"The platform enables people to earn Rs 15,00,000 per month with an investment of only Rs 21,000. It is completely legal and available for immediate use. I guarantee you the results. All you have to do is invest Rs 21,000 today and start earning money in just 30 days. The project is fully licensed. Moreover, we conducted additional analysis and found that current participants of the program are earning approximately Rs 4000 per hour. This is not just talk, it is 100% financial guarantee. The link to the article is below this video. Click it and register right now".
While browsing through Facebook, Alt News came across a video of Sudha Murthy, member of Rajya Sabha and founder-chairperson of Infosys foundation, making the aforementioned statement while promoting an AI-powered investment app called Quantum AI. In the video, she is also heard stating, "Financial instability forces us to look for new ways to improve our financial situation. In such conditions, Quantum AI has become a true lifeline for many, paving the way to financial freedom. People are outraged upon learning about the huge amounts of money being earned from this project, leading to criticism of the current government. Could this platform have been hidden from the public? This is an innovative platform designed to help as many Indian families as possible. The main goal is to improve the life of all Indian citizens. However, information about it has been concealed by the government..." The video also carried a ticker asking the viewers to invest Rs 21,000 in February and earn Rs 17,00,000 in 28 days. The video had over 5,900 likes.
On clicking on 'Learn more' tab on the ad, as mentioned by Murthy in the video, we were directed to an article by The Times of India titled: "A platform that provides ₹2,100,000 income to Indian citizens who invest ₹21,000 in February. Registration for the project will close on February 26th." The report carried images of Azim Premji (former chairman of Wipro), Sudha Murthy, the late Ratan Tata and Sachin Tendulkar, and a graphic depicting a logo that says 'Quantum AI' connected by lines with the logos of Infosys, Wipro, TATA and SBI. Quantum AI is described as an "ingenious platform to solve the problem of poverty, whose method is based on online trading approved by the Bank of India and the government". A scroll down the article one stumbles upon a graphic depicting Narayana Murthy (co-founder of Infosys and Sudha Murthy's husband) and a statement in quotes attributed to him that said: "I personally attest to the guaranteed income security", followed by a video of Murthy seemingly at an India Today interview praising the same investment platform.
In this video, Murthy is heard stating, "...This platform has passed all government and international checks and has received official approval. The government and businesses have taken the first step toward you and have reduced the minimum starting amount to Rs 21,000, but this offer is valid only until the end of the week. Start with a small amount and see for yourself how legally and efficiently the system works. Later it may be truly impossible for many to start and that is truly unfortunate... Why is it safe? I have tested it myself. I invested Rs 21,000 and the very next day I earned Rs 60,000 in profit... The system operates completely automatically and does not require your control. Artificial Intelligence handles buying and selling on the stock exchange without your involvement. All you have to do is register, take the first step to activate your account and start with a minimum amount to avoid risks if you are unsure..." The article ends with a call to action section through which readers can directly register and sign up for the scheme.
What's the Story Behind the Ad? Are the Murthys Really Promoting a Finance Scheme?
To the unsuspecting viewer, the videos would not seem fishy at all. They are just like regular Facebook ads promoting an investment scheme. And these are often endorsed by successful people and familiar faces like Sudha Murthy or Sachin Tendulkar. Besides, the videos in question are perfectly lip-synced and the audio appears authentic as well. The web page also does seem genuine, and the text font and the design of the supposed TOI report are identical to those on the official TOI website.
However....
When we decided to check where Sudha and Narayana Murthy made these statements, we expectedly found that they had not. First, we broke down Sudha Murthy's video into several key frames and ran a reverse search, which led us to a YouTube video on a channel called Blue Sky.
The video was posted on January 30, 2020. In this video, Murthy is seen wearing the same white saree and jewellery as in the advertisement, and even the chair she is seated on has the same pattern and colour. After carefully watching the entire 58-minute interview, Alt News found no mention of any investment scheme or AI-powered trading platform, as depicted in the advertisement. Moreover, a key detail further proving the manipulation is the audio — the accent in the ad does not match Murthy's original speech in the Blue Sky interview.
Similarly, in the case of the Narayana Murthy video, taking a cue from the clip in the report, we ran a keyword search on YouTube and found that the clip was taken from a video posted on India Today's YouTube channel. The original video was from an India Today Conclave held last year where the Murthys were invited and interviewed by the channel's consulting editor Rajdeep Sardesai. Again, nowhere during the interview did Narayana Murthy mention anything about Quantum AI or any investment scheme.
Fake URL
Next, we decided to take another look at the TOI report that accompanied the video. While the webpage in itself did not seem fishy, one look at the website's address bar exposes the reality. Instead of displaying timesofindia.indiatimes.com, it showed 'supportatheism.com'.
Additionally, a glaring discrepancy was that none of the tab buttons on this webpage functioned as they would on the actual Times Of India site, instead, when clicked upon, they all direct one to the end of the article that has the registration link for the scheme attached.
Alt News has documented similar such instances before where fake URLs were used to mimic web pages of media outlets. Read it here.
Further, what should set off alarm bells is that while the scheme is being called an initiative by the government of India and the SBI, the entire report does not have a single quote/statement from a government or State Bank of India representative. Besides, the link below the ad keeps changing the fake TOI report to feature several other influential names and make it seem like they are promoting this investment scheme.
For example, at the time of the writing of this report, the web page featured a different video of Narayana Murthy than the one embedded above. This time, the manipulated video also features an India Today anchor Chetna Vasudevan (find it here). This video is taken from a Global Leadership Summit hosted by the CNBC-TV18 where Narayana Murthy was a guest.
On another occasion, the web page carried a 6.20-minute video of American business tycoon Elon Musk (find it here). We found that the original Musk's video is an interview of him at the eighth edition of the Future Investment Initiative (FII) on October 29, 2024.
Where did We Find the Ad?
We found this ad on a Facebook page called 'SS 20 2'. The page started running the ad featuring Sudha Murthy's video on February 17 and again posted the same ad on February 18. Under the February 18 ad post, we found several users commenting that this was not an original video or that this was a fraud. The Facebook page that is running this ad does not have any other posts on their wall. And in the 'Page Transparency' section it is mentioned that the page is being operated primarily from Romania and the United States.
Apart from this, we found another Facebook page which is also running a similar ad using a video from another India Today interview of Narayana Murthy. This ad features India Today journalists Rahul Kanwal and Rajdeep Sardesai as well. Originally, Murthy's video was taken from a different interview of his with the India Today (find it here).
On clicking on the 'Learn More' tab, one is directed to a page which, again, looks like the TOI web page. However, on closer look, one would notice that the URL of this web page does not match TOI's. This time, the URL said 'appmatrix.space'. Upon opening, the page shows an image of Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, and the title says: "I guarantee an income of ₹1,900,000 on this project for Indian citizens who invest ₹21,000. Registration for the project will close on March 2th" — seemingly attributing the statement to the finance minister. Yes, the title says 'March 2th' instead of 'March 2nd' — a mistake an official media outlet would never make.
It also includes several fake testimonies praising the investment scheme. Additionally, while the amount denomination is written in rupees, the figure is written as 1 million and 900 thousand instead of Rs 19 Lakh.
What is Quantum AI?
Quantum AI Trading App India is a crypto trading app which, according to their website, 'harnesses advanced algorithms and artificial intelligence to help traders navigate the rapidly evolving world of cryptocurrencies'. The website, however, does not give any information regarding the people behind this platform, and on clicking on 'Download the App Store', we were directed to another webpage, which had a registration form and at the end of the page, it displayed "testimonies" from executive chairman of Amazon Jeff Bezos and co-founder of Microsoft Bill Gates.
The website also says that it is 'regulated by ASIC'. We found that ASIC stands for 'Australian Securities and Investments Commission' which 'regulates banks and credit unions to ensure they operate fairly and responsibly' in Australia. However, in India crypto trading is required to be made from a Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU)-approved platform only.
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Hello, my name is Ankit Sahu. I'm a 25 year old self-employed Pirate from the Chhindwara.