Mumbai police are probing a major cyber fraud in which a finance department officer of INAX allegedly lost Rs 10.40 crore after following instructions received on WhatsApp from an impersonator.
According to the complaint, the officer—who has worked in the company’s finance wing for 31 years—received a message from a new number claiming to be director Siddharth Jain. The sender said he was heading into an urgent meeting, asked not to be called, and directed an immediate transfer of Rs 4.65 lakh to a specified bank account.
The WhatsApp profile reportedly carried the director’s photograph, leading the officer to believe the request was genuine. Over the next few days, he made 63 transfers to multiple bank accounts, eventually sending a total of Rs 10.40 crore.
Suspicion arose when the officer emailed the director’s official office email seeking receipt details, and received a reply stating no such transfer had been requested. He then alerted Mumbai police.
During the investigation, police found suspicious transactions linked to two accounts at an IDFC bank branch in Delhi. The account holders were detained and reportedly said they provided bank accounts to the fraudsters for a commission of Rs 20,000. Cyber crime officials are continuing efforts to trace the flow of funds.
