Man hacks woman's email, dupes her friends of money

The Malabar Hill police on Monday arrested a real estate agent for allegedly hacking the email ID of a woman, sending emails to her friends asking them to transfer money, and later siphoning off the said money. The police suspect he may have duped several others in a similar manner, and are on the lookout for two others in the case. The accused arrested was identified as Dharavi resident Firoz Ali Shaikh.

According to complainant Shanaz Kharag, she received an email from her 'friend' Sandhya Jaiswal saying that she was urgently in need of Rs 40,000 and requested her to transfer the money to a given bank account. The email stated that Jaiswal was abroad and would return the money on returning.

"During the investigation we found that the amount was deposited in a bank account of one Ranji Javed Ali. When we visited Ali's residence we learnt that he has left the place. When we checked his bank statements, we came across four other bogus bank accounts opened by Firoz Shaikh where the money was diverted to later," said a police officer.