Actor Upendra and wife Priyanka Upendra's WhatsApp accounts hacked via fake courier call-forwarding scam, contacts defrauded of ₹1.5 lakh
Summary
On September 15, 2025, Priyanka Upendra, wife of Kannada actor Upendra, received a call from a fraudster posing as a courier service representative. She was instructed to dial a number with a star and hash code — a call-forwarding scam that routed her incoming calls, OTPs, and WhatsApp messages to the attacker's phone. Within moments, her WhatsApp, and then Upendra's and their manager's accounts, were compromised. Hackers sent urgent messages to the couple's contacts claiming an emergency and requesting ₹55,000 transfers. Multiple people, including the couple's son Ayush, transferred money before realising it was a fraud. Total losses to contacts were approximately ₹1.5 lakh. The couple filed a complaint at Sadashivanagar police station. Police arrested Vikas Kumar, 30, from Dashrathpur village in Bihar on November 6, 2025, linking him to a larger cybercrime syndicate that had targeted multiple victims using the same call-forwarding method.
Incident Details
Unauthorized collection, tracking, or exposure of personal data and private information.
Sources
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