Cyber fraudsters dupe ₹2.16 crore of pharma company by hacking into its email communication

The cyber crime police are on the lookout for an unidentified person who allegedly hacked into the official email communication between Group Pharmaceuticals Ltd. and Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Hyderabad, and diverted a payment of ₹2.16 crore to a fraudulent bank account.

According to the complaint by Mahesh Babu K., on behalf of Group Pharmaceuticals Ltd., the company was due to receive ₹2.16 crore from Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories for goods supplied as part of their business transactions.

However, on November 3, hackers reportedly gained unauthorised access to the company’s email system and sent a spoofed message from a fake ID impersonating an official representative of the company.

The fraudulent email allegedly instructed Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories’ finance team to transfer the payment to a bank account. Acting on the instructions, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories transferred ₹2.16 crore on November 4 to the said account.

The complainant stated that fraudsters had manipulated the email domain to deceive the recipient.

The company has urged authorities to immediately freeze the fraudulent account and initiate steps to recover and return the misappropriated amount to their legitimate account and take legal action.