Cops issue advisory to warn people against increasing insurance scam in recent times
Telegraph | 26 May 2025
The city police issued an advisory regarding insurance scams
recently, warning people that scammers may call or send messages posing as
employees or representatives from reputed insurance companies in a bid to steal
data.
The advisory comprises three sections — stop, drop, and inform — asking
citizens to avoid clicking on unknown links or downloading apps that scammers
may suggest over the phone.
The scam may involve any kind of insurance,
including medical and vehicle, the advisory, uploaded on social media, says.
“Report fraudulent activity at cybercrime helpline at 1930 and Kolkata Police
cyber police station at 9836513000,” the advisory reads. Officers said the
advisory was released after several cases emerged where victims claimed they
were cheated through fake insurance calls.
“The moment someone clicks on a
phishing link, a website opens, which looks just like the original
website of a particular insurance company, but the URL is different. The data
entered on this lookalike website goes directly to the server maintained by
scammers and not to the original insurance company. The fraudsters then use the
information to withdraw money,” a senior officer of the cyber wing of the city
police said.
“Instead of filling out a form on the website, we urge residents
not to rush. Take your time, and please visit the original website of the
particular company in a separate tab and run a quick check. The
dissimilarities would be evident,” said the officer.
Sources said the scammers
sometimes call posing as staff of a particular insurance company where the
victim has an existing policy.
The caller then tries to help the victim
transfer his existing policies to a fresh policy for better returns.
Officers
said the other trap would be to call a policyholder and tell him that
his insurance agent, while buying the policy, had purchased another policy from
another company.
“Scamsters would tell victims that they should receive
dividends from the company for the policy the agent had purchased, which
the customer was unaware of. Unless one deposits a particular sum to
a certain account, the dividend, which runs into several lakhs, will be
transferred to the agent’s account, the scamsters would claim,” said another
senior officer of the cybercrime wing of the East Division of the city police.
“Those who take the bait lose the entire amount they deposit into the stated
account,” said the officer.
Officers said a different set of fraudsters would
often call those with existing insurance policies, posing as officials of
the insurance verification department, asking for the PAN and Aadhaar
numbers and bank details to complete the verification.
“A few others would
call, saying you have been selected for a loyalty bonus for being a
valued customer of the particular insurance company. The bonus would be
transferred to the agent code instead of yours.
Please provide the policy
details so the bonus can be transferred to you directly,” the officer said.
“If
one does that, he ends up losing money,” he said.