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Cell phoney: When the reporter called the number on the text message he received (left), Andy Gray (above) answered the phone and told us how to get the Rs 4.1 crore

People just do not learn from other's experiences. The  Nigerian email scams duped thousands of as many dollars. Now, a global scam targeting Nokia mobile phone users has been doing the rounds. This reporter received a message on his Nokia phone yesterday, which went like this: Congratulation. Your lucky mobile number won 4,97,000 Pounds (Rs 4.1 crore) in Nokia UK promo.

For claims send name, address and email add to claimsnokia4@live.co.uk). We called up the number flashed on the SMS, +23470341043, and the mobile number we were asked to text on, +44 703 5922 439.

The phone was answered by a person who identified himself as Dr Andy Gray, a 'Nokia' cash officer. He said he was assigned to winners from Asia and Europe.  Gray asked us to fill in the verification form and said we would be charged £900 (Rs 76,000).

The amount had to be sent to addresses and accounts in the United Kingdom and Nigeria and in exchange we would get £497,000 and a Nokia N-95 series handset.

He explained that Nokia UK was marking its 142nd anniversary and they had earmarked £40 million (Rs 336 crore) on the occasion. And that the message had been sent to 3,00,25,000 winners' drawn from Australia, New Zealand, the Americas, Asia and Africa. He said a World Bank cheque of £497,000 could be cashed in any bank and that the diplomatic service would be hired to ensure that the cheque is delivered at our doorstep.

Devinder Kishore, director marketing, Nokia India, confirmed that the SMS was a scam. "Nokia is aware that recently there have been several hoax messages and lottery campaigns, sent via email or SMS, purporting to originate from Nokia. Nokia has not initiated any such campaigns and has nothing to do with them. The messages have been sent via parties that are not associated with Nokia in any way."

Duped!

But of course, there are those who want to believe the message.

We spoke to Rajesh Silvam (name changed), employed with a supermarket chain in UAE. He responded to the text message and was promised delivery of the bank draft at his office. "I took a bank loan and paid (Dh 10,000), but did not get the draft. It all seemed so real at first, but I was cheated. They were not reachable on the phone numbers they had provided," he lamented.

Kishore warned, "Please do not reply to these messages or pass them on, as it is possible that your personal information could be misused by the originators of the message. The most effective action is to delete the messages without responding to the sender."