In a recent cybercrime incident, a school's quick reporting and the Central Cyber Cell's response led to the recovery of INR 82.55 lakhs from a phishing scam. The school had been misled by an email that asked for money to be sent to a bank account.
The incident happened at a school in Tardeo, Mumbai. The school had contracted a UAE-based company called Europhone Acoustics to build a cafeteria. The school was in communication with the company between February 23 to March 16. The contract was worth INR 1.74 crore. During that, the fraudsters executed a man-in-the-middle attack, intercepting communications to divert the school's payment to their account.
The scam began when the school received an email from the fraudsters, who were pretending to be the company. The company had sent an original email with the account details of the firm. However, the fraudsters made a copy of it and sent a fake email and bank details to the school.
They convinced the school to transfer INR 87.26 lakh to a Wells Fargo Bank account in the United States. Then, the school sent the money to that account on March 1. Later, the school realized the fraud after contacting the company. The company informed them that they had not received any money.
The school quickly informed the police and their bank about the fraud. The Central Cyber Cell acted quickly. They frozen the funds in transit, but only INR 82.55 lakh were frozen in transfer. The majority of the stolen amount was sent back to the school.
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