Akshay with the fake deposit certificate. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, Aug. 30: He dreamt of becoming a crorepati overnight, but 20-year-old Akshay Kumar got gypped of a few thousands as he fell prey to a con text message doing the rounds.

Akshay, a student preparing for his engineering examinations, lost at least Rs 19,000, courtesy a phishing text message — which seek out a person’s sensitive information — that he took seriously.

The message, claiming to be from a multinational cola company, was sent last Friday to the cellphone of Akshay’s brother Mukesh Kumar.

Akshay, who approached police today for help, said: “The message said his mobile number had been selected in a draw and he had won a sum of one lakh Great Britain pounds. In order to get the money, we had to call a number in England or could send an email. The email ID as well as the phone number was mentioned in the message. We were elated and started to dream big.”

The student, a resident of Buddha Colony area, emailed his particulars such as address, bank account details and mobile number.

“Soon after I sent the mail, I got a return mail with a scanned copy of the cheque showing the amount and my brother’s name on it. The cheque was signed by the ‘director’ of the cola company. They again sent me an email stating that I would receive a phone call the next day,” Akshay said.

The whole family was euphoric at the prospect of striking gold. On Saturday morning, a person identifying himself as Piterson called them up.

“The phone call came from an Indian number, but the person had a British accent. He said he would land at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi that very day and would then take a flight to Patna to deliver the cheque to me. The same afternoon I again got a call from him informing me that he had reached Delhi. The man said he was in the airport customs and that I had to pay Rs 19,000 to ‘release’ the cheque,” Akshay said.

Akshay said he then smelt a rat, but his reasoning got clouded by the crores he had counted as his winnings.

“I initially refused to pay up. At this, he made me talk to a lady who claimed to be from the customs wing. She told me it was a regulation and that the man was waiting with the cheque. I had calculated the prize amount in Indian currency and it came to around Rs 6 crore. I agreed to pay up and the man gave me an SBI, New Delhi, branch account number belonging to one A. Sharma. Without thinking, I deposited the money in the account. After doing so, I received a mail in the form of a scanned copy from the ‘Indian Customs Office’,” Akshay said.

After a while, Piterson called up again.

“He said he was now going to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for money conversion and that I now needed to pay up Rs 49,000. This got me thinking hard and I refused. To this, he handed the phone to the same lady, who now had turned into an RBI official. I could easily recognise her voice. She told me to deposit the money immediately and mailed me a guarantee letter of the RBI which stated that they were responsible and assured me the prize money would reach me,” Akshay said.

By then, Akshay knew that he had been duped. “I disconnected the call but the man kept calling me saying that if I didn’t pay up, he would be stuck in the airport. I didn’t listen to him and came to the police today. I have also met RBI officials and they told me that I had been duped,” he said.

Patna city SP (Central) Shivdeep Lande said the police would trace the account number in which the money was deposited.

“The mobile number of the person will also be checked. But people should be careful about such things. Nowadays there are so many similar text messages and emails which try to dupe gullible people. There are people who fall into the trap thinking they will become rich overnight. We appeal to the people to stay safe and never believe in such SMSes and emails,” Lande said.