Megha Engineering And Infrastructure Loses Rs 5.5 Crore In Phishing Scam
As per the terms and conditions of the agreement, MEIL had previously made payments to the vendor upon achieving milestones.
Transmission tower project by Megha Engineering (Source: Company website)
Infrastructure major Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd. was duped of Rs 5.47 crore in a phishing attack by fraudsters who impersonated a representative of the firm's Netherlands-based vendor. The fraudsters used a fake email ID and got MEIL to deposit the amount in two payments into a different bank account.
Based on the complaint, a case under the relevant sections of the BNS and IT Act was registered by the Telangana Cyber Security Bureau on February 13 and further investigation has been initiated, police said on Saturday.
Hyderabad-based MEIL had issued a purchase order for the burner package and a work order for the reaction furnace package to the Dutch supplier M/s Duiker Combustion Engineers.
As per the terms and conditions of the agreement, MEIL had previously made payments to the vendor upon achieving milestones.
In the complaint, a MEIL official said that after each payment, confirmation was sought from the vendor, and the representative of the company confirmed all payments and acknowledged them through his official email ID.
However, in November 2024, MEIL received an email purportedly from a representative of M/s Duiker Combustion Engineers, stating that transactions in the earlier bank account in the Netherlands had been restricted due to court orders.
The email requested future payments to be made to a new account in the USA. The email enclosed bank documents, payment authorisation, etc, the complainant said.
Upon reaching the next milestone in the work order and purchase order, MEIL said it transferred two payments in January this year for an amount of Euros 6,07,800, equivalent to Rs 5,47,02,000, into the new account in the USA.
When MEIL requested Duiker to acknowledge the receipt of the payment, the representative replied via email that they had not received the payments.
As per the FIR, MEIL said its inquiry revealed that unknown persons, impersonating representatives of M/s Duiker Combustion Engineers, sent emails from a fake ID and got payments deposited into an account maintained in the USA instead of Duiker's bank account in the Netherlands, thereby cheating MEIL. Further investigation is ongoing.
