CFO of vehicle dealership sends Rs 1.94 crore at request of ‘MD’, later realises he’s been conned

Hyderabad: An automobile dealership in the city was defrauded of Rs 1.94 crore by unidentified persons who tricked the company’s chief financial officer (CFO) into transferring money to specific accounts by posing as the company’s managing director (MD).A

ccording to a complaint lodged by MSN Murthy, the CFO of Jasper Industries Pvt Ltd, the fraudsters initially messaged him from a WhatsApp number which had the name and display picture of the company MD Sumanth. In the message, the fraudsters, impersonating Sumanth, told Murthy that it was the MD’s new number and asked him to save it. Subsequent WhatsApp messages exchanged on July 7 from the number appeared routine.On July 8, the impostor abruptly requested an urgent transfer of Rs 1.94 crore for a new project, promising further details upon returning from an outstation trip. Believing the request to be genuine, the finance head initiated a same-day RTGS payment from Jasper’s Karur Vysya Bank (KVB) account to a bank account of Lakshya Enterprises, linked to the Agra branch of IndusInd Bank. Moments after the fund transfer went through, the executive phoned the MD on his original number and realised no such instruction had been given.

The company immediately alerted officials of KVB who had their branch in the same building, and contacted the national cyber-fraud helpline 1930, prompting a freeze request to the beneficiary bank. Based on a complaint lodged by Murthy, a case has now been registered under Sections 66C and 66D of the Information Technology Act and Sections 111(2)(b) (organized crime), 318(4) (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 319(2) (cheating by personation) of the BNS.Investigators are tracing the WhatsApp account, associated SIM credentials and money trail. The preliminary probe revealed that the defrauded amount has been transferred to 54 bank accounts from the IndusInd account. Notices were issued to all the concerned banks to freeze any available amount in those accounts.