Surat: The Cybercrime police of Surat city arrested a 26-year-old man from Haryana for his alleged involvement in a Rs 40 lakh ‘Boss Scam’, in which fraudsters impersonated a company owner on WhatsApp and duped an employee into transferring money from the company’s bank account.The accused, Naveen Jaat, a resident of Gorakhpur village in Haryana’s Fatehabad district, was arrested following a technical investigation.DCP (Cybercrime) Bishakha Jain told TOI, “The complainant received a ZIP file containing a malicious electronic script via WhatsApp from an unknown mobile number. The fraudster subsequently created a fake WhatsApp profile using the complainant’s photograph and contacted the company’s accounts department, posing as its owner. After obtaining information about the company’s bank balance, the fraudster allegedly persuaded the accountant to transfer Rs 40 lakh from the company’s IndusInd Bank account.”Investigations revealed that Jaat allegedly arranged bank accounts for use in cyber fraud. Police said he had earlier lured another accused, Amit Subhash, 21, with the promise of sending him to Dubai and got firms registered in his name. Bank accounts were subsequently opened in the names of these firms and allegedly used to route proceeds of cybercrime.“Jaat allegedly obtained three bank accounts by paying a commission of Rs 5,000 and later handed them over to an absconding accused for use in cyber fraud in return for a commission of Rs 40,000. The investigation further revealed that transactions totalling Rs 53.06 lakh were carried out through the IndusInd Bank current account used in the crime between April 8 and May 24, 2026,” Jain said.Police said Rs 18.5 lakh had been refunded to the complainant so far. During the investigation, seven bank accounts from different banks were also found on Jaat’s mobile phone. Verification through the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal revealed that one of these accounts was linked to another ‘Boss Scam’ complaint involving Rs 87.6 lakh in Maharashtra.
