Jaipur: Cybercriminals allegedly hijacked a company director’s WhatsApp identity, recreated his earlier conversations with the firm’s accounts head and persuaded him to transfer Rs 6.8 crore to three bank accounts in one of Jaipur’s biggest ‘boss scams’, police said.Rajasthan Police’s Central Cyber Crime Police Station Thursday arrested two more accused in the case, including the director of a Punjab-based firm whose account received Rs 2 crore of the defrauded money. The arrests have taken the total number of accused held in the case to six.The arrested accused were identified as Sandeep Kumar, a firm director from Bathinda, Punjab, and Baraiya Ram, a bank account holder from Bhavnagar, Gujarat.Additional DGP (Cyber Crime) Vijay Kumar Singh said the fraudsters first gained access to the complainant company’s computer system. They blocked the director’s number on WhatsApp Web, saved their own number under his name and profile picture and recreated earlier WhatsApp conversations.The fake conversations helped them gain the accounts head’s confidence, after which Rs 6.8 crore was transferred from the company account to three bank accounts. None of the company directors had authorised the transactions, police said.Police said that an accountant at a private company in Jaipur filed a complaint at the Central Cyber Crime Police Station on August 25. According to the complaint, cyber fraudsters exploited a technical vulnerability in the accountant’s computer on August 24 to gain access to his WhatsApp account. The accused then sent him messages using the company director’s name and profile photo, and, posing as the director, instructed him to make an immediate payment via RTGS. Police on Tuesday had arrested four persons.The money was then allegedly moved through mule accounts, ATMs, cheques, UPI, QR codes and digital wallets before being converted into USDT cryptocurrency and routed further.Police said Sandeep had offered his corporate bank account for rent through Instagram and Telegram in return for commission. He opened the account around 15 days before the fraud and allegedly handed over its cheque book, ATM card, Aadhaar, PAN and SIM to the cybercriminals.After Rs 2 crore was deposited into the account, he was allegedly called to Reengus and kept at a hotel while the account was operated by the fraudsters. His transactions and commission were communicated through Telegram, police said.Baraiya allegedly provided his account, signed cheques, ATM card and passbook for Rs 10,000-15,000. Police said Rs 3.94 lakh of the fraud proceeds was withdrawn from his account through a cheque.Investigators are now analysing WhatsApp records, call details, CAF IDs and IPDRs and tracing the complete money trail. Police said the money was routed through several accounts after leaving the first beneficiary accounts and raids were being conducted in other states to identify more accused.
