#FactCheck-Old Cargo Ship Fire Video Misrepresented as Drone Strike on Indian Vessel Near Oman
Executive Summary
A video is being widely shared on social media showing an Indian cargo vessel engulfed in flames. It is being claimed that the ship was carrying chemical weapons to Israel and was hit by a drone near the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Oman, after which it caught fire. CyberPeace Research Wing research found the claim to be misleading. The viral video does not show any such incident. Instead, it shows an Indian cargo vessel on fire, but in a completely different context unrelated to any drone strike or weapons shipment allegation.
Claim
The video circulating online is being shared with the claim that it shows an Indian cargo ship carrying chemical weapons to Israel, which was struck by a drone near the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Oman and subsequently caught fire. https://x.com/ThokaReturns/status/2070224570792251728 , https://x.com/ThokaReturns/status/2070224570792251728
FactCheck
A reverse image search of keyframes from the viral video led us to a Times of India post dated July 19, 2024, on X (formerly Twitter), which contained the same visuals. The report stated that a major fire broke out on a container cargo vessel approximately 102 nautical miles southwest of Goa, following which the Indian Coast Guard launched firefighting operations. A comparison between the news footage and the viral video confirmed that both refer to the same incident. https://x.com/timesofindia/status/1814352708473856175
We also found an India Today report on the incident, which stated that the vessel was travelling from Mundra to Colombo, Sri Lanka, when the fire broke out. The Indian Coast Guard immediately diverted one of its ships to respond to the distress call. https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/fire-breaks-out-container-cargo-merchant-vessel-off-goa-coast-rescue-ops-2569320-2024-07-19
Conclusion
Our research confirms that an old and unrelated video has been shared on social media as visuals of an Indian cargo vessel allegedly hit by a drone off the coast of Oman
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Introduction
On June 11, 2026, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) India released one of the most critical Indian government advisories concerning cybersecurity by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) under the National Cybercrime Threat Analytics Unit (NCTAU) concerning the immediate and escalating threat posed by the weaponization of generative artificial intelligence to forge synthetic biometric identities capable of bypassing the existing facial verification mechanisms in India. This advisory is arguably one of the most explicit Indian government recognitions of the deep-seated threats associated with AI-generated deepfakes in the country’s digital financial infrastructure. As many Indian financial service providers embrace facial recognition and biometric verification systems for customer onboarding and authentications, the myth that biometric traits are in themselves secure is slowly unraveling.
The advisory states that cybercriminals are deploying sophisticated AI tools to forge such credible digital simulacrums that exhibit such a precise similarity of facial expressions, eye movements, eye blinks, head movements, and voice patterns that they are virtually indistinguishable from the originals for identity verification mechanisms. Such a confluence of easy AI technology, mass onboarding of digital identities, and underdeveloped infrastructure to detect these synthetics requires urgent regulatory, institutional, and technological intervention.
The I4C Advisory: Core Findings and Threat Architecture
In its advisory, NCTAU describes a complex, multi-step attack chain used by scammers to capture biometric information and perpetrate fraud using everyday social interactions. The attackers typically use social media accounts, chat messengers, online job applications, dating applications, or direct phone calls to reach their targets. These interactions are presented as innocuous, such as for video calls, job interviews, identity checks, or just normal conversation with the intention of recording facial and vocal data.
During these interactions, victims may be asked to perform gestures commonly seen in legitimate video calls, such as look directly at the camera, blink, turn their head, or say specific phrases. However, the perpetrators record this video feed without the victim's knowledge and then use deep learning generative AI technologies to process it. Through methods such as Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) and diffusion models, the scammers create photorealistic synthetic duplicates of the target, capable of mirroring all physical and vocal attributes, such as facial expressions, blinking patterns, head movements, and even voice tones.
The advisory explicitly states that these synthetic identities can be used for a variety of fraudulent activities, such as spoofing face authentication systems, circumventing liveness detection checks, successfully completing video KYC, enabling fraudulent account recovery processes, and illegally accessing bank and financial services. NCTAU also cautions that these voice deepfakes may be paired with facial deepfakes in an attempt to undermine multi-modal authentication methods, and the occurrence of related SIM-swap attacks can eliminate the last layer of security in OTP verification and facilitate a complete account compromise.
The scale of India's Digital Financial Ecosystem
The scale of I4C's detected threat can be better understood by considering India's entire digital financial landscape. In 2025 India has witnessed over 228 billion UPI transactions, with 21.63 billion in December alone, an annual growth rate of 29% from 2024, and an active user base of over 500 million by the beginning of 2026. Furthermore, total e-KYC transactions by April 2025 have exceeded 2,393 crore, and thus, it can be seen the extent to which these aspects of finance (banking, insurance, and credit) are now conducted via remote digital verification. The transformation, although instrumental in increasing financial inclusion, has, according to some analysts, created an attack surface of historic scale. As hundreds of millions more become financially integrated via the very same channels that now form the country's infrastructure and systems of identity, the threat from identity-based fraud becomes astronomically large.
Indian government data further illustrates the extent to which such frauds are a growing concern. Cybercrime cases jumped 42% year-on-year to 2.27 million in 2024, resulting in losses amounting to nearly 228.45 billion. Within that, 1.34 million UPI cases, worth 1,087 crore, occurred in FY2024 alone, while cybercrimes in general soared from 260,000 cases in 2021 to nearly 2.8 million by 2025, totaling cybercrime losses of 22,931 crore.
How Do Deepfakes Defeat Biometric Systems?
Deepfake fraud, in particular, is extremely difficult to counteract due to the direct attack it poses on the assumptions underlying traditional verification systems. Passive techniques for verifying a live person from a static photo or video existed that primarily looked for similarities in textures, lighting, and geometrical properties or challenged subjects to perform an action in real-time. But the generation of real-time face swapping that contains blinks, head motion, and speaking can now be produced on even cheap machines. Cybercriminals can exploit these by using virtual camera drivers to "inject" the false image feed into the live verification session, nullifying any passive liveness checks. Data from the industry clearly shows the extent of this problem: iProov, a leading authenticator, documented a 7.8-fold rise in injection attacks in 2024; Jumio noted an 88% increase in deepfake-induced fraud in 2025; and voice-deepfake attacks on financial call centres saw a 6.8-fold increase in 2024.
Gartner had also predicted that 30% of organizations would have lost trust in facial verification alone by 2026, and work by Kubam (2024) confirmed a lack of multi-factor authentication such as cross-validation of biometric, document, and device integrity signals used within KYC platforms. Such fears have been corroborated by FATF's 2025 Horizon Scan, which classified deepfakes as an emerging threat to the AML/CDD framework and digital identity verification.
Recommendations by I4C
I4C's advisory goes beyond merely warning about threats and lists actionable recommendations to both institutions and citizens. Banks, NBFCs, fintech companies, and onboarding platforms have been advised to incorporate advanced deepfake and synthetic content detection techniques into their verification flows, given that first-generation liveness checks are not enough. They should employ a multi-modal strategy that considers face features along with the device, network signals, behavioral biometrics, and alignment of face and voice. They also have been advised to make a more robust upgrade of their onboarding and verification platforms, as much of the current remote verification architecture was built in a less sophisticated threat context. This aligns with the KYC Master Direction of the RBI that specifies end-to-end encryption, IP-based access controls, geotagging, and technology platforms and systems are to be upgraded frequently. Citizens are advised by I4C to keep their biometric information secure; be careful of unsolicited video calls and online interviews; keep an eye on transaction-related SMS and emails; and report suspicious instances through the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal and through the telephone number 1930. It is clarified that this advisory aims to create awareness of developing AI-based identity fraud schemes, and it is not a declaration that any specific organization, platform, or service is vulnerable.
The Legislative Dimension: India's Evolving Response to Synthetic Media
The problem highlighted by I4C is evolving in a heavily legislated environment, not a legal void. The first-ever legal definition of "synthetic media" in India came into force in the Information Technology Amendment Rules 2026 on February 20, 2026. These rules oblige significant platforms to remove deepfakes and non-consensual intimate media within three hours and two hours, respectively, or lose their safe harbor protection under Section 79 of the IT Act. While the provision focuses on harm stemming from content, this creates a new legal and normative precedent on dealing with AI-induced deception. However, financial frauds facilitated through deepfakes are not content but involve the use of remote identity verification and customer onboarding systems, which require specific technical standards. The overall policy environment when viewed in light of the FATF Horizon Scan, RBI KYC rules, and recent I4C advisory already offers significant scope to define and introduce mandatory deepfake detection and identity assurance standards even before these are explicitly legislated.
Institutional and Technical Recommendations
- For Financial Institutions and Fintech platforms: The existing verification systems (liveness detection) must be replaced with multi-layered deep-fake detection processes, including injection attack detection, behavioral biometrics, cross-modal facial and voice verification, device integrity check, and hardware attestation during onboarding itself.
- For Regulators: The RBI and Ministry of Home Affairs should work together to release technical standards that specify minimum deepfake-detection requirements for video-KYC and remote onboarding systems in line with FATF digital identity guidance and the upcoming EU AI Act.
- For researchers and academia: Dedicated studies on deepfake detection performance across varied demographic, linguistic, and regional populations of India should be prioritized. Current models are mostly trained on Western data.
- For citizens: Face recordings and other biometric information should be treated with the same caution as sensitive financial details. Be wary of unsolicited video calls, remote interviews, or verification requests from unknown people, and report suspicious activities on any account immediately via the National Cybercrime Helpline (1930) or cybercrime.gov.in.
Conclusion
The I4C advisory of June 2026 marks a critical recognition that advances in generative AI have fundamentally challenged the reliability of facial biometric authentication. For a country whose digital financial ecosystem relies heavily on remote identity verification, the implications are significant. The integrity of India's financial inclusion framework now depends on rapidly strengthening identity assurance mechanisms. Addressing this threat will require coordinated action by regulators, financial institutions, technology developers, researchers, and citizens to develop robust technical standards, enhance detection capabilities, and build public awareness at a pace matching the evolution of AI-enabled fraud.
References and Sources
- I4C / NCTAU Advisory, June 2026 — National Cybercrime Threat Analytics Unit, Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. Advisory on AI-Enabled Deepfake Identity Fraud. Issued 11 June 2026.
- shuftipro.com/blog/key-takeaways-from-fatf-horizon-scan-report-on-deepfakes
- https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/fraudsters-creating-deepfakes-to-bypass-facial-authentication-i4c/articleshow/131668958.cms
- hyperverge.co/blog/what-is-a-deepfake
- iproov.com/reports/threat-intelligence-report-2026
- arxiv.org/pdf/2601.06241
Executive Summary
A video showing uniformed personnel removing street vendors and damaging roadside stalls is being circulated on social media with the false claim that the Nepal government has started expelling Bangladeshis from the country. The viral clip is around 49 seconds long and shows authorities clearing vendors from a public area. Nepali audio can also be heard in the background, which appears to have added to the misleading narrative.
However, an research by the CyberPeace Research Wing found that the claim is false. The video is not from Nepal, but from Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka, where authorities were carrying out an anti-encroachment operation near the National Stadium.
Claim:
The video was shared on X with a caption claiming that a Hindu-led government in Nepal had begun driving Bangladeshis out of the country.
Fact Check:
A close examination of the video revealed several signs contradicting the claim. Text written in Bengali can be seen at multiple places in the footage. The caps worn by uniformed personnel also appear to display “Bangladesh Police.” Investigators also noticed a stadium-like structure in the background. Comparing the visuals with street-view imagery available on Google Maps led to a match near the National Stadium area in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Further verification found a video uploaded on March 18, 2025, by a Bangladeshi news portal on YouTube containing scenes matching the viral clip. The caption described it as footage from an anti-encroachment drive in the Gulistan area of Dhaka.
A similar version of the video was also found on a Bangladeshi Instagram account uploaded on March 17, where it was again described as police action against illegal encroachments. The video credit was attributed to a person named Zahir Rehan.
While the exact date of the original footage could not be independently confirmed, available evidence clearly links the video to Bangladesh and not Nepal.
Conclusion:
The viral claim that Nepal has begun expelling Bangladeshis is false. The video actually shows an anti-encroachment drive carried out by authorities in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Executive Summary
A video showing a massive fire in a high-rise building is being widely shared on social media. The footage shows a tall building engulfed in flames with thick smoke rising from it. Users are circulating the video with multiple claims. Some social media users claim that the video is from Tehran, Iran, where Israel allegedly carried out an attack on the headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Others are sharing the same video as an alleged strike by the United States Air Force on the IRGC headquarters. CyberPeace Research Wing’s research found the claim to be misleading. The video is not related to any Israeli or U.S. military strike on Iran’s IRGC. In reality, it shows a massive fire that broke out in a skyscraper in Changsha, China, in 2022.
Claim
On Facebook, a user shared the viral video on 3 July 2026, claiming: “Israel has carried out a massive attack on IRGC headquarters in Tehran, Iran. The headquarters has been destroyed in the strike.” The post link, archive link, and screenshots are provided below.
https://archive.ph/7BknH
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1530020795436530
Fact Check
During verification, we extracted keyframes from the viral video and performed a reverse image search using Google Lens. The research led us to the same footage uploaded on the official YouTube channel of Hindustan Times on 16 September 2022. According to the video description, the incident shows a massive fire at a high-rise building in Changsha, China, not any military strike in Iran.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cphle9wkjCE
The video description states that the incident took place in a 42-storey building in Changsha, which housed the offices of the state-owned telecommunications company China Telecom. Authorities had initially confirmed that no casualties were reported. Further research led us to a report published on The Guardian website three years ago, which also contained visuals matching the viral footage.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/16/major-fire-breaks-out-at-skyscraper-in-changsha-china
According to The Guardian report, the 42-storey, 218-metre-high building was constructed in 2000 and is located near a major ring road. The report also confirmed that there were no reported fatalities in the incident.
Conclusion
The research clearly found that the viral video does not show an Israeli or U.S. attack on Iran’s IRGC headquarters. The footage is from a massive fire that broke out in a skyscraper in Changsha, China, in 2022. Therefore, the claim being circulated on social media is false and misleading.
