Noida: A cyber fraudster impersonating a company’s director managed to defraud the Indian branch of an American firm, situated in Noida, of Rs 3.52 crore, revealed police on 30 March.
The cybercrime branch of the Noida police has registered a case and successfully frozen Rs 52 lakh from the fraudulent transactions.
As per the reports, the fraud took place on 26 March this year when one of the company’s directors received a WhatsApp message from an unknown number. The sender, who is now understood to be a fraudster, pretending to be another director of the same company, claimed to have changed his mobile number and asked for an urgent fund transfer to a client.
The cyber fraudster then sent another message saying that he was in a meeting with some government officials, discussing a new project. Following the modus operandi, he then requested a security deposit transfer, providing multiple bank account details for the transaction.
Believing the request to be genuine, the victim, the actual director, authorized multiple payments amounting to Rs 3.52 crore.
The scam came to light when the actual director, whose identity had been misused, noticed the transactions and immediately contacted the victim director. Realizing the deception, the company alerted its banks and filed a complaint through the cyber fraud branch’s website.
The American company, headquartered in Atlanta, has more than 15 branches globally, including its Delhi-NCR office located in Noida’s Sector 63. Police have launched an investigation to trace the perpetrators and recover the remaining funds.
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