SHENZHEN Internet users who disclosed their bank account details on a Web site offering to give them money for nothing had their accounts hacked and money stolen, the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported Thursday.

A victim who refused to give his name said 5,000 yuan had been stolen from his bank account Wednesday afternoon after he posted his name and bank account number in the Guba.com.cn forum on the popular Web site Eastmoney.com.

The victim said he read a message on the forum written by a man who claimed to have made more than 300 million yuan (US$40 million) Wednesday trading China Merchant Bank options, which jumped 242.47 percent that day.

The writer of the message said he had decided to give 100 million yuan of his earnings to individual investors who had lost money in trading.

The message quickly caught the attention of other Internet users, although some were a bit skeptical. “Money will never come so easy like this,” one of the replies read.

However, many people responded to the message, posting their bank account details.

An unnamed user who claimed to be a university student posted a message saying that he had invested all his money in the stock market hoping to earn some pocket money for the next academic year. However, he lost all the money including his tuition fees.

The newspaper said the student user disclosed his bank details on the forum so that the “Samaritan” could transfer some money into his account.

Some other names and bank account numbers were also left after the message, the newspaper said.

Two hours later, the student user posted a message claiming his bank account balance had increased by 3,000 yuan. “Although I don’t know who you are, I really appreciated you and your money,” his post said.

Two other users posted messages saying they have received donations in their bank accounts.

The victim said he then trusted the message.

“I lost a large part of my savings trading the options. I lost my mind to have believed what the message said,” he said.

The newspaper said a number of other people also reported that their money had been stolen.

An unnamed IT engineer maintaining the Web site of a large State-owned bank said it was likely that the passwords of those bank accounts have

been decoded by hackers after they obtained the account names and numbers. “Never disclose any information of your bank account online,” the engineer said.

(Claudia Wei)