MUMBAI: The south region cyber police station recently arrested three persons, who acted as accomplices in a man-in-the-middle (MITM) cyber attack, cheating a business company of Rs 1 crore. The primary accused created a fake email ID, similar to that of a reputed company which deals in construction and technology, and sent an email to their client posing as the company and asked to deposit Rs 1 crore in two other bank accounts.
"One day the complainant company (client), which deals with the buying of scrap materials and had got a contract for buying scrap, received an email from the 'seller company' stating that it should send Rs 1 crore to two other accounts that allegedly belonged to the seller company," said a senior officer. Since the primary mode of communication between the two companies was through electronic communication, the buyer company transferred the said amount. In an earlier instance,the had already transferred Rs 4 crore and got the scrap material for it.
"When the buyer company did not get the scrap even after transferring money, it contacted the seller company's office and asked them about it. The seller company said it did not receive the money. This is when the buyer company approached the bank and was shocked to see that the two accounts did not belong to the original seller company. They then lodged a complaint," said ACP Ramchandra Lotlikar, who led the investigation.
The cyber team comprising SPI Devraj Borse, PSI Shweta Dhok and PC Madhukar Lohar found out that Rs 50 lakh was transferred to an individual, Bhumeshwar Sharma's bank account while other Rs 50 lakh was transferred to a company, Ashok Enerprises' account in Jaipur. Probing the money trail, cops arrested three accused, Bhumeshwar Sharma, 52, an auto driver, Hemant Soya, 44, a marketing executive, and Abhay Patiwar, 43. We managed to freeze Rs 39 lakh in the Jaipur company's account," said police.
