Cyber-fraudster spoofs email to dupe Mumbai bizman of Rs5.27 lakh
According to the Amboli police, the complainant, Jitendra Sawant, 38, is an employee of the Andheri-based company.
An Andheri-based company was cheated of Rs5.27 lakh by a cyber-fraudster who spoofed the email-ID of a company with whom the former dealt, and made the latter transfer a ‘due payment’ to a different bank account.
According to the Amboli police, the complainant, Jitendra Sawant, 38, is an employee of the Andheri-based company.
Earlier this month, Sawant’s company received an email from the second company asking them to send their due payment of Rs5.27 lakh to a different bank account.
The employee who received the email did not suspect anything amiss and sent the money. On cross-checking with the second company, the latter denied receiving any payment and the complainant realised they had been cheated. The fraudster had created an email-ID that was almost identical to the receiving company’s to dupe Sawant’s company.
A police official said, “Such frauds can be easily prevented if one phone call is made to the receiver before transactions. The complainant could not make out that the account given by the fraudster was of a Hyderabad bank even though the company they deal with is in Mumbai.” On March 31, an FIR was registered at the Amboli police station under relevant sections of the IPC and the IT Act.