Cybercriminals impersonate US firm CEO, draw his salary for seven months

'Since the CEO, who constantly travels between Bengaluru and the US, was a highly paid individual, he seldom checked his bank statements regarding the salary,' a police officer said.

Bengaluru: In an unusual cybercrime, fraudsters impersonated the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of an IT consulting firm headquartered in the US and drew a part of his salary in India, totalling Rs 16.29 lakh, for seven months.

A case has been registered based on the complaint by Harish U C, the HR manager of Kenai Technologies at its office in Bengaluru's Vidyaranyapura.

According to Harish, on January 30, 2024, he received an email on his official email address from r**@kenai-us.com. In the email, the sender identified as the Georgia-based firm's CEO Ram Kasibhatla and sought to change his salary account.

Harish, as per the FIR, responded and asked the sender to email the necessary documents for the change, including the bank account details.

On January 31, the sender responded with a bank account from the Indian Overseas Bank along with the IFSC. The account-changing process was then initiated, said a police official.

From March 31 to October 31, the CEO's salary was credited to the account provided by the scamsters from the company’s official account. 

The FIR said a whopping Rs 16,29,632 was deposited to the bank account provided by the fraudsters. "We have learnt that the CEO drew a part of his salary in India," a senior police officer told DH. "The fraudsters also emailed the office in the US for a change in  the bank account there. It was halted there once the fraud was realised."

In October, Kasibhatla checked his bank account only to realise that the salary had not been credited. He subsequently informed the HR department. The CEO also informed the company that the salary had been pending from March to October.

“Since the CEO, who constantly travels between Bengaluru and the US, was a highly paid individual, he seldom checked his bank statements regarding the salary,” the officer quoted above said. 

Harish, according to his complaint, forwarded the email he received from the fraudsters to the CEO saying that he had requested an account change.

When the CEO denied sending any such email, Harish realised the con and filed a complaint with the cybercrime police and an FIR was registered on November 9 under sections of the Information Technology (IT) Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

A police investigator said that the bank account was local and they have begun tracking the money trail.

"It is found that the HR department had lapses as they failed to verify the email," the investigator told DH.

"In the email, instead of mentioning the IFSC, the suspects wrote 'bank routing number'. There was no name of the account holder. These were some red flags the company should have noticed. Bank routing number is a terminology used in the US and hence we suspect the perpetrators may be based there." 

The investigators are awaiting details of the account from the respective bank.