Six members of a gang were arrested for allegedly cheating a company of Rs 1.93 crore by misusing the identity of its director in WhatsApp chats with a company staffer, police officials said on Thursday, reported PTI.
The fraud involved sending messages impersonating the director to the company secretary, who then transferred Rs 1.93 crore to a bank account provided by the fake sender. Subsequently, the money was withdrawn by a syndicate member based in China and converted into cryptocurrency, the police added.
“Our investigation revealed that the bank accounts used in this case had been previously involved in 11 cyber fraud cases. Further inquiries into the extent of the racket are ongoing,” an official said.
Between April 12 and 15, the company secretary received WhatsApp messages from an unknown number claiming to be the company’s director. The secretary believed the identity due to the WhatsApp profile picture matching the director’s photo and followed instructions to transfer the funds.
The scam was uncovered only after the secretary was informed that no such transaction had been authorized by the director, prompting the company to approach the West Region cyber police station.
Investigation revealed that the beneficiary accounts were opened using forged documents and were linked to members of the gang in Mumbai and other cities. The accused had access to cheque books, debit cards, and internet banking passwords linked to these accounts.
The probe led to the arrest of six individuals: Shubham Kunjir (28) from Pune, Akshay Shelke (28) of Nashik, Ujjawal Ram Awadhesh Kumar Singh (29) from Andheri, Shubhamkumar Singh Pardesi aka Rajput (28) from Nashik, Aditya Shinde (31) from Goa, and Aryan Mishra aka Sinchan Nehra (33) from Lucknow.
