Avadi police arrest Delhi man in ₹1.90-crore ‘boss scam’

The Cyber Crime Wing of Avadi City Police has arrested a 27-year-old man from Delhi in connection with a ‘boss scam’, an online fraud, in which ₹1.90 crore was allegedly transferred from the account of a private company operating in Ambattur Industrial Estate.

‘Boss scam’ is an online fraud in which criminals impersonate a company’s managing director, CEO, or senior executive and trick an employee into transferring company funds to a bank account controlled by the fraudsters.

According to Avadi City police, Soundararajan, general manager of Fluidtherm Design & Development Pvt. Ltd., received a WhatsApp message on August 13, purportedly sent by the company’s managing director. He was induced to transfer ₹1.90 crore to a specified bank account.

Realising later that he had been cheated, Soundararajan lodged a complaint with the Avadi Police Commissionerate’s Cyber Crime Wing, seeking action against those responsible. Based on the complaint, a case was registered at the Avadi Cyber Crime Police Station, and Inspector Mahalakshmi took up the investigation.

The investigation revealed that Deepak Meena (27), a resident of New Delhi, had received the defrauded amount in his bank account. The police also found that he had opened accounts in several banks in his name and allegedly used them for online frauds, including ‘boss scam’ cases.

Acting on bank account details, a team from the Avadi Cyber Crime Wing went to New Delhi and arrested Meena. Mobile phones allegedly used to cheat members of the public were seized from him. He was produced before the Poonamallee court and remanded to judicial custody. The police are taking steps to arrest the other accused involved in the case.