Navi Mumbai Cyber Police have arrested two individuals, including a 49-year-old housewife, in connection with a Rs 75 lakh cyber fraud where scammers impersonated a company director to siphon off funds from a Turbhe-based fruit export company. The arrests were made within just 17 days of the complaint, and a manhunt is now underway to trace other members of the fraud syndicate.
The incident occurred in May when cyber criminals sent a WhatsApp message to the company’s accountant, posing as the director and requesting Rs 75 lakh for a new project. The fraudsters used the real director’s photo as their WhatsApp display picture, leading the accountant to believe the request was genuine. Acting on the message, the accountant transferred the amount to the bank account provided.
The fraud came to light when the actual company director contacted the accountant and denied making any such request. Realising they had been duped, the company approached the Cyber Police within two hours of the crime. “Within those two hours, the accused had transferred all the money to various bank accounts across the country,” PI Gajanan Kadam from Cyber Security police station said.
While investigating the financial trail the police found leads to Malvani in Mumbai, where Rs 5 lakh had been withdrawn through a cheque. Based on this lead, police arrested Bilkis Naseem Momin alias Biko (49), a housewife from whose account the money was withdrawn from. She revealed that her relative Shahbaz Arif Ansari (30) had told her that she could earn some money if she provided her account details and withdrew the money and gave him further. Following this, Ansari too was arrested. The police are now looking for the person who had approached Ansari through whatsapp calls for the work of providing an account number for depositing the money.
Both accused have been remanded to five days of police custody. According to the police, Bilkis had knowingly provided her bank account details to the cyber gang. The Navi Mumbai Cyber Police have urged companies to verify financial requests through multiple channels before executing large transactions to avoid falling prey to such scams.
