A video shared on a Facebook account under the name ‘Laila Rao’ claims that Laila Rao is assisting women in achieving financial independence by facilitating the growth of their capital through her investment project. The woman in the video says that she had gained huge amounts of profits by investing between Rs. 9000 and Rs.15000 in Laila Rao’s investment project. The post provided a link to a Telegram handle and asked users to join the Telegram handle to avail the benefits of the investment project. A few videos posted by different Facebook handles with the same name ‘Laila Rao’ show Jaggi Vasudev and other celebrities endorsing Laila Rao’s investment project. In another video, a woman introduces herself as Laila Rao and mentions her collaboration with Ratan Tata in spearheading an investment initiative. She asserts that the project has the potential to offer Rs. 2,00,000 per month to women who have invested in it. Let’s verify the claim made in these posts.
Claim: Videos promoting the ‘Laila Rao’ investment project.
Fact: The ‘Laila Rao’ investment project promoted in these videos has been identified as a financial scam. Numerous complaints were filed by women on the Consumer Complaints Court forum against this fraudulent scheme using the name Laila Rao. Audio clips from original videos of Jaggi Vasudev and Smriti Khanna have been edited and falsely portrayed as if they were endorsing the ‘Laila Rao’ investment project. The Cyberabad Crime Police and the Isha Foundation have issued advisories cautioning the public about this ‘Laila Rao’ investment fraud. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
Upon searching for the details of this investment project using relevant keywords, we found an article published by the ‘Siasat’ regarding the ‘Laila Rao’ investment fraud siphoning huge amounts of money from middle-class women. The news article reported that the Hyderabad police had issued an advisory to people to be cautious regarding Laila Rao’s Investment fraud promoted through Facebook and Telegram.
Speaking about the online investment scam, Cyberabad crime police said, “The scam promotes itself primarily on Facebook and uploads videos of the said Laila Rao doing day-to-day activities, with captions like, ‘I am an investor, great mom, and happy wife. I can help Indian ladies with investment’. Further, the police said, “People should be careful about investment fraud. Complaints have been filed in all states around the country. The scammers are operating from different states simultaneously.”
Numerous complaints were filed against Laila Rao’s Investment fraud in the Consumer Complaints Court forum. All these women complained that they have invested money believing her capability of helping women as shown in her videos. These women complained that scammers kept on asking them to make payment after payment for the 15% commission to get their money back.
When we searched for the details of the woman who proclaims herself as Laila Rao in one of the videos, we found that the woman seen in the video is Indian television actress Smriti Khanna. By editing the audio-visuals of Smriti Khanna’s video, the post falsely portrays her as Laila Rao promoting an investment scheme.
Through a tweet, the Isha Foundation clarified that financial scams under the names of Suraj Sharma, Laila Rao, and Amir are circulating on various social media platforms involving the unauthorized use of Jaggi Vasudev’s videos, images, and the cloning of his voice. Emphasizing that he is not involved in any financial or investment schemes, the Isha Foundation advised people not to get involved in any such financial scams by clicking on such content and divulging their personal and financial information or investing money. Many news sites published articles and videos reporting the Laila Rao financial scams.
To sum it up, edited videos of multiple celebrities were shared as if they were promoting ‘The Laila Rao’ financial scam.
