Nigerian among cyber cons arrested for duping bizman

Three men duped him of Rs 15.81 lakh via an email purportedly sent by a supplier

The property cell of the Mumbai crime branch arrested a gang of three cyber fraudsters including a Nigerian national for allegedly duping a South Mumbai-based businessman of Rs 15.81lakh.

The con men allegedly sent him an email that purported to have been sent by one of his suppliers.

They asked him to send the money owed to the private firm to a new bank account. This kind of fraud is known as man-in-the-middle attack.

The accused have been identified as 35-year-old Sanjay Jha, 45-year-old Moses Tula and Nigerian national Kadiri Ali. While the Indian nationals were arrested in Malad, Ali was arrested in Vasai.

According to the police, the complainant manufactures medicines and chemicals and had traded with a supplier for the last several years.

During the lockdown, the complainant had ordered for some medicines from this supplier and was yet to pay him.

On May 12, the complainant received an email from an email ID which looked similar to the supplier's email ID and asked the victim to transfer the pending amount urgently in a new bank account.

The unsuspecting businessman followed the instructions and called the supplier to inform him about the transaction.

When the supplier denied sending such an email, the businessman rechecked the email ID and realised that it was not the original address. There was a difference of only one character in the ID, the police said.

The complainant immediately contacted the Lokmanya Tilak Marg police station and an FIR was registered. The case was transferred to the property cell of the Mumbai crime branch and a team led by Assistant Police Inspector Laxmikant Salunkhe under the guidance of Deputy Commission of Police Shahaji Umap and Assistant Commissioner of Police Shashank Sandbhor started the inquiry.

The police suspect that the accused may have duped others in a similar manner.