MUMBAI: North region cyber crime police station arrested three persons who posed as officials of a Khar software company, for hacking into the email account of the company and asking a bank to transfer more than Rs 17 lakh from the company account to another company's account. They used a middle man. Cyber attackers generally impersonates one of two parties interacting and sends a message to another party, who believes it is a normal communication.
All three studied up to class XII. Those arrested were Sushil Sharma, 34, a Bihar resident, Arvind Kushwaha, 34, a Gwalior resident and Jogeshwari resident Irshad Solanki, 40.
A software company owner had complained and an FIR was lodged in February. He stated that his company, with its headquarters in Khar have a company account. "In February, the bank received an email from the complainant's company. The sender asked the bank to transfer Rs 17 lakh to an account. The bank followed the instructions. When company officials found that the money was transferred, they went to the bank and told them that they had not sent any such email. Company officials approached police. During a probe, we found the cyber attacker had hacked into the company account," said an officer.
Police collected information about the account where the money was transferred and the perpetrators' internet protocol (IP) address. A team led by DCP Hemrajsingh Rajput arrested the accused. Inspector Mangesh Desai, said, "We have blocked Rs 5 lakh in the accused accounts. We have frozen five bank accounts of the accused. There is an ATM withdrawal, account-to-account transfer and shopping payments from the accused's account." Investigators are checking if the accused committed similar frauds. -Mateen Hafeez
