By UnderCover Editor News Agency

“Revealing what matters”

A shocking case of cyber deception has emerged in Mumbai, where a city-based maritime company fell prey to a sophisticated email scam and lost ₹30 lakh to fraudsters — all because of a single altered alphabet in an email address.

According to the Mumbai East Region Cyber Police, the fraudsters impersonated a long-term business associate of the company — a US-based firm — by creating a nearly identical email ID. Instead of the genuine “finance3@air7seas.us”, the conmen used “finance3@a1r7seas.us”, replacing the letter “i” with the number “1”.

Believing the communication to be genuine, the maritime company followed instructions from the fraudulent email and transferred payments worth ₹29 lakh to a new bank account provided by the imposters. The transactions took place over several weeks in September.

It was only on October 3 that the truth surfaced — when the Mumbai company contacted their US partners, they were informed that no such payment had been received and that no bank account changes had been requested. On closer inspection, the minor but critical alteration in the email address was noticed.

An FIR has since been registered at the East Region Cyber Police Station under relevant sections of the IT Act and IPC.

A senior police official explained, “This is a classic ‘Man-in-the-Middle’ cyber attack. Fraudsters intercept email communications between companies, clone official IDs with minor changes, and then redirect payments to their own accounts.”

The incident highlights how even seasoned corporate firms can fall victim to subtle digital fraud tactics. Cyber experts urge businesses to adopt two-step email verification for financial transactions and confirm any account changes through verified phone calls or video conferences before processing payments.

The police are tracing the money trail and coordinating with banks to identify the fraudulent account holders.