NAGPUR: A 38-year-old businessman allegedly lost ₹18.82 lakh after unidentified cyber fraudsters hacked his mobile phone and carried out 22 unauthorised transactions from his mother’s bank account without triggering any OTP or transaction alerts.

The victim, identified as Harikaval Shriram Popati (38), runs a saree shop named Shri Rukmini Saree in Gandhibagh. The shop’s financial transactions are conducted through an ICICI Bank account at the Itwari branch, which is registered in the name of his 62-year-old mother, Savita Shriram Popati. The victim manages all transactions through the account, which is linked to his mobile number.

According to the complaint, the incident came to light on October 8 when Popati checked his mobile phone and noticed that it was undergoing an automatic update. Once the update process began, he noticed a Google Pay transaction of ₹99,006 being transferred to a person identified as Mr Wani Sabir.

Soon afterwards, he discovered that 22 transactions had been carried out automatically from the bank account, transferring a total of ₹18,82,468 to multiple bank accounts.

Popati reportedly did not initiate any of these transactions. More surprisingly, he claimed that he had not received any OTP, SMS or notification alert regarding the suspicious transfers.

The complainant further informed police that his mobile phone had been undergoing automatic updates repeatedly over the preceding few days. He suspects that unidentified cyber fraudsters hacked his device and gained access to the bank account, subsequently transferring the money to different accounts without his knowledge.

Based on his complaint, the Cyber Police registered an offence against unidentified persons under Sections 318(4), 319(2), 336(3), 338 and 340(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), along with Sections 66(C) and 66(D) of the Information Technology Act.