The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the regulator responsible for safeguarding investors in India, has issued a warning to listed companies and regulated organisations about a rising cybercrime popularly known as the 'Boss Scam', in which fraudsters pose as senior executives to commit financial fraud.
SEBI, in coordination with the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, has alerted companies about the evolving tactics of cybercriminals, who use digital communication platforms to impersonate Managing Directors (MDs) or Chief Executive Officers (CEOs).
According to the market regulator, the scam involves cybercriminals contacting an organisation's finance department and instructing officials to carry out urgent transfers by pretending to be top executives via email, WhatsApp, Microsoft Teams, or other social media platforms.
Because finance departments routinely handle confidential financial instructions from senior executives, fraudulent messages often appear genuine, making them difficult for employees to detect.
While AI-powered deepfake voice duplication methods remain a major threat, AI-generated videos are making it even more difficult for staff to distinguish between genuine and fake identities.
According to SEBI, these criminals may also create fake social media groups to make their communications appear more legitimate.
Sending harmful files containing malware is another technique to bypass detection methods. These files contain malware designed to infiltrate the systems, take over WhatsApp web sessions and allow fraudsters to transmit payment instructions from authentic accounts once they are opened.
The regulatory body then also states that these highly trained hackers may even try to replace the contact information on hacked devices and then plant fake numbers for real ones to trick workers into sending money. “The malware hacks the system and hijacks the active Web WhatsApp session tokens.
The fraudster gets access to the finance officer’s WhatsApp account and then contacts accounts or finance employees, instructing them to make immediate payments to specified mule bank accounts,” SEBI added.
SEBI has instructed all listed and regulated companies to exercise caution while making such transactions and to immediately contact the relevant authority to verify any financial instructions received through email or other digital means.
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