tendulkar, and Kajol, now a “deep fake” of industrialist Ratan Tata is making the rounds on social media. In it, the renowned businessman can be seen endorsing an online betting coach.
In the video, Tata can be seen asking people to join the Telegram channel “@aviator_ultrawin” run by a man called Amir Khan, who he describes as a person who teaches others to play “Aviator”, an online betting game. The archived version of this post can be seen here.
It is noteworthy that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology imposed a ban on 22 betting apps in September this year. The highly talked about Mahadev App was too one of them.
So, let’s look at what is going on here.
Video’s Source
A quick reverse search of the viral video’s keyframes led us to a June 2015 video of Ratan Tata receiving an Honoris Causa degree at the HEC Paris Business School. At that time, many news outlets had reported this event.
Upon comparing the visuals of both videos, one can easily notice similarities between them. A comparison is given below.
To understand what was going on, India Today contacted the person being endorsed in the viral video, who runs the Telegram channel “@aviator_ultrawin”.
He told us that his name was Amir and promised to help us earn a minimum of Rs 1 lakh every day. All we needed to do was play the “Aviator” betting game. He also shared some alleged testimonies from people praising him.
He then asked us to register on the “Aviator” site. However, the link he provided led us to a different sports betting and casino platform called “1win”. The page requested personal details like phone number and email ID, a common tactic used by scamsters to harvest data.
Next, we asked Amir to explain how the game is played, and he shared the link to a Telegram channel called “VIP Training”. This channel contained multiple videos explaining how to play “Aviator”.
Scamming Through Ads
We noticed that the Facebook post that contained the Ratan Tata deep fake was actually an advertisement. It is not visible on the Facebook page as a regular post. However, we were able to find it in the Meta Ad Library. This deep fake video was posted as an advertisement on this page at least 5 times.
We also found that people have complained about being duped at the a consumer complaints forum, by a person named “Amir Khan” running a Telegram channel related to the Aviator game.
Are betting apps legal in India?
Gaming laws in India are going through a transformation. As of now, there is no single law to govern online betting games in India. It differs from state to state. Supreme Court advocate Manish Pathak noted the same while talking to India Today.
Last year, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting issued an advisory about advertisements for betting. As per this advisory, since betting and gambling are regulated heavily in most part of India and pose a financial risk for the consumers, the promotion of online/offline betting is not advised in larger public interest.
Cybersecurity expert and Supreme Court advocate Dr Pavan Duggal also told us that though there are no well-defined laws to regulate online betting games in India currently, ones which are based on skills, could be qualified as legal.
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