Lured by ₹11-crore PF money, elderly couple loses ₹4.35 crore to cyber frauds

An elderly man in Mumbai was cheated of ₹4.35 crore by cyber frauds pretending to be officials from EPFO, promising him a matured amount of ₹11 crore.

An elderly man from Navy Nagar in Cuffe Parade has allegedly been cheated of ₹4.35 crore by cyber frauds who posed as officials with Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and promised him to pay his matured amount of ₹11 crore.

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According to a complaint filed by 71-year-old Aban Firoze Hirjikaka, her husband, Firoze, had retired from an engineering service provider company where he worked as a senior executive.

“In May, his wife got a call from a woman who identified herself as Sandhya Bharadwaj from the EPFO office and told her that her husband had not withdrawn his provident fund money. She said that the man had deposited around ₹4 lakh and the investment had matured to ₹11 crore,” a police officer from Cuffe Parade police station said.

Later, Bharadwaj called Firoze and gave him contact numbers of her colleagues who could help him withdraw the money, the officer said. The woman’s colleagues then informed Firoze that he would have to pay various taxes totaling 30% of the total amount - ₹11 crore, which was lying in his purported EPFO account.

After paying for the taxes, another person called him and claimed that he had not paid the processing fees, the complaint said. He then cleared the processing charges, but he again got a call asking him for more money. This time, he refused to pay any more, the complainant said.

A few days later, Bharadwaj called Firoze and told him that if he did not pay the money, they would report the matter to the Reserve Bank of India and the income tax department following which his bank accounts would be frozen and he would even lose his ₹11 crore, the police officer said.

Firoze paid the frauds and thus ended up paying them in all ₹4.35 crore, the police officer said. When the couple did not get the promised EPFO money, they approached the police.

“The couple lost ₹4.35 crore between May and September this year and the money had been transferred to various bank accounts. We have registered a case against unknown accused under sections 419 (punishment for cheating by personation), 420 (cheating), 384 (extortion), and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code and under section 66 (computer related offences) of the Information Technology Act,” the officer added.

Police officers said they have started working on the case with the help of bank accounts and the mobile phone numbers provided by the complainant.