Mumbai: Andheri firm loses Rs 10 lakh in email spoofing attack

The fraudsters sent an email from an ID that was almost identical to the one being used by the Chinese company for official correspondence. Representation pic

An Andheri-based company, which is in the business of manufacturing refractory glass and buys the raw material from China, has become the latest victim of email spoofing and lost nearly Rs 10 lakh to suspected Chinese scammers.

Andheri police have registered an FIR and its cyber wing is investigating the complaint filed by Refractory Shapes Pvt Ltd In its complaint. The company said that it has been buying raw material from China for the past 20 years. Since August 2020, its supplier has been Triple H China Limited, the complainant said. On May 10, 2022, Refractory placed an order for 54,000 kg of white tabular alumina worth Rs 32,60,328 and the correspondence took place via "official email IDs of both our [export@refshape.com] and the Chinese company [baile@huaomaterial.com]".

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"As per the agreement, we were supposed to make a 30 per cent advance payment and on May 11, the Chinese company shared their account details in an email communication," read the complaint. However, the same day, Refractory Shapes Pvt Ltd received another email, this time from a different ID - baile@huaomaterial.com.hanwhas.com. "We were asked to transfer the advance amount to another account with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China," the complaint read.

The company transferred Rs 9.82 lakh and shared the transaction details on the same email ID for confirmation. However, when it did not receive any response, the company contacted the general manager of Triple H China Limited, who told them that they had not received any payment. Andheri cops suspect that someone within Triple H China Limited shared the private communication details with the fraudsters, who then created an almost identical email address to dupe the Indian company.