Mumbai company falls for email spoofing fraud, loses nearly Rs 4 crore

An FIR was registered on December 10 at the cyber police station in Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) based on the complaint of the 57-year-old company owner.

According to police, the firm that imports machines from three companies in Italy uses two email ids to communicate with the clients. His company placed an order with the Italian company on September 9 in 2020, and made an advance payment of 1.38 lakh Euros the next month, an officer said.

“On November 2 in 2022 the complainant company asked the Italian company to send an invoice for making the remaining payment and received the invoice in a few days. However, a week later he got another email requesting his company to send the money to another bank account due to technical glitch,” the officer said.

As there was a change in the bank account, the complainant called up the owner of the Italian company who said he was in the UK and asked him to make the payment in the bank details given by his finance team.

Accordingly, the complainant on November 18 transferred 4,68,033 Euros (or Rs 3.98 crore) to a new bank account. A few days later, when he met the owner of the Italian company during a presentation in Delhi on November 28, he asked him about the payment made. The Italian said he never got the payment much to the shock of the 57-year-old who then realised that he was duped, the man told the police.

“I suspect someone got access to our email IDs and then created fake email IDs of the Italian company to commit the fraud,” the complainant told the police. The police have filed a case for cheating, impersonation and forgery under Indian Penal Code (IPC) and IT Act.