Hotel exec defrauded with claims of getting life insurance of deceased father

A hotel executive in Mumbai was defrauded of ?9.5 lakh ($12,600) by cyber frauds posing as insurance agents offering help to withdraw a policy amount of around ?25 lakh ($33,000). The Bhoiwada police have registered a case against three unknown persons for cheating her over the internet. The fraudsters posed as executives from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) and asked the complainant to pay a fee of ?9,000 ($120) to cancel the policy in her father?s name and start the process to withdraw the policy amount.

MUMBAI: A hotel executive was defrauded to the tune of ₹9.5 lakh by cyber frauds who posed as insurance agents, and claimed they would help her withdraw an insurance amount of around ₹25 lakh based on a policy taken by her recently deceased father. The Bhoiwada police on Friday booked the three unknown persons for cheating her over the internet.

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In her complaint to the police, Sakinaka resident Daksha Ghadi said she was in her workplace in Parel on April 25 when she first received the call from a person identifying himself as IRDA (Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority) executive Rakesh Kumar. He said he had heard about the death of her father Jagdish Ghadi and was calling regarding his insurance policy with a life cover of ₹25 lakh.

“The next day, I received a call from another IRDA executive saying he was the senior of the previous caller. I was told that I will have to pay them a sum of ₹9,000 as a fee to cancel the policy in my father’s name and start the process to withdraw the policy amount,” the complainant told the police. Some days later, they sent her an insurance cancellation form. A couple of weeks later, she was told that the amount was very big, her bank did not allow the transfer and the money which was sent to her came back to IRDA’s account. “A third executive from IRDA then called to ask me to transfer a sum of ₹5.7 lakh to their account which they said would add to the insurance amount which would be remitted to her bank account,” she said in her statement to the police.

She said that later that week, she was sent a letter from the income tax department to send a GST of ₹3.6 lakh. The letter also asked for this amount to be paid directly to the insurer.

“After paying this, the complainant decided to visit the IRDA office in Churchgate to get more information about the payout and when to expect it. The officials there told her that the papers she had received were fake, and were not issued from their office,” said an officer from Bhoiwada police.

The police officer added that based on the complaint received from her, they have booked the three unknown accused under relevant sections of the Information Technology Act and for cheating under the Indian Penal Code.