Fraudsters hack Hyderabad firm’s emails, swindle $1.25 M

HYDERABAD: Alleged Nigerian fraudsters have duped a Mali-based company, a client of a city firm, to the tune of $1.2 million by hacking their email accounts. On Wednesday, cyber crime sleuths of Cyberabad police received a complaint from MA Padmanabha Rao, financial controller of VoltaImpex Pvt Ltd, Kondapur. VoltaImpex company, which is into export of engineering goods to customers in West African countries, alleged that fraudsters, posing as representatives of the complainant’s firm, sent an email to one of their clients, M/s Diamond Cement, located in the West African nation Mali, and made them deposit $1.25 million in their bank account.
As part of the communication pertaining to the business deal, according to police, Tamil Vannan, financial controller of M/s Diamond Cement, used to be in contact with Murali Krishna, an accounts executive of VoltaImpex.In December 2018, Tamil Vannan had received an email from k.muralikrishna@voltaimpex.com asking to deposit pending payments into the company’s bank account in Andhra Bank’s SR Nagar branch.
Based on the complaint of VoltaImpex, police have registered a case under Sections 420 of the IPC & Section 66 (C) of the IT Act. Police believe the fraud was executed by a gang of Nigerian fraudsters by hacking into Tamil Vannan’s email account. Cops also suspect that the fraudsters used targeted phishing and gained access to even the database of VoltaImpex firm to execute the fraud.