Bhagalpur, April 18: Cellphones have gone ?spooky? in Bhagalpur.

Mobile users in the east Bihar town and its adjacent areas are getting calls with strange noises and promises of a fortune from unknown numbers. The calls started around four weeks ago.

Residents of Bhagalpur, Sabaur, Nathnagar and Ghogha claimed that most of the calls carried the promise that they would become crorepatis if they visit Lal Kothi after dark.

An educational institution used to run from Lal Kothi, where post-mortem is conducted these days. No one has reportedly has fallen for the ?bonanza? so far.

Ashwini Kumar Jha, a tutor at Par Excellence Institute, Ishak Chak, told The Telegraph that he received ?weird? calls from 94158 17689, 94158 17683 and 94334 22350 last week. In his case, too, the calls were about strange noises and a change in fortune.

Jha said: ?I tried calling up the numbers and either heard incoherent voices or found the phone switched off.? The teacher brought the matter to the notice of the service providers, who dismissed the calls as a prank.

The voices, said sources, sound real and not recorded.

When the correspondent dialled the said numbers, the first and the third were switched off while the second one was not in use. The third number, curiously, is a BSNL number in Bengal.

Those who do not buy the ghost theory said a virus must be at work as several mobile sets have crashed or turned blank after receiving the calls.

Vishwas Kumar, a resident of Sabaur, claimed to have received a call from the Lal Kothi ?ghost?. He has not received any calls from unknown numbers since then. Kumar?s handset developed a snag after the spooky call.

Police, however, said they were yet to receive any complaints and dismissed the calls as a ?small-town rumour?.

?It can be a case of misuse of technology. The fear will soon die down,? said a senior police official.

Mobile service providers, BSNL, Airtel, RIM and Reliance Telecom, do not find any merit in the complaints. ?At worst, it can be a hardware problem or virus attack,? said an Airtel executive requesting anonymity.