Scammers Pose As Insurance Agents, Steal Money

 Hyderabad: A person living in SR Nagar got a phone call. The caller, who said that he was an agent from a top insurance company, proceeded to state the person’s name, area of living and insurance policy number.

The caller then said he needed to verify whether the policyholder was alive and ordered the person to send a picture of him holding his mobile with the date and time highlighted, his Aadhaar card, PAN card and the bank statement for six months along with a processing fee of Rs 2,000.

The person, who felt suspicious, immediately went to his insurance company’s office to find out the caller was attempting to scam him.

Posing as insurance agents, scammers are luring people. The scammers, who gain access to some information about people like name, mobile number and living area, contact them and gain their trust by disclosing the information. After that, they order the victim to pay processing charges ranging between Rs 2,000 and Rs 25,000 along with their personal information.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, K. Srinivasulu, a manager from a leading insurance company, said, “These kinds of scams and scammers are on the rise. They gain people’s trust by posing as one of the agents and lure people into paying them money and sharing their data with them.”

When asked about what a potential victim can do to validate whether the caller is a scammer or not, Srinivasulu said, “Most of the time, such callers are scammers. To verify, the person can contact their insurance agent or branch manager. The agent or manager will cross-check and verify if the call is real or not.”

“We are instructing and educating our policyholders to never share any personal information or money to unknown people who pose as agents or insurance officials,” the manager added.