A post with a website link is being widely shared on social media with a claim that workers who worked between 1990 and 2019 and find their name in the list on the website are eligible for benefits of Rs. 80,000 by Employee Provident Fund Organization (EPFO). Let’s try to analyze the claim made in the post.
Claim: Benefits of Rs. 80,000 by EPFO to workers who worked between the years 1990 and 2019.
Fact: EPFO has tweeted asking users to be beware of the fraudulent websites and posted the screenshots of the website which claimed that workers can get benefits of Rs. 80,000. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On clicking the link given in the post, the website with the url: https://socialdraw.top/epf/ gets opened. All the government websites generally have the domain ‘.gov.in’ but the above website has ‘.top’. Also, the website asks to share a message on WhatsApp to avail the benefits. No government website asks people to share messages on WhatsApp to receive benefits.
On Twitter, EPFO has tweeted asking users to be beware of the fraudulent websites and posted the screenshots of the above website.
Beware of FAKE OFFERS by Websites/Telecalls/SMS/email/Social Media, ASKING TO DEPOSIT MONEY into any Bank Account towards Claim Settlement/Advance/Higher Pension/ or any other service provided by #EPFO.#Fraud #FakeCalls #Lottery pic.twitter.com/ekuvhcyJsq
— EPFO (@socialepfo) October 29, 2019
Also, on opening the official website (https://www.epfindia.gov.in) of EPFO, a pop-up comes with the message that ‘https://www.epfindia.gov.in’ is the only official website of EPFO.
It was also found that similar messages went viral last year in India and this year in South Africa. The clarification given by the South African government to their citizens can be read here.
To sum it up, fake website falsely claims that workers will receive benefits of Rs. 80,000 from EPFO.
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