Mumbai: In a sophisticated cyber fraud case, a 43-year-old accountant was duped out of Rs 1.30 crore after scammers hacked or spoofed the WhatsApp account of his company’s owner. The victim, a resident of Nagpur, has filed a police complaint detailing the systematic financial exploitation. Investigation revealed that the beneficiary account used by the scammers to park the illgotten money was of a private bank at Dahisar.
Dahisar Bank Account Under Investigation
According to the police, the victim has been working for the past 22 years as an accountant for a private company. The fraudulent incident unfolded on October 16, 2026, when the victim received a sequence of urgent messages via WhatsApp. The scam began when the victim received a message from a WhatsApp account displaying the name and profile configuration of his employer. The sender initially inquired about the available balances across the company's various bank accounts. Trusting the identity of the sender, the victim promptly compiled the figures and shared a screenshot of the account balances.
Shortly after receiving the financial summary, the impersonator commanded the victim to execute an immediate transfer of Rs 1.30 crore to a specified beneficiary. The designated destination was a current account held at Dahisar East branch of a private bank. The victim sought confirmation to process the transaction via the company's bank account. The fraudster replied in the affirmative. Consequently, the victim transferred the massive sum via Real-Time Gross Settlement.
Accountant Realises He Was Cheated
The deception came to light immediately after the transaction cleared. The victim received a phone call from the real employer via his actual mobile number. The employer questioned a transaction notification he had just received and demanded to know why Rs 1.30 crore had been moved out of the company account without authorization.
A confused victim explained that he had simply followed the explicit text instructions sent to him on WhatsApp. The employer clarified that he had never requested any such transfer. Upon closer inspection of the chat history, it was discovered that while the WhatsApp profile information matched the employer's name, the underlying mobile number registered to the fraudulent account was different, an unknown number completely unaffiliated with the business owner.
Realizing they had fallen victim to an advanced digital spoofing and identity theft trap, he approached the Cyber Police. An investigation is underway to track the mule account at Dahisar-based bank and trace the perpetrators behind the cyber fraud.
To get details on exclusive and budget-friendly property deals in Mumbai & surrounding regions, do visit: https://budgetproperties.in/
