Cyberfrauds pose as university president, dupes accountant of Rs 1.4 cr

Bengaluru: Karnataka Cyber Command on Thursday said it had arrested four people for allegedly impersonating the president of a deemed university in Bengaluru and duping an accountant into transferring Rs 1.40 crore.The arrested are Annayya, 25, from KR Puram; Buspalli Ravikumar Reddy, 26, from Parasanapalli in Andhra Pradesh; Ambaraya, 39, from Afzalpur in Kalaburagi; and Syed Wajihuddin Quadri, 25, from Hyderabad. A key suspect, Sunny alias David, is absconding.Investigators said Sunny had asked Annayya to lure friends and acquaintances into opening bank accounts and hand over the account details and passbooks to him.The suspects sent a malware-laced zip file to the institution’s staff, gaining access to a system through the Chrome browser and logging into WhatsApp Web. They then downloaded institutional data and monitored financial transactions for 15 to 20 days, the investigation revealed.Teacher dupes autorickshaw driver of Rs 10 lakh with fake promise of govt jobs for his children in MaharashtraUsing a fake WhatsApp profile bearing the university president’s photograph, the suspects contacted the accountant, sought details of the university’s bank balance and instructed him to transfer Rs 1.40 crore. Believing the messages were genuine, the accountant complied.The money was transferred to accounts controlled by the suspects. Foreign IP addresses were used during the transactions, the Cyber Command said.Officials recovered Rs 8.50 lakh in cash linked to an online fraud case in Aurangabad, besides four mobile phones used in the offence.Interrogation revealed that the suspects had used more than 60 “mule accounts” in 22 online fraud cases across several states, officials said.The investigation was overseen by Pronab Mohanty, Director General of Police, Cyber Command.

Source: Deccan Herald