Authorities in North China's Hebei Province are telling residents that they risk losing their pension funds once and for all if they do not independently fill the financial gap left after a local government employee swindled 9 million yuan ($1.37 million) from pension funds.

Bai Xueshan, 42, an employee of the Social Security Bureau in Chengde, Hebei Province, withdrew over 9 million yuan from the pension funds of 248 people between 2010 and 2013 by creating fake social security accounts, news site thepaper.cn reported on Wednesday.

 Once arrested, Bai returned some 8.6 million yuan to the Social Security Bureau. Believing that the fraud case was the fault of an individual and that the bureau should not be held accountable for the financial loss, authorities asked the people who had been scammed to pay the amount remaining or risk losing all of their pension funds.

Li Guixia, 57, said that her pension funds had been suspended since January. She paid her social security fees through Bai in 2010.

Li said that because of Bai's identity as a government employee, he was able to fabricate official paperwork and alter computer records, leaving her and other victims unable to see through the scam.

"Bai's fraudulent practices went on for at least a couple of years," Xie Tongxiang, a Beijing lawyer, told the Global Times on Wednesday. "Social security departments should do internal checks at least once a year … The departments should not transfer their responsibilities and make the victims pay for their management loopholes."