A 52-year-old export businessman lost Rs 7.66 lakh in a ‘man in the middle attack’ and email spoofing case. The businessman was dealing with a Kenyan company and was expecting payment for his order. However, cyber fraudsters fabricated an email account similar to that of the victim and took the payment from the foreign company. The Parksite police in Vikhroli has launched an investigation into the case.
A ‘man in the middle attack’ is a term for when a fraudster positions himself in a conversation between a user and an application to impersonate one of the parties, making it appear as if a normal exchange of information is underway. The goal of the attack is to steal personal information, such as login credentials, account details, and credit card numbers.
The complainant, in this case, is a resident of Thane and runs a company at an industrial estate in Vikhroli. The police said he used his official email account to communicate with his domestic and international clients.
In February 2017, he received an email from a Kenya-based company with an order of six tonnes of aluminum sheets. The deal was finalized for Euros 23,200 (Rs 15.33 lakh).
In May 2017, the firm sent an advance payment of Rs 7.66 lakh to the complainant’s bank account. A few days later, he received an email from the firm informing him of the deposit into a new bank account for which they had received the details from another email.
The complainant immediately informed the firm that he had not created any new email account and was not aware of the bank account mentioned in the fraudulent email. The company then shared all the necessary documents of the deal with him.
The police said the complainant approached the bank, cyber cell, and the RBI as well. After due verification, his complaint has been lodged now. A case has been registered under section 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 66C (punishment for identity theft) and 66D (punishment for cheating by personation by using computer resources) of the Information Technology Act.
