In a meticulously planned cyber fraud, unidentified persons allegedly duped an Ahmedabad-based company, Jagat Agrotech Private Limited, of ₹60 lakh after sending a fake email resembling an official communication from the Income Tax Department.
As per the complaint lodged at the Cyber Crime Police Station, the fraudsters sent an email to the company’s official email ID on September 9. The email, in Hindi and English, purportedly came from the Government of India’s Ministry of Finance and Income Tax Department. It alleged irregularities in the company’s tax filings and directed the firm to submit documents within 72 hours.
The email contained a link for ‘downloading’ the documents. Believing it to be genuine, the company accountant and tax consultant Anish Kumar, who filed the FIR, clicked the link multiple times but was unable to download any files. Unknown to him, the link allegedly contained malware, which allowed the fraudsters to gain access to his computer system.
WhatsApp account compromised
Investigators said the hackers gained remote access to the complainant’s computer and infiltrated the WhatsApp Web account running on it. They reportedly changed the contact details of Jagat Agrotech’s director, Prahladbhai Rathi, in Anish Kumar’s phone. The director’s number was replaced with the fraudster’s number, but was saved under the same name.
On September 25, around 1.58 pm, a WhatsApp message was sent to the accountant from this fake contact, instructing him to transfer ₹60 lakh from the company’s Union Bank account to another account held by FYT Flyutravel Private Limited, Bank of Baroda
Believing the message to be from his employer, Anish Kumar prepared a company letter to authorise the transfer and instructed the bank to execute it. The transaction of ₹60 lakh was carried out the same day.
Suspicion raised a day later
The following day, the complainant received another WhatsApp message from the real number of director Prahladbhai Rathi, asking for details of a ₹3.7 crore transfer. Realising discrepancies in the messages, the accountant contacted Rathi directly, who denied sending any such instructions. It was then discovered that the earlier ₹60 lakh transfer had been made to a fraudulent account.
Further inspection of the WhatsApp chat revealed that the conversation history with the fake number had been altered, and the hacker had deleted prior messages. The company soon realised that the fraudulent WhatsApp identity had been created after the accountant’s system was infected by the malicious email link.
Cyber helpline contacted
Following the discovery, the complainant immediately called the national Cybercrime Helpline (1930) and registered an online complaint. Subsequently, he approached the Cyber Crime Police Station, Ahmedabad City, and lodged a formal FIR on October 09.
The case was registered under relevant sections of the Information Technology Act and BNS about cheating, impersonation, and criminal conspiracy.
The police said the fraudulent email and WhatsApp messages have been preserved as digital evidence. “We are tracing the IP address of the email sender and the bank account into which the money was transferred,” a senior official said.
