Beware of fraudsters calling with enticing insurance offers

PUNE: "Hello, I am Avinash Soni and I am calling from the insurance verification department, an agency set up by Insurance Regulatory Development Authority. The Life Insurance Corporation has declared a bonus of Rs 1.22 lakh against your policy...To claim it you are requested to submit a copy of your Aadhaar, PAN card and a cheque of Rs 15,000," a voice said in polished English over the phone to 63-year-old R Ashok.
Luckily, Ashok made a few inquiries and found that the call could be an attempt at fraud. When he called back, 'Soni' did not take the call.
Ashok is not the only one to get such a call. Online forums such as Jagoinvestor and the Complaint Board Forum are awash with complaints about customers who fell prey to such fraudulent offers and lost money.
"IRDA makes no such calls. We do not have an insurance verification department," said Nilesh Sathe, a life member of the authority, adding, "Looks like this has surfaced again. Last year, we ran advertisement campaigns to make the public aware of such fraudulent calls."
A complaint posted on online portal Jagoinvestor by S Dash, said that she received a call from someone named Riya Malhotra representing IRDA. She was promised a new policy against closing of an existing policy and was promised exorbitant returns. Dash made a cheque payment of Rs 51,000 and after that, could not get through to 'Malhotra' ever again.
Individuals posing to be insurance agents, bank agents and matrimonial representatives to dupe people have become a common place phenomenon. People, either due to naivety or driven by greed, routinely fall prey to such tactics. The gravity of the problem is often undermined because people seldom approach the authorities.
"Whenever we get such complaints, we act on them...however, we have not received any complaint with regards to insurance fraud," says Kishor P Naik, assistant commissioner of police, economic offences wing and cyber crime division of the Pune Police.
He added that people often get carried away or act out of ignorance and urged them to register such complaints with the police.
Sathe said, "A customer might receive a call from the relevant company only when the company receives a proposal from the customer. IRDA never makes such calls."
In fact, the authority even has two video advertisements on its home page, under the title Caution Ads by IRDA, warning people against such calls.
It is estimated that Indians spend a substantial amount of time to recover their lost money on account of fraudulent practises. According to a recent Norton Cyber Security Insights report, Indians spend roughly 43% more time compared to their global counterparts dealing with the impact of online crime.
Despite this, the complaint infrastructure in India is woefully inadequate and unorganized. People often do not complain because of the long-winding process, which often yields nothing.
Also, there is no unified agency which keeps track of data relating to financial cyber crime.
Simple tips
* Never give away bank details over the phone or otherwise to anyone
* Never fall prey to an offer to surrender insurance policies for new ones
* There are no exorbitant returns on anything, so customers must stop expecting them
* Lodge complaints with police and the relevant agency when one receives a call