Mumbai: Got a call to withdraw PF? It's a fraud, warns EPFO

MUMBAI: The Employees' Provident Fund Organisattion (EPFO) office at Bandra (east) has submitted a complaint against a person masquerading as its official and attempting to dupe people, especially pensioners, of their hard-earned savings.

The EPFO has warned its members and pensioners to be wary of one "Deepak Sharma" who calls up people for details of their PAN or Aadhaar card by claiming to be "from the EPFO". To lend credence to his claims, he has arranged it such that the cellphone number he calls from is thrown up on search engine Google, the police said.

The EPFO has submitted a complaint at the Cyber Crime police station at Bandra-Kurla Complex and Nirmal Nagar police station on October 18. A criminal offence was slated to be filed on Monday, said an official.

The EPFO's office learnt about a fraudster on the prowl after getting calls from pensioners asking about calls they got from a person seeking personal details for withdrawal of their pension.

"We have also sent details to Google's office to know who uploaded the cellphone number on a phone search directory [Just Dial]," said a police officer.

Cyber crime expert Ritesh Bhatia said such data of subscribers is got either from employees who sell it to make a quick buck or from Darknet markets where it is easily available. Lawyer Vicky Shah, who deals in cyber crime cases, said victims are often told to pay a small fee to get the money into their account.