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LiveCrime & Safety· Updated 20 OctLimited coverage

Home Ministry warns of deepfake scam ads using PM, CMs

The Home Ministry, through the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), issued an advisory on Monday about fraud using deepfake videos of the PM, Finance Minister and chief ministers in fake Facebook and Instagram ads. Victims are asked to pay taxes or fees, and some are tricked into approving UPI requests.

Why it matters: Many Indians use social media and UPI, so fake welfare-scheme ads with familiar faces can lead to direct financial loss.

Based on 4 articles read in full. Scores describe each article's framing, not the outlet and not whether it is accurate.

Large outlets read: 3 of 15 (Republic, Dainik Bhaskar, Jagran). Most of India’s largest outlets, including NDTV, India Today, Times of India, Hindustan Times, The Hindu and Indian Express, block our reader in this prototype, so their coverage is missing here. The launch pipeline reads their public feeds.

What's missing: None of the reports gives figures on victims or money lost in these scams.

What everyone agrees on

  • The advisory warns of fake Facebook and Instagram ads that use deepfake videos of the PM, Finance Minister and chief ministers to promote bogus welfare schemes. 1 2 3 4
  • Victims are asked to pay taxes, processing fees or registration charges to get promised benefits. 1 2 3 4
  • The advisory mentions calls from international numbers, mostly with Pakistan's +92 code. 1 2 3 4
  • The advisory came from I4C, which works under the Home Ministry, and urges people to verify schemes on official websites. 1 2 3 4

How the coverage differs

All four outlets relay the official advisory in a neutral way; they differ mainly in which details they stress.

  • Reports 1 and 3 stress how the scam works: fake ads, WhatsApp chats or websites, and repeated fees. Report 1 notes UPI collect requests leading to debits. 1 3
  • Reports 2, 3 and 4 add the scratch-card and 'spin and win' cashback variant that gets people to approve UPI requests or enter PINs. 2 3 4
  • Report 4 says the +92 code alone does not prove fraud. It also mentions rules for platforms to label AI content and remove deepfakes within 3 hours. 4

Where they disagree

No real disagreement between sides in this coverage.

What's missing

  • No loss figures: The articles give no count of victims or total money lost. 1 2 3 4
  • No platform response: None of the reports carries a response from Facebook or Instagram owner Meta. 1 2 3 4
  • No source for the Pakistan link: The reports do not say how the +92 numbers were traced to the scams. 1 2 3 4
  • Political ads: Only one report notes that many fraudulent ads fall under political advertisements, with no detail. 3

The articles

Not ideological
1 · RepublicConfidence: High
MHA Sounds Alarm Over Deepfake Ads Using PM Modi, FM To Dupe People
This article:

Why: Plain relay of a cyber-fraud advisory on deepfake scam ads. No policy, identity or welfare-debate framing, so it is not ideological. Official event reporting is Neutral.

2 · Dainik Jagran · HindiConfidence: High
पीएम-सीएम के डीपफेक वीडियो से साइबर अपराधी कर रहे ठगी, I4C ने जारी किया अलर्ट
This article:

Why: Plain report of a Home Ministry cyber-fraud advisory on deepfake scam ads. No policy, identity or welfare framing to score; it relays the official alert and safety tips.

3 · Economic TimesConfidence: High
MHA warns of fake welfare scheme ads using deepfake videos of PM Modi, CMs and ministers
This article:

Why: Plain report of a cybercrime advisory on deepfake welfare-scam ads. It touches no ideological dimension; the Pakistan-number mention is incidental, and the outlet adds no framing of its own.

4 · Dainik Bhaskar · HindiConfidence: High
PM-CM के डीपफेक वीडियो से साइबर ठगी का खतरा:गृह मंत्रालय की एडवाइजरी, पाकिस्तानी +92 नंबर से आने वाले कॉल-मैसेज से सतर्क रहें
Official statement
This article:

Why: A consumer-safety advisory about deepfake cyber fraud. It touches no ideological dimension, and the report relays the ministry's advisory plainly without praise or criticism of the government.

How we score

Ideology score, −10 to +10

Left-leaning (−10 to −3)
Secular-pluralist framing, minority protection, caste justice and voter access, civil liberties, an active state.
Centre (−2 to +2)
Several positions represented fairly, neutral language, reporting kept apart from opinion.
Right-leaning (+3 to +10)
Cultural nationalism, national strength and security, scepticism of group-based policy, voter-roll integrity, market-led growth.

Stance toward the government

Critical, Neutral or Supportive, scored separately. It refers to the Union government unless the story is about a state. On the spectrum strip, each dot is an article: its position is the ideology score and its colour is the stance.

The swap test

If an article would score differently with the parties' roles reversed, that signal is partisanship. It goes into the stance tag, not the ideology score.

Confidence

High, Medium or Low, based on how much of the article was read, how many clear signals it has, and whether they agree.

Limited coverage and blindspots

Stories with fewer than five articles are marked. A blindspot is a contested story where we found coverage from only one side.

Not ideological

Articles that touch none of the three dimensions, such as a car launch or a match report, carry no ideology score.

How often the feed refreshes

This prototype is refreshed by hand (last on 17 Oct, 03:00 IST). At launch:

Wires and the top 20 outletschecked every 5 minutes
All other outletschecked every 15 minutes
New storygoes up at 3 articles from 2 or more outlets, marked Limited coverage
Live storiesnew articles added every 15 minutes; summary rewritten at most hourly
Home page orderevery 15 minutes

Updates are added, never rewritten

New facts go into a dated update log at the top of the story. New articles carry an “Added” tag. If a note or list changes, the earlier version stays viewable.

Live, winding down, archived

A story is Live while coverage arrives, Winding down after about 2 days without new coverage, and Archived after about 7. Nothing is deleted: links never change, archived scores are frozen, and stories stay on their issue pages and in search.

Large outlets missing

NDTV, India Today, Times of India, Hindustan Times, The Hindu, Indian Express, News18, ABP, Times Now and Mint block the reader used for this prototype, so their articles are missing. Each story shows how many of India’s 15 largest outlets we read. The launch pipeline will read outlets’ public feeds, TV transcripts and Hindi articles.

Who is accountable

Editor and grievance officer

Editor-in-charge: [name to be added before launch]. Grievance officer under the IT Rules, 2021: [name and contact to be added before launch]. Complaints are acknowledged within 24 hours and resolved within 15 days.

Funding and ownership

[Who owns and funds Nazariya, to be published before launch]. Nazariya will list every funder and will not accept money from any political party.

Appeals

Anyone, including the outlet that published an article, can appeal a score: tap any score on a story page, then "Appeal this score" to write to the editor. Outlets can also dispute a summary. The editor reviews every appeal, and any change is recorded below. Appeals: [appeals email to be added before launch].

Rules we follow

No detail that could identify a child or a survivor of sexual violence (Juvenile Justice Act, POCSO, BNS section 72). Court cases are reported as what was said and alleged. No analysis of a poll in the 48 hours before voting there (Representation of the People Act, section 126). Press Council and NBDSA norms on communal incidents.

Corrections log

  • 16 Oct · Goregaon toddler death: removed the building's name and an unverified claim about the 10-year-old's health, to protect the child's identity.
  • 16 Oct · India–US trade deal: merged two duplicate story pages into one.
  • 16 Oct · INS Mangrol: one report names the commissioning officer differently from three others; flagged in the story, not resolved.