UNE: In an elaborate case of business email compromise (BEC), a clean-energy firm based in Kothrud was defrauded of ₹7,09,700 by unidentified cybercriminals who spoofed the official email address of a key vendor.
The victim firm, Atrium Innovations Pvt. Ltd., located at Kotibhaskar Business Court opposite Karishma Society in Kothrud, specializes in engineering and constructing Compressed Biogas (CBG), Biofuel, and Liquified Bio-methane plants.
According to the First Information Report (FIR) lodged by Vishal Pradeep Mule (39), Deputy Chief of Staff at the firm, the company had engaged in negotiations to procure industrial cascades and odorizers worth ₹70.97 lakh (₹83.74 lakh with taxes) from Sanmish Energies Pvt. Ltd. The vendor had agreed to receive a 10% advance payment upfront, with the remaining balance scheduled in phased installments.
Official communications were routinely exchanged with the vendor’s genuine representative via [email protected]. However, on September 8, cyber fraudsters interjected using a visually identical spoofed email address—[email protected] (transposing the letters ‘i’ and ‘s’). The impostors sent an updated proforma invoice citing a new State Bank of India account at the Khuian Sawar branch.
Unaware of the minor spelling change in the sender’s domain, the firm’s commercial division routed the invoice to its accounts team. On September 11, accounts manager Komal Akole executed an online NEFT transfer of ₹7,09,700 from the company’s TJSB Sahakari Bank branch in Kothrud to the fraudulent SBI account.
The deception came to light in mid-September after the genuine vendor repeatedly flagged that the advance payment had not arrived. By October 1, outgoing emails sent to the spoofed address began bouncing back. Upon cross-verifying the email headers, transaction logs, and bank account credentials, the management discovered that they had fallen victim to an online imposter scam.
The complainant initially filed an online report via the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal. Because his permanent residential address was listed in Belagavi, the grievance was originally forwarded to the Khade Bazar cyber cell in Karnataka. Following Mule’s formal representation, the complaint (No. 1120/2026) was transferred to the Pune City Cyber Police Station.
A case has been registered against the holder of the spoofed email address, the beneficiary bank account holder (….), and downstream recipients of the siphoned funds under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act. Further investigation is underway to trace the money trail.