Flipkart CEO Binny Bansal becomes victim of email fraud; hackers try to swindle $80,000

The email account of Binny Bansal, co-founder and newly-appointed chief executive officer (CEO) of Flipkart, has been spoofed by hackers who were seeking to swindle $80,000 from the company’s coffers.

By forging the email header of Bansal, the hackers sent two emails to Flipkart’s chief financial officer, Sanjay Baweja, demanding $80,000 to be transferred to an account immediately. The fraud was detected and Flipkart has lodged a complaint with the police to investigate the crime.

The incident had occurred on March 1, but Flipkart did not immediately reveal details.

“We would like to clarify it is not a case of hacking. Flipkart’s corporate email system leverages the highest standards of security including, but not limited to two-factor authentication. We have filed a case of email spoofing, which involves the use of a forged email header to make it look like a legitimate email,” said a company’s spokesperson.

The Cyber Police, which is investigating the case, says the emails originated from Hong Kong and Canada and were routed through a server in Russia. Email spoofing is quite a common practice in the world of cyber crime said an official, where hackers impersonate someone who’s known to the sender and very often comes with demands of transferring funds.

“Somebody has tried to impersonate the Flipkart CEO, trying to con them into sending money. They were not seeking any ransom. There is a procedure we will follow. We do catch people in such cases and we will do whatever is necessary in this case too,” said Hemant Nimbalkar, DIG of cyber crimes with the CID.