Bengaluru: A businessman fell victim to a cyber crime and lost a whopping Rs 88 lakh recently. He had deposited the amount into a bank account number given by the cyber criminals, who had hacked the email account of a Chinese company from which the businessmen had intended to buy machinery.
The victim, Mr Hayath Khan of Jindal Aluminium Ltd in Dobbspet near Nelamangala, has filed a complaint with the cyber crime police. The police said that Mr Khan was in touch with the Chinese company to buy some machines for his industry.
“He had made several transactions with the company over the last five years and had purchased machines from them. In September, he had placed an order for some machines, and the deal was struck through emails. The company had asked him to pay 10 per cent of the total amount for the machines to be exported,” the police said.
“In one of the mails, it was mentioned that the bank account number had been changed and that he had to deposit Rs 88 lakh as advance into the new account number given. The complainant made the payments in a few installments from September 11 to 30. Some of them were made through RTGS, while others were done through IDBI Bank on K.G. Road. But even after making the payment, he did not receive the machines. Finally, he contacted the company over phone and was shocked to hear that the company had not changed its bank account number and that they had not received any money from him,” the police said.
The complainant later checked with the bank and learnt that the money had been credited into a bank account in England. “Preliminary probe established that the email account of the Chinese company has been hacked. The company officials too have been informed about their email being hacked. We have written to the IDBI bank seeking information on the bank account into which the money was credited. We have sought the name of the bank and where it is located in England,” the police said.
“As the matter involves other countries, we have decided to take the help of Interpol,” the police said.
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