Yet another fake e-mail. But this time with the new RBI Governor’s signature has now become the latest trick of scamsters to deceive the public.

This particular fraudulent mail comes after the Nigerian letter scam which again mentioned Reserve Bank of India, although, RBI has reportedly said that they never contact people through uninvited phone calls, e-mails and messages. Cautioning people about this bogus lottery message, Dr. Raghuram Rajan,RBI Governor, said that his name was mentioned in a meeting of “United Kingdom Lottery Promotion Council” with a “Senate Tax Committee on Finance”, which supposedly did not exist.

But it is such kind of names and details that many fall prey to, particularly those who don’t have much knowledge about technology, cyber security and the committees that exist in banks. Only those who read papers regularly would have more awareness and knowledge about such crimes.

S.N. Ravichandran, co-anchor, Data Security Council of India, said that this was a very old trick that started in the late 14th and 15th centuries. He said that even an 8th or 9th grade student could create a website, uploading false details and with the free Wi-fi availability at Race Course made it even more convenient for scamsters.

In 2010, he and a team of officials caught a few Nigerains for an RBI fraud in Delhi and he blames the country for allowing Nigerians to study computer courses and give them a stipend too.

A. Soundarajan, Associate Professor of PSG College of Technology, said that people above the age of 23 were the ones who usually got caught in such crimes. “This is a generation where youngsters want to explore the Internet and crack some data now that there are tutorials on youtube on how to hack and what not. One in seven adults tend to believe in such messages mainly because they are ignorant and believe they are secure about their mode and means of communication. The Government should introduce more policies under cyber security and make sure people are less ignorant, yet aware about cyber crimes or unsolicited messages via media forms”.

He has decided to set up a Round Table Discussion with students about the cyber crimes and its effects.

The public must be aware of the fact that RBI never sends personal messages and they never ask for personal account details and whenever they receive any such message, they should inform and find out from any officials or banks to confirm such offers.

Krishna S. Paneli, Assistant Manager, Axis Bank, said that usually such messages directly go to the spam and if they received complaints they would start creating awareness on a regular basis so people were more cautious.