A diamond merchant from Mumbai, India, has become yet another entry on the list of victims scammed by people impersonating insurance agents, after a man and woman reportedly tricked him into depositing his annual life insurance premium into their account.
According to the police, the 55-year-old fraud victim got in touch with the insurance company through a private bank at which he had an account. He purchased a policy, which had a premium of INR500,000 (US$7,800) per year for five years.
While he paid the premium for 2016 through the bank, he told the police that he refused to pay this year’s instalment because he didn’t like the bank’s service. In March, he received calls from a man claiming to be from the insurance company, saying that he only had until April 12 to pay the instalment, and that he could do so by directly sending them the money.
When the victim called one of the numbers the impostor provided, he spoke to a woman, who also claimed to be from the insurer. She said that he would only need to pay INR450,000, as paying directly would give him a 10% discount. The victim complied and deposited the money to a bank account the woman gave, and she confirmed the arrival of the money.
However, on April 11, the merchant was notified by the insurance company that it did not receive any payment from him. He approached the insurer and it confirmed that it had not made any calls to him about his yearly instalment.
Like in several other cases, police suspect that someone with inside information from the insurance company was behind the scam, as they knew the details of the merchant’s insurance policy and that he had refused to pay through the bank.
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Three arrested for selling fake insurance policies
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