whale phishing

The whale phishing tag covers a reported CEO impersonation scam targeting a Pune engineering company through Microsoft Teams. The attacker used the name and photograph of the company’s Italy-based chief executive, then sent an urgent payment request tied to a supposed government project. The company’s CFO transferred ₹56 lakh before a second demand for ₹1.5 crore prompted a call to the real CEO and stopped a larger loss. This tag focuses on executive impersonation, business email and collaboration-channel fraud, urgent financial requests, and the importance of verifying unusual payment instructions through a trusted communication method.