Quick Facts

• Date: 12/11/2007
• Institution: University of Calcutta
• Type of Incident: Impersonation
• Number Affected: 1
• Source: ESI
• Abstract Source: The Telegraph

Abstract
An unknown individual in Nigeria was able to obtain access to a University of Calcutta professor's e-mail account and used this access to fool a friend of the professor out of money. The account, belonging to Ratan Khasnabish, a business management professor at the University of Calcutta, was used to send an e-mail to a businessman the professor was friends with asking for money to help pay a hotel bill. The businessman, assuming everything was fine, quickly wired the requested $2,500 to help out. However, soon after the businessman received another e-mail asking for more money, this time to help pay for airfare back to Calcutta. The businessman became suspicious. According to the businessman, "I sent a reply in Bengali, written in Roman script, asking the sender to write back to me in the same style. But there was no response. I then called Khasnabish on his cellphone and learnt that he was in Calcutta, not Nigeria." Complaints have been filed with the state home department.