Next time you get an email from the Reserve Bank of India think again? 

An email allegedly from India's central bank, asking denizens to secure their bank account details with the RBI is fake, and an attempt by new-age fraudsters to con people into giving away bank account details and lose hard-earned money, security experts said. 

The email says RBI has launched a new security system, asking users to click on a link to open a page with list of banks in place. Once anyone chooses a particular bank, it asks for all net banking details, including card numbers and the secret three digit CVV number, among others. 

Experts say using RBI logos and its name is just a ploy by conmen to lure people into a sense of false security, hoping to get out all account details. 

"The email is so neat and I for once was thrilled that RBI is taking such a big step to ensure security of people. But at the advise of a friend, I checked with the police and learned that I would have lost all mysavings to this racket," K Manoj, a resident said. 

The RBI has also been flooded with queries from citizens across the country. "I get at least four such calls a day," said a senior RBI official. 

RBI is cautioning people that the central bank, which controls the monetary policy of the Indian rupee, "has not developed any such software and nor has it sent any such mail asking online bankingcustomers to update their account details to secure their online accounts." 

The RBI does not even have any mail id with extension@rbi.com, the central bank says. 

"Members of public receiving such mails should not open the attachment and/or try to download the attachment on their computers. This is a phishing mail and accessing the mail in any manner could result in identity theft," the bank has warned. 

Online theft is a multi-billion dollar business these days and annually about $20-50 billion gets lost through credit card frauds alone, experts say. 

"Online frauds are increasing and predictively so. As your dependency on cyber increases, it concurrently opens up to misuse. People should not panic but awareness must increase in a big way also," said defence analyst C Uday Bhaskar, fellow with the Delhi- based think-tank Society for Policy Studies. 

An RBI spokesperson told TOI from Mumbai that awareness among people was increasing on such issues and earlier they would hear more of such cases. 

The bank is now planning a massive pan-India publicity campaign to educate people on such scams and create awareness about not responding to such emails or messages. 

Some denizens have lodged complaints with the central bank, saying that fraud emails are not just restricted to RBI, but may also allegedly come in the name of Income Tax department,International Monetary Fund and World Bank, with promises of a job or a lottery victory and ask for personal data for security issues. (PTI)