According to various media accounts, the Bengaluru-based Group Pharmaceuticals was due to receive payment from Dr Reddy's Laboratories for goods supplied. On November 3, hackers reportedly gained unauthorized access to the email exchange between both companies and sent a forged email to Dr Reddy's finance department. The fake message, written from a deceptive email address, “KKeshav@Grouppharma.in” instead of the genuine “kkeshav@grouppharma.in”, directed the company to transfer funds to a new bank account.
The finance team, believing the message to be authentic, followed the instructions and transferred Rs 2.16 crore on November 4 to a Bank of Baroda account mentioned in the fraudulent email. Later, when Group Pharmaceuticals contacted Dr Reddy’s regarding the pending payment, the fraud was detected. The company immediately approached the Bengaluru City Cyber Crime Police and requested that the fraudulent account be frozen to recover the funds.
Police has registered a case under Sections 66(C) (identity theft) and 66(D) (cheating by impersonation) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, along with relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, reports The Hindu. The fraudulent account is reportedly linked to an individual based in Vadodara, Gujarat, and further investigation is underway to trace the culprits and recover the siphoned money.
As per Livemint, the incident is a clear case of Business Email Compromise (BEC), a rising form of cyber-enabled fraud where hackers infiltrate legitimate email communications to redirect payments. The publication added, “Cyber frauds have become very common in recent times with both companies and individuals losing significant amounts of funds. Indians lost more than ₹22,000 crore to online scams last year.”
NDTV further reported that the Bengaluru Cyber Crime Police are continuing their probe and have initiated steps to identify those involved in orchestrating the fraudulent transaction.
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