Police Hunt For Scammer Who Duped Panvel Company Of ₹1.54 Crore In Cybercrime Attack

The police are on the lookout for an unknown scammer for allegedly duping a private company to the tune of Rs1.54 crore in a man-in-middle attack cybercrime.

According to the police, the complainant is a resident of Panvel and is into the business of supplying pharmaceutical machines. His company would make an advance payment to a Chinese company, after which the said company would send the material. The communication was conducted via email. On January 8, the company had placed an order. On January 24, an email was received from the Chinese company informing the firm that they had changed their bank account in which the transaction money had to be deposited. The complainant’s company then made a payment of Rs1.54 crore in the new bank account.

Later, as complainant received an email from the Chinese company informing them that he would get the supply only after making the payment, he shared the transaction details and the email which his company had received informing him about the new bank account number. The complainant then realised that someone had sent fraudulent emails, which was similar to the Chinese company and duped the company. He then approached the police and got an offence registered last week.

The police have registered a case under sections 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention), 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code and 66C (identity theft), 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act.