Posed as woman on WhatsApp, accused dupes Lucknow man of Rs 1.92 crore

A WhatsApp friendship that began with casual chats and phone calls ended in a Rs 1.92 crore cyber investment fraud for a Lucknow man, after the person he believed was a woman persuaded him to invest in fake schemes . The shock deepened when police revealed that the “woman” was actually a man using a false identity to lure victims.

Shalabh Pandey lodged a complaint on June 2, 2025, stating that a person who introduced herself as Bhavika Shetty befriended him on WhatsApp and gradually gained his trust before convincing him to invest by promising high returns. “She spoke convincingly about profits and made everything look genuine, and by the time I realised something was wrong, I had already lost my life’s savings ,” Pandey said in his complaint to the police.

An FIR was registered at the Cyber Crime police station under relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Section 66(D) of the Information Technology Act , which deals with cheating by personation using computer resources. Following the investigation, police arrested Imran Ghazi , 34, a resident of the Mishripur Depot area under Gudamba police station limits.

During questioning, Ghazi admitted that after his Axis Bank account was frozen, he procured forged Aadhaar and PAN cards to open multiple bank accounts with the help of an associate identified as Shehzad. Police said Rs 54 lakh of the cheated amount was routed directly through Ghazi’s accounts, while transaction records showed that about Rs 1.52 crore moved through accounts linked to him and his associates within a month.

A senior police officer said the case exposed a wider network behind such scams. “The accused was part of a larger cyber fraud racket that used fake identities and multiple bank accounts to dupe people by promising unrealistic returns,” the officer said.

Fake identity documents were recovered from Ghazi’s possession, and further investigation is underway to trace other members of the racket and identify additional bank accounts used to siphon off the money. Police have again urged people to be cautious while interacting with unknown contacts on social media and messaging platforms, especially those offering assured or high investment returns.