A private university in Pune got duped of Rs 2.46 crore by a cyber fraudster posing as a professor from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-Bombay). The fraudsters allegedly promised to fund joint research projects for the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
In this case, an FIR was lodged on 6th September by the Chief Education Officer of the private university. The scam occurred between 25th July and 26th August this year. It began with the university’s Chief Education Officer receiving a message from the name of a former Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) vice-chancellor. The message mentioned a person as an ‘IIT Mumbai professor’, who claimed to provide details of a Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) project worth ₹28 crore.
The cyber fraudsters manipulated the administration of the private university to make three transactions totalling Rs 2.46 crore. The cyber criminals convinced the university administration that they could access government-aided research grants.
The fraudster told the CEO that to secure eligibility the said projects, the university needed to transfer 2 percent of the project cost, 56 lakhs, within three hours. On 25th July, the varsity officials made that payment. A few days after, the fraudsters contacted the university officials again. This time, they promoted an ‘AI technology project’ worth Rs 28 crore. This time as well, the varsity officials sent Rs 46 lakh on 30th July to the fraudsters.
On 7th August, the cyber criminals manipulated the university management into funding a ₹72 Crore machine learning project. Unaware of the scam ongoing, the management of the said university in Pune, made an additional payment of ₹1.44 crore. The cybercriminal also sent all the project related information from a fraudulent mail address.
The cybercriminal posing as IIT Bombay professor had assured that on 28th August, there would be a meeting in Pune to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU). However, the meeting did not happen. This raised suspicion and the varsity officials contacted the actual IIT professor who was being impersonated to carry out this fraud. The actual professor denied any involvement in the so-called projects. As the university officials realised that they have been defrauded, they filed a complaint with the Cyber Police, based on which, an FIR has been registered.
“The fraudsters had given very elaborate details of these so-called projects, making the private university administration believe them. We have launched a probe into the contact details and bank account numbers used by the fraudsters,” a cyber police official said.
Speaking about the fraud, a spokesperson for the university in question said, “Clear SOPs and due diligence processes are maintained for all collaborations. This was a unique case of impersonation in which the documents and communication were made to look authentic. Once the fraud was detected by internal mechanism, the transfers were stopped, and a cybercrime complaint was filed immediately.”