The Powai police registered an offence after a 72-year-old man duped to the tune of ₹3 lakh on the pretext of returning his provident fund. The fraudster posing as EPFO officials told the victim that his provident fund of ₹6 lakh is due with them and made him to pay on the pretext of different charges.
On December 7, a woman identified as Urmila Thakur called the victim posing as official of Employee Provident Fund Office (EPFO) from New Delhi, she claimed that victim's provident fund amount of around ₹6 lakh is pending with the department and gave him a contact details of an 'officer' for further communication. Thakur also told the victim that his pension is released from a bank in Charkop which made the victim to believe her, said police.
When contacted, victim was initially asked to pay ₹5230 and since then he continued to paid them in the name of different charges. On one occasion he was asked to pay ₹90,684 as CGST charges and over ₹87, 000 on the pretext of some transfer charges, said police.
In next two week victim ended up paying ₹3.04 lakh to them, however the 'officials' continued demanding more money. It was then the victim got suspicious and approached EPFO officee in Bandra. Where the officials told him that they don't charge anything and this was all fraud and asked the victim to approach the police.
We have registered an offence under Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 419(cheating by impersonation) and 420 (cheating) along with Information Technology act section 66C (punishment for identity theft) and 66D (punishment for cheating by impersonation by using computer resources) and investigation is underway, said police.
