In a shocking case of identity theft, an Indian woman’s persona was hijacked to establish a viral online sensation known as “Babydoll Archi”.
This fake identity quickly amassed 1.4 million followers within days, captivating audiences with explicit content and viral moments, including a seductive dance in a red sari to the Romanian song, Dame Un Grr, and a provocative photo with American adult film star Kendra Lust.
The overwhelming popularity of “Babydoll Archi” led to widespread trends on Google, prompting the creation of numerous fan pages and memes across social media.
However, the facade began to crumble when authorities revealed that the person behind the online persona was not a real woman, but rather the stolen identity of a woman pseudonymised, Sanchi, the BBC reported.
The truth was revealed after Sanchi’s brother complained to the police. Pratim Bora, Sanchi’s ex-boyfriend, was arrested for involvement.
Senior police officer Sizal Agarwal, head of the investigation, told the BBC that Sanchi and Bora fell out and the AI likeness he created was to exact “pure revenge” on her.
Bora, who is a mechanical engineer and AI enthusiast, used personal photos of Sanchi to create the profile, Agarwal said, adding that he was placed in custody and has not made any statements yet.
The account of the deepfake was created in 2020, and the first posts were her real pictures that had been morphed, Agarwal said.
“As time passed, Bora used tools such as ChatGPT and Dzine to create an AI version. He then populated the handle with deepfake photos and videos.”
The account began to gain traction and attention at the start of this year.
Sanchi herself is off social media, and she found out about the posts once mainstream media profiled Babydoll Archi as “an influencer”. Her family was blocked out from this account. They also became aware only once it went viral.
The complaint to the police submitted by Sanchi’s brother on July 11 came with photos and videos as evidence, but did not name anyone as responsible.
“Babydoll Archi” was not an unfamiliar name for the police. Agarwal said they had also seen media reports and comments speculating that she was AI-generated, but there had been no suggestion that it was based on a real person.
Police worked with Instagram, asking for the information of the account’s creator.
“Once we received information from Instagram, we asked Sanchi if she knew any Pratim Bora. Once she confirmed, we traced his address in the neighbouring district of Tinsukia. We arrested him on the evening of 12 July.”
The police “seized his laptop, mobile phones and hard drives and his bank documents since he had monetised the account,” said Agarwal.
“The account had 3,000 subscriptions on Linktree, and we believe he had earned INR1,000,000 from it. We believe he made INR300,000 in just five days before his arrest,” she added.
Sanchi is “extremely distraught – but now she and her family are receiving counselling and they are doing better,” according to Agarwal. She expresses the importance of acting early, saying, “But had we acted earlier, we could have prevented it from gaining so much traction.”
