Surat man held in Rs1.95 crore ‘CEO fraud'
Pune: The Pimpri Chinchwad cyber police arrested a man (22) from Surat in Gujarat on Friday, two days after a "
CEO fraud
" involving Rs1.95 crore on Wednesday.
The cybercriminals, through a text message, convinced a boiler manufacturing company's accountant that the firm's director had requested for the money.
Within four hours of the fraud, the Pimpri Chinchwad cyber police saved Rs1 crore.
The firm's accountant had received a text message on WhatsApp, purportedly from the director of the company in Bhosari MIDC, who is also the CEO's father. The message stated that the "director" needed money for a deal and sought for a cash transfer, mentioning a bank account.
The accountant attempted to call the director's son, the CEO, to confirm the transfer, but the latter's phone was busy.
Without verification, the accountant sent Rs1.95 crore to the account mentioned in the text. He realised his mistake soon.
After receiving a complaint in this connection, senior police inspector Ravikiran Nale of the Pimpri Chinchwad police dispatched two teams to trace the trail of the money transferred. Assistant police inspector Pravin Swami, who led one of the teams, discovered that the account number provided to the company's accountant was of a private bank in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.
The amount was then transferred to different bank accounts.
"We found that some money was transferred to Surat in Gujarat, and someone was withdrawing cash from there," Swami said. He said police sub-inspector Prakash Katkade rushed to Surat and took Jenil Waghela (22) into custody.
"Waghela runs a copyright trademark business. He was found withdrawing the cash. He revealed two more names involved in the racket. Our investigations are on," Swami said.
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