Many gullible people fall prey to Nigerian fraud tactics by con men, only to get duped or get their accounts hacked. But not this 28-year-old businessman, Ashish Magare. He had been receiving calls for past six months from people claiming to be officials of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA), offering hefty bonuses on various policies. As all other conmen, they asked him to deposit money into an account so that his bonus can be released. Being in the computer business, Magare, was smart enough to record all of these shady conservations with these so-called IRDA executives, and approached the IRDA, insurance companies and the cyber crime cell of Pune police to register a complaint. "Throughout these six months, a different person, claiming to be an IRDA official would call to say that the bonus has been declared on my policies," said Magare.
He said that his suspicion stemmed from the fact that all his policies were on his father Prabhakar Magare’s name, but after his father’s death, he transferred them to his. "Whenever, they call me, they address me as Prabhakar. If the Insurance companies have moved all the policies to my name, they must have notified IRDA," he said.
Magare’s suspicion grew stronger after the people who had been calling, claimed that on six policies of ICICI Prudential, the IRDA has given bonus. "I had six policies, however five policies have been closed and there is no question of the insurance firm giving me bonus on closed policies," he said. He further added that for every policy, they were asking me to deposit Rs15,000 to claim the bonus.
Magare then approached ICICI Prudential on their customer care number and clarified that no bonus has been allotted on his policies.
"I even wrote to IRDA, who in their response, said that no one from IRDA makes such calls to policy holders, and promised to investigate the matter. I then started communicating with the agents, who called me and started recording their conversation. I then sent a soft copy of all the telephonic conversation to IRDA," he said. He expressed surprise on how these people get access to his policy-related information. "I have given a complaint copy to the cyber crime cell of the city police, and requested them to investigate the case," he said.
Speaking to dna, the assistant police inspector Sanjay Tungar said that they will be investigating the case.
Source Diligent Media
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