Pensioners: no one calls for your life certificate. Don't share the OTP
What happened: Pensioners submit a life certificate every year so their pension keeps coming. Pensioners aged 80 and above can submit from 1 October, and everyone else from 1 November. Scammers know this, and two tricks are going around:
- Phone calls: someone claiming to be from a pension office or bank offers to “update” your life certificate online. They ask for your PPO number, date of birth, bank details and Aadhaar number, then ask you to read out an OTP. That OTP lets them into your account.
- Fake links and apps: in mid-October, Kerala police warned about Facebook ads and links offering online life certificate submission for retired bank employees, using bank names and logos. They lead people to install harmful apps that steal money.
What the government says: The Central Pension Accounting Office (CPAO) has a notice on its website: “CPAO, Banks or any other Govt. Agency does not call for submission of Annual Life Certificate or ask for sharing any personal information including OTP.”
How to submit safely:
- Use only official ways: your pension-paying bank branch, the post office’s doorstep service, or the official Jeevan Pramaan face-authentication app on your own phone.
- Never share an OTP or your PPO number with a caller, whoever they say they are.
- Don’t install apps from links in Facebook ads, WhatsApp or SMS.
- If money is taken, call 1930 immediately.
Share this with older relatives. Scams like this usually peak just before the deadline.