Automobile company duped of Rs 1 crore via fake WhatsApp messages

PTI, Sep 18, 2022, 9:32 AM IST

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A popular automobile company was allegedly duped of over Rs 1 crore by a fraudster who sent fake messages to the firm’s chief financial officer in the name of its vice chairman and got the money transferred in seven bank accounts, police said on Saturday.

An FIR has been registered in the matter at the cyber crime police station, they said. According to a complaint filed by Vivek Gupta, the Chief Financial Officer of JBM Group, Sector 44, it was on Friday that he received messages on WhatsApp requesting to transfer certain sums to bank accounts indicated in the messages.

“The fraudster claimed to be JBM Group vice chairman Nishant Arya. The WhatsApp profile picture of the caller displayed Arya’s photograph. On verifying the number on Truecaller, it reflected that the number belonged to Arya. Since, I was informed by the sender that he is busy in an important meeting, I could not directly call to make any further enquiry.

”I carried out the instructions of the sender under the bona fide impression that the instructions were coming from my superior Nishant Arya who needed to effectuate these transactions which were both very important and extremely urgent. The sums were transferred from two entities of the JBM Group, namely JBM Industries and JBM Auto. At the request of the sender, the UTR numbers confirming such transfers were also shared on the same WhatsApp chat,” Gupta said in his complaint. He said eight transactions totalling Rs 1,11,71,696 were made in seven different bank accounts. ”The FIR has been registered against the unidentified fraudster under section 419 (cheating by impersonation), 420 (cheating) of IPC and Section 66-D of IT Act at cyber crime police station,” Inspector Om Prakash said.