Company loses ₹1.30 cr to identity theft cyber fraud

An accountant in Navi Mumbai was scammed out of ₹1.30 crore by an imposter posing as the MD via WhatsApp, leading to a police investigation.

Navi Mumbai: The police on Tuesday have registered a case after an accountant working for a road construction firm in Belapur was deceived into transferring ₹1.30 crore by an imposter who pretended to be the company’s Managing Director (MD). The entire scam unfolded only through WhatsApp chats.

Company loses ₹1.30 cr to identity theft cyber fraud

According to the FIR, on Sunday, the accountant received a missed call on his WhatsApp from a number which had his MD’s picture on profile. The caller sent a message that said they could not place a direct call or answer the accountant’s WhatsApp call due ‘poor network connection’. To gain the accountant’s trust, the caller, in the first message, identified as the MD. The caller said they were unable to talk in person as they were in a meeting with a government officer. The accountant was asked to check the outstanding balance in one of the company’s accounts.

“The caller was privy to confidential details of the company, which convinced the accountant that the person he was chatting with really was the MD. The caller allegedly instructed the accountant to transfer ₹1.3 crore as advance payment for a new project. Then he also asked the accountant to send a screenshot of the transaction details,” said the investigating officer. The accountant realised he was scammed only the next day when he called the MD to inform that the amount she had asked earlier was transferred successfully. The MD denied having made any such calls or requests.

“The accountant’s area was probably recced before they executed the scam,” said the investigating officer, adding that they are investigating if an insider played a role in enabling the caller to commit this crime. A case was registered under sections 316(2) (criminal breach of Trust), 318 (cheating) and 319 (cheating by personation) of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita and Section 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act.