NewsKarnataka-Mysore

Mysore : An incident wherein a resident of Mysore lost thousands of rupees for the lure of a prize money of crores of rupees, has been reported of late. P Venkatesh, a resident of Manuganahalli on Mysore-Hunasur Road is the man who lost money.

He had  deposited  Rs 16,920 (17-01-2014, State Bank of India) and  Rs 49.710 (20-01-2014 ICICI Bank), thus a total of Rs 66,630 to anonymous bank account numbers.

It is learnt  his mobile had received a message  recently saying he had won a prize amount of Rs 5,06,25,593.77 and that he had to pay certain fees to  get the amount

When Venkatesh replied to the message he was asked to pay a certain amount and accordingly, he had remitted the amount from State Bank of India to a particular account number 20175647415. He then received another message on January 20 asking him to pay the second instalment of Rs 49,710 to another account and Venkatesh had somehow arranged for the cash and remitted the amount to account number 194501500143  from ICICI Bank branch  on Jayalakshmipuram Kalidasa Road of Mysore.

Then Venkatesh had been to Sai Enterprises on VV Mohalla Road to get the challan xeroxed. There the shop owner SN Rajendra grew suspicious when Venkatesh revealed about the message he received.

When he tried to contact the number, a woman who received the call disconnected after  saying another message would be sent. Accordingly there was an email address  asking them to download a letter  and adhere to the instructions.

The letter  under Reserve Bank of India letter head said  he had to pay income tax for the prize amount. It also has an RBI seal and logo mentioning about  Registration and Conversion Fee and a vague signature  of cashier.

The address is given as Regional Director, YH Malegaon, Reserve Bank of India, Regional Officer, Foreign Remittance Department, New Delhi-110001 -and the letter  has the  signature of Smt Lawrence J Sindhi (Secretary, Foreign Exchange Department).

It is believed that fraudulent persons were using such bogus  letter heads of RBI to cheat gullible people.