Pune: Cybercrooks duped a Vimannagar-based engineering products manufacturing firm of Rs73 lakh through spoofing emails between June 2024 and April last year.The firm’s director lodged a complaint with the Pune cyber police on Wednesday.An officer from the cyber police said the complainant’s company belonged to the engineering products manufacturing sector. The firm had contacted its German-based associate to purchase a carton box packing machine. “Their communication was going on through emails,” the officer said.He said cybercrooks either hacked into the email ID of the complainant’s firm or that of their German-based associate and stole the information. The crooks, the officer said, created a fake company and sent a detailed quotation about the carton box packing machine to the complainant’s company. They priced the machine at US dollars 86,747. In the Indian currency, the amount was Rs73.18 lakh as per the exchange rate during the transaction.“The complainant’s firm did not suspect anything and transferred Rs73.18 lakh to the account mentioned in the email. The bank was located in Chicago, the USA,” the officer said.He said that when the victim’s company did not get the machine, they started contacting the fake company, but in vain. They later found out that the firm they were pursuing was fraudulent. “We have registered the case and launched an investigation into the case,” he said.
