Almost all the salaried employees have an EPF account. For many years and sometimes for decades, the money gets added to this EPF account and we all feel great about it.
However, we do not pay attention to a small thing which can lead to a big problem. And that is not having the right nominee in the EPF (and all the other products)
If you do not have any nominee name mentioned in EPF or if you have a wrong person name in EPF, it’s going to be a big mess while claiming the money in future in case something happens to you. Your family will have run from post to pillars to claim back the money.
A lot of people have made nominations in their EPF long back when they were unmarried and mostly put their parents name into it. However later they get married and have kids and many a times even parents are not there now.
In such a case, it’s critical and high time that you update your nominations in EPF.
The great part is that now it can be done ONLINE.
e-Nomination facility in EPF
Last year, EPFO came up with e-nomination facility in the EPF accounts. Now this e-Nomination facility can be availed by you, if you have your mobile number linked with an active UAN and the adhaar verification is also complete. This makes sure that the whole process is secure and no frauds are there!
Let’s see how you can update nominee online in your EPF account.
Step #1 – Login to EPFO site with your UAN number
The first step is to go to EPFO website where you can enter your UAN number and password. The UAN website has changed quite a lot of times, so you might have to find out what is the exact website url, but at this moment this is the web link
This is how the window will look
Step #2 – Go to “Profile” and click on “Edit Nomination”
Then you need to go to “profile” section and click on “Edit Nominations”
Step #3 – Nomination Screen will Appear
On the next page, go to nomination form and you will see the screen as shown below. You will see some of the following fields which will get auto-populated from the database and these can’t be edited.
UAN
Member ID
Establishment ID
Name
Date of Birth
Father/ Spouse Name
Relationship
Date of Joining
Gender
Marital Status
The two things which you can edit are
Permanent Address
Present Address
If the present address is the same as a permanent address, a copy of the permanent address into the present address is to be enabled. These details can be updated by clicking the “UPDATE” button.
Step #4 – Enter nominee details and other family members data
This is the next page and the main one. Here you can update your nominee’s names and other details, along with the names of family members who will be eligible to get any kind of pension after you.
If you have given any names in past, these names will already appear there. You can update/change those if you wish to. Check the screenshots below
Important points
For the capture of Nomination details, against each nominee, one KYC detail is to be provided by the member.
The total share for all PF / EDLI Nominees should add to 100%.
Entry into Pension Nominee Details is allowed to be filled only in case member does not have any family.
Step #5 – Generate PDF
After you update all details, the next screen will appear where you can put a check-mark on “Nomination declaration” and click on “Generate PDF” button.
After checking the generated PDF, click on “Submit to Employer for Approval” button. Now the online nomination form is submitted in the system to the employer for his approval or rejection.
You will have to take a printout of the PDF file generated and submit it to the employer after signing it.
Change of Mobile, Email id and KYC information
Apart from the nomination details, you can also change details like your mobile number, your email id and other KYC details.
I hope this information was useful for you, just don’t read this article, but also act and update your nominee name in EPF account using this e-nomination facility
This was all that I wanted to share in this article. I hope I have made the process easy for you guys. Kindly post your queries in the comments section and also update us if you did the process?
The telecom and financial services have drastically changed over the last 15-20 yrs. and this means that you can do lots of things over your phone now. You don’t need to go to bank for everything. Now your mobile itself is a bank and it will let you transfer money to anyone and transact with just a click of the button.
While this is wonderful news, it’s also a bad news because various kind of cyber frauds have started happening from last few years. Today I am going to share about one such fraud called as “SIM Swap Fraud”
I also requested one of person I know personally who actually lost money because of this fraud, and I requested him to jot down what exactly happened and steps they took after the fraud happened.
What is SIM Swap Fraud?
SIM swap fraud is a very sophisticated type of cyber fraud, where the attacker first blocks your sim card, and then gets a duplicate sim issued and gets access to all OTP/SMS which are required to make the transactions. This also means that they put a request to your mobile company with forged documents or online and if you have not secured your data/documents – it’s not very tough to get it done.
On top of it, if you do not act fast or take things lightly – the chances of fraud getting successful is very high.
People have lost amounts ranging from few Lacs to few crores. Just have a look at the below screenshot
The sim swap frauds are also known as SIM splitting, SIM jacking, SIM hijacking, or port-out scamming in different countries.
A real life case of an NRI who lost money from his bank account
So a few weeks back, one of the NRI readers of this blog mailed me asking for help on a fraud which happened in his bank account and he lost money.
Luckily the amount was just in thousands. I looked at his email and soon realized that this is a case of SIM SWAP fraud. While he has not got the money till now, I asked him to share the entire incident with all of us so that we can learn from this incident.
Please go through his experience which I got by email.
Hello Manish,
Greetings and appreciate your thoughtfulness to create awareness to this fraud,
So the story goes this way
My wife has a savings account in ICICI and me being NRI she travels to visit me for more than 5 months in a year as such I had linked my Sisters Phone number for net banking and all was going well. as local numbers don’t work in the country I live.
Recently my sister was having issues with idea sim card and she had registered a complaint with idea, and she was told a customer care will coordinate with her. then there was the lockdown and curfew and banks shops etc all closed.
One day a person called her and said he was from idea customer care and she needs to upgrade her sim from 3G to 4G and to do that she needs to text him a code and a sim card no a 20 digit number, due to lockdown since idea center is closed this is her option, which she did, she got a call back saying it will take about 4 hours for this upgrade and she may not get coverage until then.
my email was linked to that ICICI account and I got an email that there was a failed attempt to access my online account.
I replied to ICICI customer care and there was no reply. ( Got reply after two days, Standard written email do not share otp, password etc with any one and if suspicious report to ICIC customer care)
But I was able to log into net banking and did not find anything suspicious.
The next day I was off and was not online to check emails for full day in the evening I saw 8 emails from ICICI auto emails, password changed, new beneficiary added, OTP sent to Registered mobile, amount transferred to beneficiary account. balance in my account is now zero.
Now it’s a Saturday bank is closed, Lockdown cannot go out, customer care lines are busy and on hold for 25 min, and finally when she got on line with customer care they said she is not calling from registered mobile and they cannot help us.
The damage was done. The hacker took control of the sim and was getting OTP and had reseted the password using registered phone number.
The complaints we made
Sister went to idea and narrated the incident and idea said this normally does not happen this way and only authorized person in idea can do the sim swap and said they will investigate it
Wife went to police to complain, they are clueless on this matter and were more interested on knowing the fraud for their personal reason and challenging wife stating what she was telling can never happen and they never heard of such case and there must me something else which has happened and not sim swap. but when my wife raised her tone they took the complaint and said they will forward it to cyber branch.
Till date no positive lead.
Wife went to bank to complain, they saw the log and found the transaction is done through correct channel and there is no fraud, Password changed by registered mobile, otp sent to registered mobile and all things done legally without breach..
However as there was a police complain they traced the beneficiary account and put a freeze and lien on that account (In case he deposits money that money will be directly transferred to my account).
We changed the mobile number and now my wife gave her new local number, and they said not to use the account for some time till the investigation is over.
that night wife get a call from ICICI customer care saying we have registered your complain and your money will be transferred to your account tomorrow.
Wife goes to ICIC and meets manager she say no this case is not solved and normally it takes more than 15days for this and this call is not from us.
Wonder how the hacker got this number which was just given to ICICI, also though ICICI said they deleted the old phone number and registered the new phone number my sister is still getting messages when we complain to ICICI they say it cannot be and when shown proof via screen shots said we will forward to our IT dept.
So till date this is the final summary
Idea mobile operator claims no responsibility of damage done to bank account but their responsibility is to give control of the sim card back to my sister in 24 hours and they did it
Bank does not take any responsibility as the transaction was done by the registered mobile number
Police claims it was out carelessness to give the 20 digit number to the hacker and they can do nothing
I Learnt a very good lesson and will be more careful in these matters.
Jerry
From the real life incident of the above, I can see that it’s a bit of everything. Some bad luck, some carelessness, some ignorance and a lot of smart work by fraudster. These sim swap frauds are not easy to achieve as there are lots of things which needs to happen.
Let us now look at exactly what are the steps which are involved into Sim swap fraud.
4 Steps of Sim Swap Fraud – How it can happen to you?
Let’s understand how exactly a sim swap fraud happens through 4 steps process
Step 1 – Fraudster steals your important data
In this first step, the fraudster gets your personal information like your PAN number, Bank account number, phone number, your net banking password, and any other details which are essential for an online transaction. These things can be acquired using various methods like Email/Phone/SMS frauds or by hacking into your personal devices .
Sometimes there can be data theft by getting access to your documents which might be lying with someone (imagine you give your laptop for repair and some file has all the data or imagine you leave your bank statement at a Xerox shop)
Step 2 – Placing a request for SIM Swap with your SIM company
The next step is quite important and the main step, where the fraudster places the request for sim swap with your sim company by posing a fake identity and giving all relevant documents or through online mode.
Here the person may also call you to inform you about you posing as the sim company representative and tells you a lie that your sim will be active in some time as there is an upgrade going on or something like that.
You will generally get a sms or email from sim company telling you that your sim swap request will be complete soon.
DONT IGNORE THIS SMS at any cost. This is exactly where a customer mind presence is required and you have to act fast. A lot of people who do not understand how thing work online fall prey to it. Imagine if your 70 yr old father gets this kind of sms, he might not understand exactly what it is!
Step 3 – Doing the transaction
Once the sim swap request is processed, the game is almost over because the fraudster now has all the login details and the main thing – THE NEW PHONE NUMBER which is linked to the net banking/card.
Now all they have to do is add a beneficiary and complete the transaction
Step 4 – The fraud happens
And finally, the OTP comes to the new phone number and the transaction is complete. This is the point, where you loose the money and getting it back it quite tough. I strongly suggest that you read these 21 tips you should follow to secure your banking transactions
Some Safety Tips which can prevent you from such Frauds –
If your network is lost for a very long time like more than 20-30 min, be alert and enquire about it from your mobile operator
If you ever get a sms/email alerting you that your sim swap request is received, make sure you contact your bank immediately and report this incident. If possible login to your net banking and change your passwords the same moment
Never share your the 20 digits mentioned on the back of sim card to anyone ever on call. This 20 digits are required for a successful sim swap
Don’t entertain anyone asking for any kind of OTP or your accounts details
Register for Alerts (SMS and Email) so that whenever there is any activity on your bank account you will receive an alert.
Always check your bank statements and online banking transaction history regularly to help identify any issues or irregularities.
Have strong passwords in your phone and computers. Don’t keep simple passwords which can be guessed by others
If there is any cyber fraud, immediately inform the cyber cell or the best thing is to file a FIR in local police station.
Don’t root your phone, if you are not a tech expert.
Don’t install unverified apps on your mobile or laptop. A lot of these programs can read your computer or phone data
Don’t leave your important documents Xerox here and there. At times we feel, nothing will happen – but bad things happen!
Do watch this video on preventing sim swap fraud!
Don’t be over confident that it can’t happen to you
Whenever we come to hear about these types of frauds any kind of fraud, the first thought as an investor comes to our mind is that no matter what happens, I will not fall prey to any such frauds.
This is nothing but overconfidence. Be alert and always pay attention to small signals which might be pointing to this kind of frauds, especially when you keep too much money in your bank account.
We all are in lockdown from last 70+ days & this is probably a once in a life event. The whole world is fighting coronavirus and some form of lockdown is there in every part of the world.
People are losing jobs, seeing salary cuts and we all are wondering how the future will be from here. I think that while in short term all these problems will happen, but once things get normal and life is back to same point, things will be back in action. But it will take some time.. It can take 1-2 yrs.
8 Learning’s from this Lockdown
While there is so much of negativity and bad news all around. I want to admit that this lockdown was an experience in itself. It tested our patience. It forced us to do things we didn’t like and also opened new ideas for us. We saw many new creative ways people do business and how even in this crisis, our Jugaad attitude worked well for many things.
The lockdown has also given us a good opportunity to reflect back on many things in our finances and life in general. I want to share some of the things in this post.
1. We need a higher Emergency Fund
One clear lesson from this pandemic is that we need much higher emergency fund. Before the pandemic, I have often said that 4-6 months of emergency fund is ok to have, but I feel that needs to be revised to 12 months now.
Keep a year worth of expenses in a combination of liquid mutual funds and Fixed deposit and earn a near-inflation return.
You may lose the job and not get it for 9 months
Your employer might not be able to pay you.
You might want to take a long break to take care of someone in family.
You may meet an accident followed by a long bed rest.
You might be shifting your industry and might be looking at new job
We may see another pandemic and things can close down again!
2. Count your blessings – we have enough to live a good life
It was shocking to see how millions of people especially migrant workers suffered so much after they were stuck in various cities. They had no food, no money, and no roof over their head. They walked hundreds and thousands of KM on foot with small kids with them. We can’t ever understand how it feels when someone is in that state.
At the same time, we were comfortable at our home with everything stocked up. We had groceries, money in bank, and a nice home. Many of us also participated in dalgona coffee challenge and some also posted (including me) pictures of the various nice dishes on social media to showcase our achievements.
Image Source : Deccan Herald
It’s time to acknowledge that we are blessed.
We are blessed to have food on table
We are blessed to have a good sleep
We are blessed to be with our family
We are blessed to not worry about the next meal
We are blessed to still be employed or employable
In short, while we can point to salary cuts/loss and boredom we faced sitting at home, we have to not forget that we are doing extremely well compared to millions. We are extremely blessed and we need to acknowledge it. We need to be grateful that many seek a life which we are already living.
3. We were spending more than required
Over the last 75 days, I spend ZERO on amazon, swiggy, zomato, uber, flipkart, eating out, any outings ..
I think I am doing fine and nothing has happened to me.
That does not mean that spending on those things is a problem, Infact I will restart it again.
But I think we have got a clear message that we were over-doing it. We can survive fine with less online shopping, less outing, less parties, less eating out and what not.
4. We can surely save much more than we think
So we were spending more .. we just saw.
Which means that we can potentially save much more than we think we can, if we control our self and carefully utilize our resources.
5. It helps to have an additional source of income
Imagine for a second that you lost your job and there is no active income coming in
Now imagine another case
Imagine you lost your job, and no active income coming in.. but you also have another income source which brings in some money. So you know at least the food will be on table.
The current pandemic has seen many people lose their jobs and many of them who had alternate income or another person earning income in house knows the importance of it. Before it happens again with you, its time you get serious about creating it.
I always get this feeling that maids in India are paid extremely poorly. After I have been involved in the household work in this lockdown, my respect for maids has gone up to whole new level.
It’s not just time to acknowledge their contribution in our life and making our life easy, but also to pay them their dues well.
A maid in my society gets Rs 600 per task on an average. That’s Rs 20-22 per day given to them assuming 2 holidays. Even if it takes 30 min to do dishes, we are talking about Rs 40-50 per hour wage here which is one of the lowest in the world.
NRI’s or people who have returned back from US or other countries know very well what I am talking about.
It’s time we appreciate them more, don’t be so nosy about their salaries we pay. I know many maids are over smart and try to extract money out of you and don’t do their work properly, but overall I feel they are not paid well enough.
7. Things can do wrong anytime – RISK is always there
Let’s not forget one thing. RISK is always there .. ALWAYS !
Your company may be doing great
Your industry is booming
Your performance has been amazing.
Still, you can be without the job the next day
You may be healthy, never smoked, never ate oily .. you can still get heart attack. The risk is always there!
This pandemic has shown many people that risk can suddenly turn up and show its ugly face.
As Subra says – “Risk is always there, unless the event is complete”
8. It’s time we learn new skills and become more “useful”
The current coronavirus crisis should act like a final warning to all those, who are just dragging in their jobs without contributing much. Get up and acquire the skills. Go upgrade yourself
I know many people from IT sector who are working with old skills. When they apply for other jobs, there are no takers.
If you are not “useful”, you will be OUT very soon. If not today, may be tomorrow – but it will happen for sure
It also helps if you have additional expertise which can help you change your jobs/sectors if situation arises. Borden your skill set and hone your skills.
Stop moving towards the “Obsolete zone”
What was your biggest learning from Lockdown and coronavirus crisis?
So that was all I had to share today.
Can I ask you to share your own biggest learning from this whole crisis and lockdown episode? Also share what you feel about my learning’s?
Have you ever thought what happens to all those unclaimed dividends, shares or any money which was lost in scams or frauds?
It might also happen that your grandparents or parents have made some investments and you are not aware about it? How to find it out and claim it back?
The answer is IEPF, which is Investor Education Protection Fund Authority (IEPF) by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India. This is a body setup by govt, where all these unclaimed money gets transferred and investors can claim them back by following a procedure.
Recently IEPF authority recovered back Rs 1,514 Crores from Peerless finance which had done a fraud in past where lots of investors lost their hard earned money.
What exactly gets transferred to IEPF?
Something which is unclaimed for a period of 7 yrs., goes into IEPF, example are ..
Unclaimed shares lying in demat accounts from years
The application moneys received by companies for allotment of any securities and due for refund
Matured debentures with companies
Matured bank deposits
Unpaid dividends by companies
Interest accrued on above things
Any investors money which is recovered from fraudulent companies
In case the dividend for any year is claimed or received by the shareholder during the last seven consecutive years, the shares will not be transferred to Investor Education and Protection Fund.
The below chart shows the unclaimed or unpaid money (in lakhs) transferred to IEPF (from 2001 to 2018) –
How to search for unclaimed and unpaid amounts?
In order to get a refund, the first step it to find out that there is any unclaimed amount for yourself/parents/grandparents etc. There is a facility provided by IEPF where an investor can find out the amounts which they are liable to get back.
The investor can search for their unclaimed and unpaid amount by filling in certain details such as investor name, father or husband name, folio number etc. by Clicking on this link.
The below-attached image shows how the investor can search for the unclaimed and unpaid amount.
Note that it’s a bit complicated and cumbersome to do the search. Please be patient and try all kind of combinations.
Tip : I suggest you putting all possible combinations of your name, your father/mother or grandparents’ name. A lot of times, our parents/grandparents invest in shares or have some deposits which we are not even aware about. This is how we can dig deeper and find out!
Process of getting Refund from IEPF?
Here I am writing keeping in mind refund for shares, but the process is pretty much same for other things as well.
Go to IEPF Website and fill in IEPF Form 5 and use the option form upload. You will be redirected to Ministry of Corporate Affair (MCA) for form Upload.
Login using your ID and Password (if existing or else register yourself by clicking on register and entering the required details).
After login, click on normal upload.
Click on Browse and attach the form. Click on Submit.
SRN will be generated and you will ask for a payment option (Pay Now or Pay later).
Though Fee will be zero but click on Pay now option only to generate the acknowledgement.
After clicking on Pay Now, you have to click on Finish when the zero-fee page will be shown. The acknowledgement will be generated.
What is the procedure after applying for Refund?
The investor has to send the attachments prescribed below to Nodal Officer (IEPF) of the company at its registered office in an envelope marked “claim for a refund from IEPF Authority” for initiating the verification for a claim.
a) Print out of duly filled and uploaded claim form IEPF-5; with claimant signature and if joint holders are involved than the Form should be signed by all the joint holders.
b) Copy of acknowledgement generated after uploading the claim Form IEPF-5
c) Indemnity Bond (original) with claimant signature (As per format given in Annexure-II) to be executed :
On a non-judicial Stamp Paper of the value as prescribed under the Stamp Act (According to state) if the amount of the claim is Rs 10, 000 or more. Please ensure to enter date, place and Signature of claimant and witness.
On a plain paper if the amount claimed does not exceed Rs.10,000.
In case of a refund of shares, on a non-judicial Stamp Paper of the value as prescribed under the Stamp Act.
d) Advance Stamped receipt (original) with the signature of the claimant and two witnesses. (Format is given at Annexure I)
e) In case of a refund of matured deposit or debenture, or bonds, or where shares (in physical form) are claimed original certificate thereto
f) Copy of Aadhaar Card of the claimant and if joint holders are there, Copy of Aadhar card of all the joint holders
g) Proof of entitlement (certificate of share/Interest warrant/dividend warrant, Application No. etc.)
h) Original Cancelled Cheque leaf (it must bear the name of the claimant and the cheque leaf must be of the same account of which details are given in the Form IEPF-5).
i) Self-attested copy of Passport, OCI and PIO card in case of foreigners and NRI
j) Self-attested copy of PAN Card (mandatory in case of a claim for shares)
k) Self-attested Client Master List of De-mat A/c of the claimant
l) In case any Joint holder is deceased, Copy of Death certificate to be attached.
m) Other optional documents, (if any)
The company shall, within fifteen days from the date of receipt of the claim, send a verification report to the Authority in the format specified by the Authority along with all the documents submitted by the claimant. The Nodal officer may approve or reject the Form and enclosures submitted, subject to verification.
How will I get my money or shares from the IEPF Authority?
For a monetary refund, IEPF initiates e-payment as per the rules. If shares are reclaimed, the shares will be credited to the claimant’s Demat account by the Investor Education and Protection Fund.
I hope you understood how you can benefit from IEPF and claim back your money if there is any. Do let me know your queries!
