The INOX Mumbai lost 10 crore following the 63 transactions from a WhatsApp message by a "boss"
Suspense Crime, Digital Desk : Over Rs 10 crore has been lost by a private company as an employee in the accounts section, following the 'instructions' of its 'boss' on WhatsApp, made 63 transactions from the company's account. The employee found out that he and his boss had been cheated when he asked for invoices for the payments. In this case, involving Inox Group, Mumbai, four persons have been arrested so far.
WhatsApp message from the 'boss' arrived on June 3. On this day, an unknown number sent a message to Girish Amin, the deputy general manager of the company's accounts section. In the message, the sender introduced himself as the executive director of the company Siddharth Jain. He told Girish to save the number as a personal contact and not to share it with anyone. The sender also had Siddharth's photo in his display picture, due to which the employee thought his boss had contacted him. Following the message, he was told that he was in an important meeting and should not be called on phone.
First transaction of Rs 46.5 lakh. After this, he gave his bank account details and ordered to transfer money from the company's account. He also transferred a sum of Rs 46.5 lakh as the first transaction which was just a small fraction of the total money transferred over the following days. In the next days, between June 3 and 15, Amin continued to make payments as per the instructions of his 'boss', making 63 transactions and transferring a sum of over Rs 10.4 crore (Rs 10,40,71,924) to various accounts.
When did the deception come to light? On Tuesday, when Girish Amin asked the actual executive director, Siddharth Jain, for the invoices related to the transactions from the official account so that they could be accounted for, he clarified that he had never instructed to do anything like that and the employee had been cheated. Based on this, Girish Amin lodged a police complaint. As the Mumbai police launched an investigation into the case, the Delhi police obtained information about the accounts to which the amounts were being transferred. A call was received from the IDFC FIRST Bank in Jasola in the South-East district of Delhi about two youths trying to withdraw 8 lakh cash from an account. Police arrested both of them, Vikas and Vansh, at the bank, where they admitted to transferring the money through their accounts in lieu of a commission. The two men were promised a commission of Rs 30,000 and Rs 20,000 respectively. Investigation into the matter revealed the names of Fayaz Alam and Amit. Fayaz explained that he had been assured of a 2 percent commission for providing a bank account for transfer of the cheated funds. In a recently initiated Operation Cyhawk, all bank branches were instructed to inform suspicious transactions by the Delhi Police. Four people have been arrested in connection with the matter, while the network's mastermind is yet to be caught. Investigations are underway to determine which accounts received the money and to investigate if the mastermind is part of any major cyber fraud network.
