In phishing attack, scammers pose as ‘Dutch suppliers’ to dupe Hyderabad-based MEIL of Rs 5.47 crore

“The money is received by the fraudsters in a USA bank account and not an Indian bank account. If the amounts are not withdrawn, we still have a chance of recovering it,” an officer told indianexpress.com.

Based on MEIL’s complaint with the Telangana Cyber Security Bureau (TGCSB) after discovering a fraudulent redirection of two payments, the police have registered a case invoking sections 318(4), 319(2), and 338 of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), along with sections 66-C and 66-D of IT Act.

MEIL placed orders for a main burner and incinerator package, including control panels with Duiker Combustion Engineers of the Netherlands in May 2022 on a contract of €1,439,000. The order was later hiked to €2,649,000 in February 2024. Simultaneously, MEIL placed a second order with Duiker for a complete reaction furnace and incinerator package, including design services, for €795,000.

Payments were then made according to the completion of contractual work milestones. After making each payment, confirmation was sought from the vendor, following which Peter Njuijs, a representative of the company, confirmed all the payments and acknowledged them through his official mail nuijs@duiker.com.

How the scammers duped MEIL

In November 2024, MEIL received an email purportedly from Peter Nuijs of Duiker Combustion Engineers (using the fake email address nuijs@duiker.cam). The email claimed that Duiker’s ABN Amro bank account in the Netherlands had been frozen due to legal action. Nuijs requested that all future payments be directed to a new account number 686569727 at JP Morgan Chase in Alpharetta, Georgia, USA. The email included supporting documentation such as bank statements and payment authorisation forms. This account, however, is suspected to be fraudulent.

After MEIL made payments of €289,800 and €318,000 on January 24 and 25 for completed work, Duiker Combustion Engineers denied receiving the funds.

According to the First Information Report (FIR), MEIL’s investigation revealed that individuals impersonating Peter Nuijs had used the fraudulent email address (nuijs@duiker.cam) instead of the legitimate (nuijs@duiker.com) to divert the €607,800 (approximately ₹5,47,02,000) to the JP Morgan Chase account in the US, instead of Duiker’s ABN Amro account in the Netherlands. This fraudulent activity resulted in MEIL being defrauded.