Case: Ms. Meera's Encounter with an NPS Scam

Ms. Meera, a 32-year-old professional, had been investing in NPS for a few years. One afternoon, she received a message from an unknown number claiming to be from PFRDA. The message promised to unlock her full NPS corpus with a small fee. Desperate to access the funds, Meera called the number mentioned in the SMS. A person on the other end pretended to be a PFRDA representative, convincing her that all she needed to do was make an advance payment, and her corpus would be released within a few days.

Trusting the offer, Meera transferred the money. However, she never heard from the fraudster again. Realizing she had been scammed, Meera followed the safety steps advised by PFRDA: she froze her bank accounts, reported the incident on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal, and alerted her local police station.

Thankfully, due to her quick action, Meera was able to minimize further damage. However, she lost her initial payment and faced emotional distress. From this experience, Meera learned the importance of being vigilant and verifying any communication before acting on it.