Lucknow: A WhatsApp SOS from his “son” seeking urgent funds turned into a costly cyber fraud for a city-based businessman, who lost ₹18 lakh after fraudsters hacked his phone and impersonated the young man. Police arrested three members of an interstate gang from Madhya Pradesh’s Gwalior and froze ₹5.5 lakh linked to the crime.The case surfaced on May 5 after Kulwant Singh, authorised signatory of Tiraj Industries Pvt Ltd, lodged a complaint with the Cyber Crime Police Station. According to police, Singh’s company accounts team received a WhatsApp message appearing to be from his son, urging immediate transfer of funds to specified bank accounts due to an emergency.Trusting the message, staff transferred ₹18 lakh. The fraud came to light only when Singh later spoke to his son and discovered no such request had been made.ADCP (Crime) Kiran Yadav said special teams used digital surveillance, banking trails and mobile forensics to track the gang. Investigations revealed that the accused first lured the victim into downloading a malicious APK file or clicking on an infected link, gaining access to his phone.“They altered the saved contact by replacing the son’s number with one controlled by them while keeping the name unchanged. This made their WhatsApp messages appear genuine,” Yadav said.The gang then routed the money through multiple mule accounts before converting it into cryptocurrency — USDT (Tether) — and dispersing it across digital wallets to obscure the trail. However, blockchain analysis helped investigators trace the transactions.The arrested have been identified as Bhishm Bhadauria, Harsh Arya and Amit Singh Bhadauria, all residents of Gwalior. Police said efforts are on to identify other syndicate members and recover the remaining amount.Commissionerate officials urged citizens to avoid downloading APK files or clicking on unknown links and to always verify financial requests through direct calls. Victims have been advised to immediately report fraud on helpline 1930.
