Journalism of Courage
In focus
Pimpri Chinchwad police are investigating a suspected cyber attack after Rs 15 lakh was siphoned off the bank account of an engineering company in less than five hours after a beneficiary was fraudulently added and a transaction limit of the account was increased by way of suspected hacking.
An FIR was registered at Bhosari MIDC police station on Saturday by a senior office bearer of the company. As per the FIR, between 8 pm on June 30 and 12.30 am on July 1, a total of six transactions were made from the company account at a Bhosari-based branch of a private bank.
In the initial four transactions, a total of Rs 7.5 lakh were transferred to an unknown account. Later, in two more transactions, Rs 7.5 lakh were lost. The company officials approached the police after they saw the transactions.
An officer from Bhosari MIDC police station said, “As per the FIR, Rs 15 lakh was siphoned off from the account in six transfers. Primary probe suggests that the cyber criminals fraudulently added a beneficiary to the account and also raised the transaction limit from Rs two lakh. We suspect the cyber criminals to have executed the attack by way of hacking, possibly by cloning the SIM card linked to the bank account.”
The officer added, “We have launched a probe into various aspects of the case, including the bank account used by the culprits. We are communicating with the bank for the purpose of investigation.”
