EPFO Scams By Third-Party Agents: How To Avoid Them

The Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) is among the most important retirement savings schemes in India. Through this scheme, both the employer and the employee make equal contributions to build a retirement corpus. 

The scheme, managed by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), has been designed to provide a secure retirement savings instrument to the salaried employees in the private sector.

As a PF account holder, there are several services that you may need to avail from time to time. This includes making withdrawals, account transfer requests and updating Know Your Customer (KYC) details, among others. 

All these services are available on the EPFO’s unified member portal. Unfortunately, some people fall prey to scams by third-party service providers pretending to provide these services. The EPFO has not authorised any third party to offer such services and recently warned all its members to avoid any such individuals or organisations that promise to facilitate EPF transactions.

Here are some things to keep in mind to avoid compromising your EPFO account and protect it from such scams. 

All PF-related services, such as withdrawing savings, updating KYC details, or finding account information, are available on the EPFO portal and the UMANG (Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance) app.

These services are provided free of cost. Thus, there is absolutely no need to pay any third party to offer these services. 

Scammers often reach out via phone calls, SMS, WhatsApp messages, or emails, claiming to represent the EPFO or authorised service providers. They often use official-sounding names or logos to appear legitimate. 

You should ignore such people and can report them to the EPFO and the police. 

You must not share your Aadhaar, PAN, bank details, or OTPs with anyone claiming to be an EPFO agent. The retirement fund regulatory body never requests such details via phone, email, or SMS.

Regularly check your PF balance and passbook on the EPFO portal or the UMANG app. This will help you detect any suspicious and unauthorised activity or transaction.

In case of any fraudulent activities related to your EPF account, you must immediately report it to the police as well as file a complaint on the EPFO’s grievance portal, EPF i-Grievance Management System (EPFiGMS).

To conclude, the EPFO portal is the one-stop solution to meet all your PF-related needs. It is important to use official resources such as the UMANG app to avoid any third-party fraud. Always be cautious if somebody asks you for sensitive information in exchange for providing PF services.