Mumbai: 68-year-old loses Rs 7 lakh in PF fraud

MUMBAI: A retired senior official with a leading paint manufacturing company became the latest victim of a provident fund (PF) fraud and ended up losing over Rs7 lakh after he got a call informing him Rs21.54 lakh had been lying unclaimed in his PF account since his retirement 10 years ago.
Chandivli resident, Om Prakash Ahuja (68), registered a case with the Powai police on January 29, alleging he received several calls from a woman claiming to be a tele-caller from the PF department.She convinced him he would have to fill several forms and transfer certain sums of money to a bank account if he wanted the PF money. "I was asked to transfer Rs20,100 after filling the first form. The next day, I again received calls and I transferred over Rs2 lakh. I lost a major chunk of money on January 28 when I transferred Rs5 lakh and the caller assured me that by evening or the next morning, Rs21.54 lakh would be credited to my account. I later realised I had been duped and the fraudster even hacked my phone and deleted the call history," said Ahuja. He says the funds transfers were made to the Noida account of ERN Company. "Even today (February 4), the woman called me and asked me to pay up Rs50,000 processing fees," Ahuja told TOI.