Beware of pension fraudsters, Lagos warns retirees

The Lagos State Government, through the Lagos State Pension Commission (LASPEC), has warned retirees to beware of pension fraudsters who pretend as acting on behalf of government to dupe unsuspecting retirees.

The Director-General, LASPEC, Mrs. Folashade Onanuga, while advising retirees at the 29th Retirement Benefit Bond Presentation Ceremony which took place in Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos, said the fraudsters do send SMS to retirees requesting them to disclose their sensitive bank details in a bid to access their accounts.

This development, she stressed, has ripped up several retirees, warning others to be sensitive about releasing their sensitive information to just anybody.

‘We noticed mails and sms are being sent to retirees, telling them to pay to a particular account so that they can be apportioned benefits from Federal Government,” she stated.

While promising that the commission will keep educating retirees on what is expected of them to do to access their retirement benefits, she urged anybody scammed through this process to report to the commission, which will find a way to get the scammers prosecuted.

Meanwhile, 3,924 retirees in Lagos State civil service were paid a sum of N16.3 billion accrued pension rights in the last 12 months (from August 2015 to July, 2016).

The benefiting pensioners were workers who retired from the Mainstream Civil Service, Local Governments, State Universal Basic Education and other parastatals of the state government.