SriLankan Airlines, the state-owned national carrier, has refuted claims of liability made by a service provider based in Dubai, who alleged that it had not received payment after the airline mistakenly transferred funds to an incorrect account. The airline reported that the service provider had raised concerns over an outstanding payment amounting to AED 974,000.
Upon investigation, it was revealed that the email account of the UAE service provider had been compromised by an unauthorized third party. This individual altered the account details and submitted additional documentation through legitimate communication channels, leading SriLankan Airlines to mistakenly believe they were communicating with the genuine service provider.
In response to the situation, SriLankan Airlines took swift measures to halt any further transactions to the disputed account and notified both local authorities in the UAE and the Criminal Investigation Department in Sri Lanka. The airline stated that investigations are currently underway in both countries.
SriLankan Airlines emphasized that the payment was made in accordance with the legitimate email instructions and accompanying documentation that contained authorized signatures, which were later found to have been fraudulently obtained from the compromised email account of the service provider.
Furthermore, the airline firmly disclaims any responsibility for the service provider’s failure to receive the funds, attributing the incident to the breach of their email system, a situation entirely beyond the control of SriLankan Airlines.
Recently, Sri Lanka has witnessed an increase in similar financial fraud cases, including a notable incident involving a US$2.5 million theft from the Treasury through hacking, and another case where US$625,000 was fraudulently taken from the Postal Department.
