The compnay said it was a case of 'email spoofing'.
Flipkart on Saturday clarified that Flipkart's CEO Binny Bansal's official email account was not hacked and that a case of 'email spoofing' (which involves the use of a forged email header to make it look legitimate) has been filed with the police.
“We would like to clarify it is not a case of hacking. Flipkart's corporate email system leverages the highest standards of security including but not limited to two-factor authentication. We have filed a case of email spoofing which involves use of a forged email header to make it look like a legitimate email. This case of email spoofing was immediately detected and a report was filed with the police,” a Flipkart spokesperson told dna.
Earlier, on Friday a report by the Times of India said that Flipkart's CEO Binny Bansal's official email account was hacked on Friday and two mails were sent from it to the company's CFO Sanjay Baweja asking him to transfer $80,000 urgently.
The report added that the company had filed a complaint with the CID's cyber crime cell and the cyber crime police described the case as email spoofing, where emails are sent from forged addresses.
The emails were said to have been sent to Sanjay Baweja at 11.33 am on March 1 and when he cross-checked with Bansal, they realised that the mails were a fraud.
Hemant Nimbalkar, IGP, CID-cyber cell, said he is forming a special team to investigate the case. "It is a clear case of email fraud. We request internet users not to react immediately to emails seeking money transfers and other monetary benefits," he said.
Here is what the email was:
Subject: Urgent wire transfer
Good afternoon Sanjay. How are you doing? Hope you enjoyed your day yesterday? Are you in office? I need you to transfer the sum of $ 80.000.00 as soon as possible (Urgent). Kindly reply this mail to know if you are in the office so I can provide you the bank details of the beneficiary for urgent wire transfer.
Regards
-Biiny Bansal-Co founder and chief executive officer, Flipkart online services pvt ltd, Bengaluru Karnataka-India
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