Pune: A cybercrook duped a 42-year-old realtor of Rs 30 lakh on Wednesday by posing as his business partner.The realtor approached Bavdhan police, who registered a case under sections 316 (criminal breach of trust) and 318 (cheating) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), along with relevant sections of the Information Technology Act, against the unidentified suspect.This type of scam is informally known as “CEO fraud” or “boss scam”. Crooks pose as the chief executive or owner of a company and contact senior company officials through a messaging application.The scammer first sends a link to the official. When the link is opened, it installs malware which hijacks the messaging app. It then blocks the CEO or owner’s number on the app and creates an identical duplicate profile with the scammer’s number.Then, the crooks send a message to the official, instructing them to transfer a large sum of money to a bank account. The official, unaware that anything is amiss, does that and loses the money.Senior police inspector Arvind Pawar of Bavdhan police told TOI that in this case, the crook posed as the realtor’s business partner. Around noon on Wednesday, the suspect sent the complainant a message, asking for Rs 30 lakh to be transferred to a bank account.“The complainant did not suspect anything because his partner’s photograph was used as the display picture. He did not check the cellphone number,” inspector Pawar said.As such transactions were routine between the two partners, the complainant transferred Rs 30 lakh from the company’s business account.When the realtor followed up with his partner, who denied ever sending that message, he realised he had been duped and approached the police.“We have written a letter to the complainant’s bank to stop the payment,” inspector P R Shikalgar, who is investigating the case, said, adding that they have traced the money to a private bank account in Ludhiana, Punjab.
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