Kerala: Man dupes Qatar's royal family of Rs. 5cr, arrested
The Kerala police on Wednesday arrested a Gulf returnee for duping the Qatar Royal Family of Rs. 5.60 crore by forging email address. The arrested man identified as Sunil Menon runs an online ornament business. Menon, who has been living in various Gulf countries for the last 15 years, hacked the email address of a member of the Qatar royal family. Here's his story.
First Menon hacked Qatar royal's account, then made fake promises
Menon, first hacked into e-mail ID of Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, the sister of Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and heads the Qatar Museum Authority. He then used the id to send an e-mail to the museum informing them about an agreement with an American, Jerome Napolean to sell Amir's painting to the museum. Subsequently, he asked to transfer advance money.
When painting was delayed, museum authorities alerted police
Menon told the museum to transfer Rs. 5.20 crore as an advance payment to Napolean. After the delivery of painting was delayed, the authorities in museum inquired about it, only to learn they were cheated. IT officials in Qatar traced the ID and account to Kerala and informed Indian authorities. He was arrested from Kochi when he tried to flee the country.
With swindled money, Menon bought SUV, gave loans to relatives
"During questioning, Menon told us he used a website (Emkei.cz) to breach the official site of the royal family and managed their IDs and other details," a police officer said. Menon bought an SUV with the swindled money and gave Rs. 20 lakh to relatives. He put Rs. 4.5 crore as fixed deposit. He will be now be produced to court.
