The police said the online fraudster created an email id similar to the France-based supplier and mailed the victim demanding advance and pending payment of Rs 40 lakh
The Azad Maidan police are probing a case in which a South Mumbai-based firm has been cheated of Rs 40 lakh by an unidentified person online, who created a dummy email account of their France-based supplier and sought a remit to its bank account.
According to the police, the Mumbai-based cloth merchant was in business with a France-based company, from where they would order raw material. The police said the online fraudster created an email id similar to the France-based supplier and mailed the victim demanding advance and pending payment of Rs 40 lakh. The victim's company replied on the same email that they would transfer the amount in their bank account within a few minutes. However, the fraudster immediately replied and asked them to transfer the money in another account instead of the regular account. Not suspecting anything amiss, the Mumbai-based firm transferred the money to the given account.
"The victim did not suspect anything wrong as they were doing business with the firm for several years and such transactions were regular. Hence they transferred the money. The victim realised only when the supplied mailed them again, asking to settle the pending bill. After registering their complaint, we began the probe. We realised the fraudsters had initially hacked the victim's email id to understand their business communications and then created the fake email address, an almost lookalike of the same of supplier, with the only difference being one alphabet," said an officer from Azad Maidan Police Station. "Our probe is still on but the money is in international banks hence it is becoming difficult for us to track the fraudster," he added.
A case has been registered in Azad Maidan Police Station, under relevant sections of IPC and IT Act for cheating, impersonation and hacking.
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 "Online fraud")
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