Pension Life Certificate Call Scam over the phone

How it looks over the phone, the red flags and what to do.

Callers pretend to be bank staff, police, a courier, a telecom officer or a relative, and they try to keep you on the line while you act. Pension Life Certificate Call Scam is one of the ways this shows up: A caller says your pension will stop unless you submit a life certificate now and asks for an OTP. See how seniors are targeted and how to stay safe.

What pension life certificate call scam looks like over the phone

• A second "senior officer" who takes over the call.
• An unknown or international number, or a number that looks like a real office.
• A calm, official voice that already knows your name or the last digits of your card.

The scammer often knows the person is a pensioner from leaked lists, a bank branch visit or a neighbour. The call sounds calm and official, naming the pension office or the bank, and quotes the correct month when certificates are normally due. This detail makes it believable to someone who has submitted the paper before.

Red flags to check on the phone call

• The caller asks for an OTP to submit a certificate.
• A helper app or screen-sharing tool is needed for the 'update'.
• You are told the pension stops this month, with no written notice.
• He asks you to stay on the line and not tell family.
• The caller wants you to install an app to "fix" something.
• The caller asks for an OTP, UPI PIN, card PIN or CVV.

What to do

1. Hang up and do not read out any OTP or code.
2. Tell a family member before doing anything else.
3. Visit your bank branch or the pension office, or use the official channel you used last year.
4. If you already installed an app on the call, uninstall it and switch on airplane mode, then call your bank at once.
5. Tell a family member and report the number on the Sanchar Saathi portal (Chakshu facility).
6. Hang up. A real bank or office will not mind that you call them back.

Report the number on the Sanchar Saathi portal (Chakshu facility). If money moved, call 1930 immediately.

If money or a code is already gone

1. If you shared an OTP or installed an app, call 1930 immediately and report at cybercrime.gov.in.
2. Ask your bank, on the number printed on your passbook, to block net banking and UPI.
3. Uninstall the app, or ask a family member to help reset the phone.
4. Visit the branch in person to confirm pension credit and ask for a statement.

National Cyber Crime Helpline: 1930; report at cybercrime.gov.in.

Family features can help here: a child or relative can use the family alerts and the code word idea from Money Shield so that any request about money is checked at home first. Safeavio can also review a message or link you paste and warns about urgency and OTP asks. It cannot hear a phone call, so the habit of hanging up and calling the branch yourself matters most.

Full guide: Pension Life Certificate Call Scam: how it works, signs and what to do. Other channels: SMS, WhatsApp, fake app.

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