Nagpur: A company based in Butibori allegedly lost ₹34.50 lakh after cybercriminals hacked or compromised a machinery supplier’s email account and sent fake bank account details, prompting the company to transfer an advance payment to an unauthorised account.

According to the complaint filed by Abhay Sitaram Pandey (34), an HR manager with Eros Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, Butibori, the company was looking to purchase a roll-forming machine worth ₹1.15 crore for its regular operations.

The company contacted its regular vendor, Divine Machines Pvt Ltd, through its official email address, contact@divinegroup.com. The vendor reportedly informed the company that 30% of the machine’s cost had to be paid as an advance and sent a proforma invoice directing the payment to its Bank of Baroda account.

However, on September 30, an email allegedly sent from another address through the existing email thread instructed the company to transfer the advance to a new Canara Bank account, claiming that the vendor’s bank details had changed.

Trusting the email, the company transferred ₹34.50 lakh through RTGS on October 3.

The fraud came to light on October 5 when the company’s purchase officer contacted the genuine vendor’s director, who said that the payment had not been received and that the company did not have any Canara Bank account. He also reportedly said that the vendor’s email account had been hacked and that no new bank details had been sent.

Following the complaint, Sitabuldi police registered a case under Sections 318(4), 319(2), 336(3), 338 and 340(2) of the BNS, along with Sections 66(C) and 66(D) of the Information Technology Act, against unidentified persons.

Police are investigating the alleged email compromise and tracing the bank account into which the money was transferred.