The Pimpri-Chinchwad police are investigating a suspected cyber attack after Rs 15 lakh was siphoned off from the bank account of an engineering company in less than five hours after a beneficiary was fraudulently added and the transaction limit of the account was increased through suspected hacking. A first information report (FIR) in the case was registered at the Bhosari MIDC police station on Saturday by a senior office-bearer of the company. According to it, between 8 pm on June 30 and 12.30 am on July 1, six transactions were made from the company account held at a Bhosari-based branch of a private sector banking major. According to the FIR, in the initial four transactions, Rs 7.5 lakh was 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 were siphoned off from the account in six transfers. A primary probe suggests that alleged cyber attackers fraudulently added a beneficiary to the account and also raised the transaction limit from Rs 2 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 the various aspects, including the bank account used by the cybercriminals. We are communicating with the bank for the investigation."
