Teacher loses Rs 80,000 in a new Provident Fund scam: Here is what happened

It has been discovered that a 32-year-old teacher based in Navi Mumbai lost Rs 80,000 in a Provident Fund (PF) scam. Here is what happened.

In Short

A 32-year-old Mumbai-based teacher lost Rs 80,000 in an Provident Fund scam.

She was looking for a PF office contact number online.

The scammer tricked her into downloading an app that gave him access to her bank details.

Online scams have been on the rise in India as we are coming across many cases on an almost daily basis. It was recently reported that a Mumbai-based gym owner lost Rs 1.99 lakh while talking to a person posing as an astrologer. A 53-year-old woman also lost Rs 87,000 while trying to order food online. Another individual lost Rs 1.14 lakh to a scammer while trying to sell a juicer via the OLX app. Now, it has been discovered that a young teacher lost Rs 80,000 in a Provident Fund (PF) scam. Here is what happened.

A 32-year-old teacher, who works at a private school in Navi Mumbai was looking for a PF office contact number online. A report from TOI says that the woman got in contact with a cyber criminal who posed as a PF office staff and scammed her of Rs 80,000.

The accused tricked her into downloading an AirDroid app, which gave the cyber criminal remote access to the victim’s phone. After this, the fraudster somehow made her “enter her bank account details along with the confidential MPIN in the app,” as per the cited source.

Once the scammer got bank access, he made 16 unauthorised transactions and transferred Rs 80,000 to his account. The incident took place early last week at around 1:30PM. The victim filed an FIR at NRI coastal police station on April 6. Users are advised not to download any sort of apps that have been suggested by an unknown person or even the ones who poses as a banker or any government official. There are official verified apps for everything and so, people should first research rigorously before installing any app on device.

Those who are not aware most of the PF-related work can be done at the government’s official EPFO website. One can also locate the EPFO office in their area on this site. For this, you need to visit the website, and go to services tab, which is located on the top left corner of the screen. Here, you will notice an option called “locate an EPFO office” and you just need to click on it. You will then be redirected to the location page, where you will be required to enter state and district details to find the EPFO office in your area.

People are advised to not after or trust everything that they see online. For all things such as Provident Fund, and Aadhar Card, visit the official government website to get your work done. If you want to order food online or anything else, make sure you are using a trusted or known source to avoid losing your hard earned money. Do not trust the job opportunities that you get on WhatsApp or emails or Telegram. It is better to not entertain unknown users on calls if they try to sell something or offer a job opportunity or talk about something that make you suspicious and is not genuine.

Source: India Today