Hyderabad: Cybercriminals have targeted Megha Engineering & Infrastructures Ltd (MEIL), leading to a significant financial loss of Rs 5.47 crores (approximately €6.6 million).
The incident involved a sophisticated phishing scheme where the attackers altered a single letter in an email address to deceive the company.
On May 10, 2022, MEIL placed an order worth €14.39 lakh with a company in the Netherlands for essential materials, followed by another order of €7.95 lakh on May 17.
Throughout this period, the company made online payments and received confirmation emails from the legitimate supplier.
However, on November 29, 2024, MEIL received an email claiming that due to court orders, their old bank account was under restrictions and that future payments should be redirected to a new account.
The cybercriminals executed their plan by sending a fake email that closely resembled the legitimate one, changing just one character. This fraudulent email contained new bank account details.
Consequently, on January 24, 2025, MEIL transferred €3.18 lakh to this fake account, followed by another transfer of €2.89 lakh on January 29 after receiving a confirmation email from the scammers.
It was only upon receiving a legitimate email from the Dutch company regarding pending payments that MEIL’s representatives realized they had been duped.
They promptly reported the incident to the Telangana Cyber Security Bureau (TCSB), detailing the total loss of Rs 5.47 crores due to this cyber fraud.
