Email ID of a businesswoman in City of Kanpur was hacked and the money meant to be deposited in her account by a Germany-based client was diverted, police said.

"Kailashpuri resident Prerna Verma runs a leather shoe firm and had sent an order to a client in Germany 15 days back," SP West Sanjay Kumar on Wednesday said.

She had sent the invoice of the order to the client through her email ID, he said adding that when Prerna did not receive the payment she called the client which told her that a payment of Rs 40,000 has already been made to her.

On June 23, Prerna found that her email ID had been hacked and the hackers sent an e-mail to her client asking it to transfer the funds to an account through Western Union money transfer.

She complained to the police that Rs 40,000 has already been paid to the hackers by the client and she has asked the client not to transfer any more money, he said. Cyber crime branch has been asked to look into the matter, the SP said.