A man attached to the INOX Group as a senior accounts executive in Mumbai was allegedly duped of as much as Rs 10.40 crore after receiving WhatsApp messages from a number he believed belonged to the company’s Executive Director, Siddharth Jain, the police said. According to police, the digital fraud was executed two weeks ago and the police ended up arresting four people in connection with the case.
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Executive targeted through impersonation on WhatsApp
As per a complaint filed with Mumbai Police, Girish Amin, employed as the Deputy General Manager in the company’s accounts division, received a message on WhatsApp on June 3 from a mobile number claiming to belong to Jain. The sender allegedly asked Amin to save the contact as a ‘very personal number’ and directed him not to share it with anyone. To add to his credibility, the sender set Jain’s photograph as his WhatsApp profile picture, convincing the veteran employee that the messages were genuine.
Amin, who has been employed at the company for more than three decades, allegedly complied with the instructions after the sender informed him that he was entering a meeting and would not be available for calls.
Shortly after this, the sender shared his bank account details with Amin and asked him to transfer Rs 46.50 lakh. Believing that the request had been made by a senior company executive, Amin authorised the transaction from the company’s bank account.
Rs 10.4 crore transferred to crooks in 63 transactions
The investigating police personnel said the impersonator continued to issue similar instructions over WhatsApp between June 3 and June 15, 2026. Acting on the directions, Amin allegedly kept on transferring funds to multiple beneficiary accounts named by the sender. By the time he learnt about the fraud, he had already made 63 transactions amounting to Rs 10.4 crore.
Senior officials from Mumbai Police confirmed that a complaint had been received by the South Cyber police station and that legal proceedings were in progress.
Accounting query blows the lid off the fraud
The scam came to light on Tuesday when Amin contacted Jain through official channels to obtain invoices and supporting documents related to the transaction for accounting purposes. To his shock, Jain informed him that he had never contacted him in this regard. Realising that he had been duped, Amin immediately approached the National cyber-crime helpline 1930, filed a police complaint and submitted screenshots of the WhatsApp conversations as evidence.
Four held under operation CyHawk
Meanwhile, the officials probing the case achieved a breakthrough in Delhi when officials at a branch of the IDFC First Bank in Jasola alerted police about two men trying to withdraw Rs 8 lakh in cash.
The alert was part of heightened monitoring under Operation CyHawk, an initiative aimed at curbing cyber frauds and identifying suspicious banking activity.
The police detained the suspects, identified as Vansh and Vikas, who allegedly admitted to renting out their bank accounts in exchange for commissions. Upon their disclosure, the cops were redirected to two handlers named Faiyaz Alam and Amit, who were arrested from Madanpur Khadar.
As per police, Faiyaz confessed that he had been promised a 2% commission to arrange bank accounts used for routing money obtained through cyber frauds. Police are persevering in efforts to trace the alleged mastermind, who is at large.