Check your online bills, cops warn traders

According to sources in the Chennai Crime Branch (CCB), an international crime syndicate intercepts the emails of export and import traders based in Chennai, manipulates the invoices and siphons off the money. The CCB has already got 6 complaints from traders, who have lost Rs 40 lakh. 

“When a purchase invoice is being sent to a supplier with details of the products that the trader needs, the supplier will send back the details of consignment despatch and payment details back to the trader. The crime syndicate, which enters the scene here, hack these mails, change the payment details and add a bank account that they clandestinely operate. The trader, without cross checking, will deposit the money to the account number mentioned and the payment is gone,” a senior CCB official told DT Next. “They realise the fraud only when the supplier contacts them for payment,” the official added. 

He said the crime syndicate appears to be ‘efficient’ in forging invoices and letter heads of these trading firms. “They are also expert in phishing as they duplicate the sites and mail boxes so that the communication between parties involved in the transaction lands in the mail boxes of the syndicate,” the official added. “Earlier, they used to operate from within the country. Now, they have shifted abroad and we are unable to track the IP addresses as most of them are in Africa,” he said. 

The fraudsters sitting in remote corners of the world hack the emails of trade partners. Once the mail is hacked, they alter the invoices and bills attached with the mail and forge new ones. Then, they provide a bank account used by them. The fraudsters also duplicate websites and mail boxes of trading companies to spy on the communication. Once they zero down on a possible high value transaction, they hack the mails sent between the trade partners.