Vadodara businessman got hoaxed into an online fraud; police probe successful 

Vadodara cybercrime team stands successfully in getting back 31 lakhs (35,673 euro) of Synergy Traders deposited in a bank in Portugal, as part of a cyber fraud case. 

According to complainant Ramesh Niladhar Shah, who owns a company Synergy Traders at Ellorapark in Vadodara and deals in raw materials of Borosilicate glass tubes. He imports the raw materials from German company SCHOTT AG and transfers the money to their account. The official conversion is done through email at tina.brandner@schott.com.

However, the foreign cybercriminals made the new email ID tina.brandner@schottt.com by adding one extra ‘t’ in their address and contacted Ramesh Shah on 7th October 2021. They mentioned that due to a change in global strategy, the money will not be deposited in the regular bank account in Germany and asked the complainant to deposit money in another account in Portugal.

Shah then transferred 31 lakhs ( 35,673 euro) from his SBI bank account to the Portugal bank account on 8th October for the materials he imported. On 14th October, the company sent an email to Shah about not receiving any money from his bank account.

He made an inquiry in the company branch in Mumbai and came to know that the company has not changed its account and someone with a fake email made him pay the money in the bank in Portugal as part of the fraud.

Ramesh Shah filed a complaint in cybercrime on 15 October, looking at the gravity of the crime, the team got connected with the SBI bank and wrote a letter to Caixa Geral De Depósitos bank Lisbon Portugal, Mumbai branch, SBI Frankfurt Germany branch, and Lisbon cyber crime police station Portugal to stop and refund the payment. 

With quick action, the police team got back the money deposited in the Portugal bank through cyber fraud on 18th October. Further investigation is still in progress to nab the accused.