72-yr-old-man duped of Rs 1.60 crore in fake insurance scam, five arrested

Hyderabad: The Rachakonda cybercrime police on Thursday detained a five-member gang of fake insurance policy agents, all from Uttar Pradesh, who had defrauded a 72-year-old retired Central government employee out of Rs 1.60 crore under the guise of high insurance policy returns.

Following a complaint from the retired employee, the police apprehended Mursheed Ansari, Vikas Singh, Tarun Sharma, Manish Tanger, and Lalith Kumar.
The victim reported to the authorities that the con artists had first forced him to buy an insurance policy in his name.

Later, the conmen persuaded him to refer more people to the scheme while promising high returns. While he was unable to add new members into the fake insurance scheme, he took policies in the name of his wife, children, and other family members, totalling 12 policies, and began making payments without the knowledge of his family.

To persuade him, the accused issued him DDs of Rs 5 crore, Rs 4 crore, and Rs 2 crore and asked the victim to pay 18 percent in GST in order to claim the DDs.

The victim further disclosed to the police that he had sold a piece of land, diverted all of his retirement benefits, and even financed the purchase of the insurance policies with his wife's gold. He had been making insurance payments of Rs. 1.60 crore since 2016 till he just realised that scammers had tricked him and used fake insurance policies to trap him.

The police arrested the five accused and seized Rs 1.50 lakh cash, bank pass books, ATM cards, and other incriminating material.

Following interrogation, it was found that the accused had worked at a call centre where they had picked up the tricks on how to defraud insurance policyholders. They later set up their own call centre, purchased the insurance policy holder details from vendors as well as obtained SIM cards and bank accounts of others through their contacts. It was found that the gang had similarly defrauded and looted money from several other people across the country.

Modus operandi

> Con artists persuade the elderly victim to buy an insurance policy with a promise of high returns.
> Later, the five-member gang coerce him to spawn the scheme by including more members.
> Lured by high returns, the 72-year-old man sold a piece of plot, wife’s gold, and retirement benefits to buy 12 policies in the name of his wife, children, and other family members.
> The accused, in a move to convince him, even issue the victims DDs for Rs 5 crore, Rs 4 crore, and Rs 2 crore.