Mumbai: A 36-year-old man, posted as second engineer with a private maritime company, lost 12,400 USD (Rs 12 lakh) to cyber scammers while at work on a ship in the
Indian Ocean. While the incident occurred in July, he registered a police complaint earlier this week with the North Cyber Police station after returning home from sea.
Salaries of all employees of the maritime company are given through an
e-wallet. On July 10, the engineer received an email asking for his e-wallet account to be re-authenticated. A link was mentioned in the email which he ignored. On July 17, he got another email asking for e-wallet verification to be carried out within 48 hours.
The engineer was yet to receive his salary for June and was concerned he would lose the amount if he did not proceed with the verification. He clicked on the link provided and logged in with his username and password. He then answered the security questions and logged out after the verification process was completed.
There was no change in the e-wallet balance till July 27. Soon after his salary was credited to the e-wallet, he noticed that the balance was just 209 USD. He noticed three fraudulent money transfers totalling 12,400 USD made from the e-wallet. He then lodged a complaint with the customer care of the e-wallet. Police said the emails he had received were phishing mails. Further investigation is on.
