What are the red flags of this scam?

Government scheme benefits are never released against a payment to an individual's UPI or phone number • PM Awas Yojana applications are filed at gram panchayat or municipality offices in person — not approved over the phone • Legitimate scheme notifications come via official letters or the PM Awas Yojana portal — not WhatsApp or phone calls • Callers create urgency: 'Your allotment will lapse if you don't pay within 24 hours'

What should I do if this happened to me?

Do not pay any fee — call your gram panchayat, municipality, or the official PM Awas Yojana helpline at 1800-11-6446 to verify • Check your genuine PM Kisan status at pmkisan.gov.in using your Aadhaar number — no call or fee is needed • Never share Aadhaar, bank details, or OTPs with anyone claiming to verify scheme eligibility over the phone • If you paid, call 1930 immediately and file a report at https://cybercrime.gov.in — freeze the transaction within the first hour • Report at https://cybercrime.gov.in or call 1930 (national cyber helpline).

MEDIUM government impersonation Share

Caller says you have been approved for PM Awas Yojana or another government scheme — pay a fee to claim it

A caller claims you are approved for a welfare scheme (PM Awas Yojana, PM Kisan, Ujjwala, etc.) and asks for a processing fee, stamp duty, or GST payment to release the benefit. No such fee exists — it is a scam.

Also known as: PM Awas Yojana fraud, government scheme processing fee scam, PM Kisan scam, welfare scheme impersonation

Already happened to you? Do this in the next few minutes

Call 1930 now

1 Call 1930 — the national cyber-crime helpline — right now. The sooner you report, the better the chance of freezing the money before it moves.
2 Call your bank to freeze the account and block the card immediately. Use the number printed on your card, never a number from the message or caller.
3 File a report at cybercrime.gov.in and keep every message, screenshot, and transaction ID.

What to do right now

1 Do not pay any fee — call your gram panchayat, municipality, or the official PM Awas Yojana helpline at 1800-11-6446 to verify
2 Check your genuine PM Kisan status at pmkisan.gov.in using your Aadhaar number — no call or fee is needed
3 Never share Aadhaar, bank details, or OTPs with anyone claiming to verify scheme eligibility over the phone
4 If you paid, call 1930 immediately and file a report at https://cybercrime.gov.in — freeze the transaction within the first hour
5 Report at https://cybercrime.gov.in or call 1930 (national cyber helpline).

Red flags

⚠ Government scheme benefits are never released against a payment to an individual's UPI or phone number
⚠ PM Awas Yojana applications are filed at gram panchayat or municipality offices in person — not approved over the phone
⚠ Legitimate scheme notifications come via official letters or the PM Awas Yojana portal — not WhatsApp or phone calls
⚠ Callers create urgency: 'Your allotment will lapse if you don't pay within 24 hours'

Known variants

Fake 'Senior Citizen Pension Card' scheme advertised on Facebook: scammer contacts elderly targets via DM after they click a sponsored ad, collects bank account numbers, and drains savings. Pimpri-Chinchwad, June 2026: one victim lost ₹9,16,900 through two accounts drained by a fake 'enrollment officer.'

Last seen: 6/18/2026
Annapurna Bhandar (West Bengal, ₹3,000/month, launched June 1, 2026): cloned websites, WhatsApp forwards, and fake 'government agent' calls demand a ₹49 'census verification fee.' 25+ complaints in 5 days of launch; avg loss ₹7,500–₹42,000 per victim.

Last seen: 6/8/2026
Fake website mimics a newly launched state welfare scheme (e.g. Annapurna Bhandar, West Bengal food subsidy). Site collects Aadhaar, bank details, and OTP. UPI-linked accounts are drained within minutes. 47 fake domains identified, 25+ complaints within 5 days of the scheme's June 2026 launch; losses ₹7,500–₹1.1 lakh per victim.

Last seen: 6/7/2026

Already happened to you? Do this in the next few minutes

What to do right now

Red flags

Known variants

Sources