Producer Ronnie Screwvala's NGO loses Rs. 34 lacs over spoof emails

20 Jul 2016

Film producer Ronnie Screwvala's foundation Swades became a victim of a scam as the account of the NGO was robbed off Rs. 34 lacs through spoof emails. The Cyber Crime Division is currently investigating case and arrests have been made across the city.

One of the top financial officials in Swades, the NGO run by Ronnie Screwvala and his wife Zarine, received emails from Ids bearing Ronnie Screwvala's name on July 5, firstly asking about the account balance and then a transfer a sum of Rs. 20.20 lacs was asked to be made to an account whose details were specified in the mail. Followed by the incident, a similar one occurred a few days later, where a sum of Rs.14.16 lakhs was asked to be transferred to a different account this time. While the official followed the instructions obediently, when yet another email enquiring about the balance of the account was received, she contacted Ronnie over the issue sensing trouble. They discovered that the mails have been spoofed and immediately taking action approached the Cyber Crime Cell.

Recent investigations reveal that the accounts belonged to a certain Ketan Kanojia and they even found fake accounts created in the name of Avinash Mishra ad Sandeep Singh which had Ketan has a beneficiary. Other names in this case include Akhilesh Mishra, whose account too was involved in the fraud, which had Vishal Jaiswal as the beneficiary. While Ketan and Vishal have been arrested, a certain Jigar Shah in Malad is expected to be involved in the scam. Appreciating the Cyber team's efforts, Ronnie added that already a sum of Rs. 22 lakhs is recovered. On the other hand, police claims that a deep nexus of these fraudulent individuals who rob businessmen and high officials' account by spoofing emails have been busted due to this case.