Flipkart Story- No hacking, Email was Spoofed

A national daily on Friday reported that Flipkart’s CEO Binny Bansal's email account was hacked and two emails were sent in his name to Flipkart's CFO Sanjay Baweja on March 1, asking him to transfer $80,000. Refuting to these claims, Flipkart later in the day said that email was spoofed and not hacked.

"We would like to clarify it is not a case of hacking. Flipkart's corporate email system leverages the highest standards of security including but not limited to two-factor authentication," it said in a statement.

Company’s CFO Baweja as per the report was taken aback by the nature of the emails and cross checked with Bansal. It was then discovered that Bansal's email account had been spoofed. Flipkart has filed a case of email spoofing which involves the use of a forged email header to make it look like a legitimate email.

“It is a clear case of email fraud. We request internet users not to react immediately to emails seeking money transfers and other monetary benefits,” said Hemant Nimbalkar, IGP, CID-cyber cell.

A spoofed email does not originate from the real source but from a different source with forged names and addresses.