Lucknow, Oct 12 (IANS): Cyber thugs are now adopting a new modus operandi to dupe people.

A retired IAS officerRam Kunwar, resident of Lucknow's Prag Narayan Road, was duped of Rs 5 lakhs on Wednesday.

Kunwar said he received a message on October 3, informing him that his account had been credited with Rs 29.78 crore and he notified the Central Bank’s Jopling Road branch.

“I complained to the bank manager, who told me the message was not sent by the bank and offered no explanation as to how I got the message. I decided to talk to the zonal manager of the bank but they did not cooperate either and told me to speak to a junior officer of the bank,” he said.

He said he later received a call from somebody who introduced himself as Avinash, a senior officer of the bank.

“He asked me to download the AnyDesk app for resolving the issue (in this case, deletion of the message) and told me that the message of Rs 29.78 crore credited to my account had been deleted. He took details of my bank accounts (in Central Bank and Union Bank) and told me that I had Rs 4.67 lakhs in my savings account in Central Bank. A little later, I received a message of Rs 4.65 lakhs getting deducted from my Central Bank account and Rs 50,000 from my Union Bank account,” the victim said.

SHO, Hazratganj, Pramod Pandey, said an FIR was registered and the case was being investigated.

Cyber experts said it seemed to be a new trick devised by scammers.

“The victim was first sent a message and when he sought clarification, he was duped by being made to end an unnecessary link and thus gaining access to all his bank accounts,” said a cyber expert.