Fraud alert: Bandra PF office impostor's phone number now switched off

The phone number of one 'Deepak Sharma', which was allegedly listed by him as that of the Bandra office of the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), is now switched off.

Moneycontrol tried calling the impostor's number (+91 9102195592) repeatedly. Calls made to the EPFO office (022-26474444) also went unanswered.

EPFO had on October 21 warned members and pensioners that the phone number listed for its Bandra office in Mumbai on Google belonged to an impostor named 'Deepak Sharma'.

It also said that when called by someone, Sharma asked for personal details of the person like their PAN, Aadhar and ATM card number for processing withdrawal applications or updating a member's KYC (know your customer) in their Universal Account Number.

Sharma's mobile number showed up in the Google search result when someone searches for contact details of EPFO's Bandra office. However, all other details of the office, like its address and timings, were correct.

"Therefore, all the EPFO subscribers/members and pensioners kindly note that EPFO, Bandra 1, 2, 3, and 4 is not demanding any of the above-mentioned documents/information over the telephone or via email for withdrawal from Provident Fund/Updation of KYC in Universal Account Number," EPFO had said in a notice.

EPFO had submitted a complaint against Deepak Sharma to the Cyber Crime police station at Bandra-Kurla Complex and Nirmal Nagar police station on October 18 for attempting to dupe pensioners.

The police are collaborating with Google to know who uploaded the cell phone number on a phone search directory. "We have also sent details to Google's office to know who uploaded the cell phone number on a phone search directory [Just Dial]," a police officer told The Times of India.

In such cases, victims are often asked to pay a small fee to process their provident funds or update information on UAN, the report said.

Offenders can get hold of data of subscribers from employees who sell these details to make quick money or from darknet markets where it is easily available, cyber crime expert Ritesh Bhatia told the paper.