Cyber fraudster posing as IIT-B professor promises DRDO projects, dupes Pune private university of Rs 2.46 croes

Initially, the complainant received a text message from a person who identified himself as a well-known educationist and former Chancellor of the Savitribai Phule Pune University. This person shared a contact number with the complainant, claiming it to be of a senior IIT Bombay professor and said he will share details on research funding opportunities. When the complainant called this number, the person claiming to be the IIT professor said that a drone research project of the DRDO with funding of around Rs 28 crores has been sanctioned by the government. The ‘professor’ asked the complainant to transfer two per cent of the total project value (Rs 56 lakh) as an initial fee. The fraudster also sent all the project related information from a fraudulent mail address.

After discussing the issue with the Dean of Research of the private university, Rs 56 lakh was transferred to an account, details of which was given by the fraudster. Over the coming three weeks, the fraudster continued to manipulate the complainant and the administration of the private university. The first fraudulent offer of a project funding was followed by two more similar proposals of joint research projects of funding of Rs 23 crores and Rs 72 crores. The fraudsters sought Rs 46 lakh and Rs 1.44 crore—two per cent fee for each of the two projects. The private university transferred those amounts to the account given by the fraudster.

In a communication in the last week of August, the fraudster posing as the IIT professor agreed to come to the campus of the private university to sign the Memorandums of Understanding. However all attempts to contact him from August 26 failed. When the complainant called IIT Bombay and got the number of the professor the fraudster was claiming to be, it came to light that no such proposals were moved by the said professor. After realising they had been defrauded, the complainant approached the cyber crime police station and an FIR was registered.

A spokesperson from the private university said, “Clear SOPs and due diligence processes are maintained for all collaborations. This was a unique case of impersonation in which the documents and communication were made to look authentic. Once the fraud was detected by internal mechanism, the transfers were stopped, and a cybercrime complaint was filed immediately.”

An officer from the cyber crime police station said, “The fraudsters had given very elaborate details of these so called projects, making the private university administration believe them. We have launched a probe into the contact details and bank account numbers used by the fraudsters.”