Scammers steal 1.83 cr from 11 EPF accounts using Aadhaar card details

The CBI has arrested a man for allegedly altering Aadhaar card details to withdraw Provident Funds of unsuspecting persons through online claims, officials said on Monday.

Delhi-based mastermind Priyanshu Kumar allegedly orchestrated the fraud with the help of his gang, where he allegedly targeted individuals whose Aadhaar cards were not linked to their PF accounts, they said.

The CBI has alleged that 11 Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) members were targeted through 39 fake claims and Rs 1.83 crore was siphoned off.

The agency registered a case on February 8, 2022, against seven establishments and unidentified individuals on a complaint from the Employees' Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) related to alleged fraudulent activities involving identity theft aimed at illegally withdrawing funds from the PF accounts of genuine beneficiaries.

The gang allegedly registered establishments in various cities like Nagpur, Aurangabad, Patna, Ranchi, in which PF coverage was taken online without any manual verification, it alleged.

During investigation, it emerged that Unique Account Numbers (UAN) linked to these establishments were much higher than the total contributory accounts, raising the red flags, the agency said.

The modus operandi was that the accused allegedly registered UANs of genuine employees in their establishments, showing them as their own employees just for a day -- showing the same date of joining and exiting in the systems.

The initial probe revealed that genuine employees having UANs had never worked with these fake employers, but showing the employees day-long service gave this gang access to change their KYC details, it said.

After registering UAN numbers in their establishments, the gang either found people with similar names as genuine employees or got the Aadhaar data changed for persons with similar names, the CBI said.

"It was further alleged that the fraudsters obtained an Aadhaar card with identical name, date of birth, and gender by submitting forged documents to update an existing Aadhaar card," a CBI spokesperson said.

He said mastermind Kumar registered the "altered Aadhaar card" and linked it to the respective establishments.

"The fraudsters fraudulently withdraw PF funds by filing multiple online claims on behalf of genuine PF members," he said.

The CBI had conducted searches at eight premises belonging to Kumar and others located in Bihar, Jharkhand, and Delhi, which led to the recovery of various incriminating documents, mobile phones, ATM cards, chequebooks and passbooks etc.

A special court has remanded Kumar to four days of police custody, the spokesperson said.