It is not unusual for laymen to fall into the trap of cyber fraudsters. But in a rare case that unfolded in Bengaluru, a public sector bank was duped, causing losses to the tune of ₹ 17 lakh to a private company. An FIR has been registered at West CEN police station.
In July, Bengaluru’s main branch of a public sector bank received a letter via email requesting transfer of money. The email ID and the letterhead which it contained were similar to a company that has a cash credit account in the same branch. Both the letterhead and the email id had errors, but had sufficient similarities to fool the bank.
The Managing Director (MD) of the private company talking to The Hindu said the bank also received a call from a person disguised as the MD. Even the caller ID app showed the same name, which led the bank manager to trust the identity of the caller.
The caller said that as he had to make some deposits in two banks, he wanted money to be transferred to those accounts. The caller also enquired about the borrowing limit of the account. Cash credit is a short-term loan approved by banks for businesses, financial institutions, and companies to meet their working capital requirements.
In the letterhead, the fraudsters had forged the signatures of the MD which they are suspected to have accessed online in some of the documents. “The caller asked to transfer ₹9.12 lakh to one account and ₹8.78 lakh to another bank account. The bank diligently made the transfer,” the MD said.
The MD further said the bank failed to recognise that the letterhead and email ID were fake despite such a transaction being requested by the company multiple times. “Although, I was away from the country, I brought this to the notice of the bank the same day and later, after I returned, I filed a complaint. But the money has not been recovered yet and according to me, they should not consider this transfer under my company.”
During the investigation, it was found that the bank accounts to which the money was transferred to belonged to branches in Bihar and the Aadhaar details of the account holder revealed that the address in the Aadhaar card was also wrong.
