Katni: Truck Owner Loses ₹55,000 to Scammer Using AI Image of PM Modi in Army Uniform

A truck owner has lost ₹55,000 in Katni, Madhya Pradesh, to a cyber fraudster who posed as an army officer. The scammer's phone profile picture was an AI-generated image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in army uniform eating sweets, which he used to build trust.

On the night of October 24, he contacted S.K. Dubey, a transporter who runs a goods carrier business between Gujarat and Rajasthan. The man claimed he needed four trucks to move milk packets from the Ordnance Factory in Katni to Jaipur. He shared a location on WhatsApp and asked that the trucks be stopped about half a kilometre away, where he would collect them himself.

The transporter contacted Rajasthan truck owner Hitesh Narayan Mehta, who brought his truck from Rewa to Katni, arriving around 3 am. The scammer agreed on a freight fee of ₹90,000 and said he would send ₹1.5 lakh, then asked the owner to send back part of the amount as commission and keep the rest as freight.

Trusting him, Mr Mehta transferred ₹55,000 to the account provided. The scammer then switched off his phone. By the time the fraud was discovered, ₹35,000 had already been withdrawn, and police placed a hold on the remaining ₹20,000 after the complaint. The transporter also suffered a loss of more than ₹10,000.

The truck owner filed a complaint with the cyber cell. Katni Superintendent of Police Abhinay Vishwakarma urged businesspeople to verify any payment received before returning money on a stranger's instruction and to report suspicious activity to the police immediately.

The case shows how easily AI-generated images can be used to create false credibility. Never send money back to an unknown person, and call the cyber helpline 1930 quickly if you are cheated, since early reporting improves the chance of freezing the money.