Surat: In a sophisticated cyberfraud targeting a company worker, a 61-year-old accountant was induced to transfer Rs 28 lakh from company accounts after a fraudster impersonated his employer in messages.The victim, a senior accountant for a group of companies for 26 years, received a message on June 23 while at work. The sender, posing as the company owner, asked if he was in the office and sought bank account balance details.Believing the request to be genuine, the accountant shared the account balances. The ‘owner’ then instructed him to transfer Rs 18 lakh to a “client” and provided bank account details. The accountant transferred the sum.Soon after, a similar transfer order for Rs 10 lakh came. When the accountant said there were insufficient funds in the same account, the ‘owner’ instructed him to transfer funds from another account.The accountant grew suspicious and discussed the matter with a colleague, who advised him to call the owner. When he attempted to call, the call was disconnected. The ‘owner’ replied via message that he was in a meeting and asked him to call later.Assuming the payments were urgent, the accountant proceeded to transfer the Rs 10 lakh.Later, he discussed the transactions again with a colleague, who reviewed the messages and suspected they were not sent by the owner. The colleague contacted the actual owner, who denied issuing any such instructions.Realizing he had been cheated, the accountant immediately informed the bank to stop further transfers and approached cybercrime police.A suspect malicious file named “RBI.zip” was found on his phone. Police suspect the complainant may have unwittingly opened the file, allowing the fraudster access to his device. Investigators are examining the possibility of phone hacking and tracing the recipients of the transferred funds.
