Prashanth Madani ,who retired from an MNC last year as a senior executive, was surprised to receive a call from a lady recently who claimed to be speaking from the Employees Provident Fund Organisation in New Delhi.
Much to his surprise, she knew all the relevant details about his office ,the nature of his work in addition to his wife’s name and that she was his nominee. And the fact that he had just retired.
A puzzled Prashanth, taken in initially, became alert when she started asking him details about his bank account, Aadhaar and pan card numbers.
According to the lady, he was set to get a substantial sum from the PF office. All that he had to do to receive the money though was to provide related information about his bank account.
An alert Prashant quickly realised that it was a scam and cut the call. Incidentally, the number could not be traced.
Just as well because the woman was a member of a gang which targeted retirees. Apparently, this scam is not confined to one or two cities, according to an official source.
In another case, a woman who identified herself as Poonam Singh, a journalist who had just retired,virtually giving the same story. In this case though she transferred the call to a person who identified himself as “Mr Patel ,” claiming to be an officer from the EPFO in Bhikaji Cama Place,New Delhi.
The person claimed that Rs 4 lakh was lying in the EPFO’s office in the scribe’s name and would be credited to his bank account once he shared the relevant details, along with the Aadhaar and Pan card numbers. For good measure,he even quoted the number of a file which, he claimed, related to the amount under mention.
Realising that he was being set up, the journalist disconnected the call. Within a month or so, however, the same drama was repeated but this time the call came to the journalist’s wife, asking to be connected to her husband.
The woman caller repeated the story about the amount that was lying in the retiree’s name, adding that it had been sent to the EPFO head office by its Bengaluru unit.
The journalist played along but the woman quickly realised this and cut the call. In fact, she even wanted the scribe to effect a net transfer of Rs 5,000 before the huge sum could be credited into his account,.
Enquiries here, meanwhile, reveal that a lot of retirees have been receiving similar calls.While some who were gullible did become victims of the scam, others have now got alert and are learnt to have reported the matter to the local police.
What they are trying to figure out,however, is the access that these scamsters have to the retirees’ data.