An unemployed villager who fell for a phishing text on his mobile phone travelled a thousand miles from his village to the BBC office in New Delhi to claim the cash he believed he won in a 'BBC lottery'.
Forty-one-year-old Ratan Kumar Malbisoi received the text in 2012 that said he had won "the BBC's national lottery for 20 or 30 million rupees ($319,000-$478,000; £194,000-£292,000)", the BBC reported.
"I was asked to send my details so that they could send me the money," the story on the BBC website quoted him as saying.
Malbisoi apparently got in touch with the scammers and emailed them his bank details and account statement. They demanded that Malbisoi send Rs 12,000 first to an RBI account before they sent the entire promised amount.
"The caller said he was the BBC's chancellor. He spoke really well. He promised me a large sum of money but said I would have to first send 12,000 rupees so that he can transfer the money into an RBI account," he said.
The BBC reported that he spoke to them several times over the past two years. In the end, he travelled about 1,700km from his village in Orissa to the BBC office in Delhi after borrowing money from friends. He spent the night at the platform and arrived at the BBC office in the morning.
The BBC said he reached his village safely, albeit disappointed for returning empty-handed.
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