Phishing and other frauds….
I have got umpteen calls from SBI Cards for giving me a Credit card. They took my details TWICE and I have not heard anything from them.
No clue what’s up….but I still get calls.
Now I hear that there is a phishing fraud from Morocco – and I have not seen any ads from SBI warning the general public about this.
Well, well.
Another amazing fraud is called the IRDA fraud. Sure, IRDA has nothing to do with it, but the life insurance companies know EXACTLY what this fraud is all about…
the call goes like this:
Boy / Girl: Sir I am calling from IRDA
Client: What?
B: Sir Insurance regulating authority – we are above all Insurance companies.
C: OK
B: Sir you have lost Rs. 93, 450 in 3 policies in a private insurance company…
C: yes yes I have lost.
B: Sir we found out about this when we did audit…and sir you can get back this amount
C: How?
B: Sir you need to open a new account with Metlife Insurance company (my friend Raymond Dsouza got a call from this company) so using this company’s name….
C: So what should I do?
After this it looks like a regular sale…but a small policy which does not involve any medical tests…then the policy is brilliantly sent to a wrong address and they play around for 20 days…
Once the Free Look in is over, the policy reached Raymond Dsouza 🙂
All his complaints to all the ‘authorities’ fell on deaf ears….so another 25k gone. Apart from the earlier money gone 🙂
Let us now ask the following questions:
Does the company NOT know about this racket?
Does the IRDA not know about this?
Why is a potential client / existing client being treated so shabbily by the BFSI?
What is the Life Council doing about this?
Let me answer this:
The Manager at the life insurance company has access to the database of the clients of the company. He picks up a few numbers and tries this trick. When they call a few people, some fall for the trick.
Then along with the IFA / another employee (also in the know) they lodge the application with the WRONG address. The cheque is encashed, and the new policy is sent to the wrong address.
The Operations / legal team of the company may or may not be in the know, but surely a couple of people in the branch are in the know.
When the client goes to the company..they act like they have no clue what happened.
Priyanka Sambhav and yours truly have done programs about this on Cnbc Awaaz – Pehredar – I hope many, many of you read this, tweet, send on FB…and warn people.
I wish Life Insurance Council, the responsible media, IRDA, etc. advertise about this menace so that people do not fall for such mischief. IRDA should REFUND the money to all such victims….or be ready for a terrible backlash….
Khushnood Viccaji
I had received such a phone call in early Dec-2012.
Here’s the text of the email I had sent out to my family & friends to warn them about it.
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Subject: IMPORTANT – Hoax caller offering help to ‘recover’ money on ‘mis-sold’ insurance policy
This is a heads-up for those who may be holding insurance policies / ULIPs (Unit Linked Insurance Plans) from Indian insurance companies.
I had purchased a ULIP from HSBC-Tata AIG about 5 years ago.
For those who don’t know it, a ULIP is one of the most mis-sold products in the financial / insurance bouquet of products, in India !
Today, I received a call from +91-22-30857739, claiming to be from the IRDA (Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority, India).
He quoted my policy number and asked me whether I would be interested in getting back my premiums paid so far, plus interest, plus some ‘damages’ for the mis-sold product.
If I was interested, he would transfer the call to his ‘Manager’ who would guide me on the process for getting my money back !
I agreed, and he put his manager on the line.
The Manager, quoted an amount that was more than 1.5 times the total amount paid by me as annual premiums over the past few years !
Feeling tempted, I said yes, I would be interested in recovering the money and agreed to start the process of registering for this.
However, at the back of my mind, something struck me as very odd.
Why was the IRDA proactively calling up customers who had been purportedly ‘defrauded’ by insurance companies ?
After all, they are a regulatory and development agency. It’s not their job to ‘help’ customers recover money from the insurers, unless the customer has complained about it !
That’s when the caller got around to his real motive for calling me.
In exchange for their ‘help’ in recovering the large amount, I would first have to buy a new, endowment insurance policy worth a ‘small amount’ !
I have heard and read A LOT about phishing scams on the phone and via email. This was my first experience with a phone scam !
PLEASE BE CAREFUL ABOUT THESE SCAMSTERS, AND DO NOT GET TEMPTED BY THE LURE OF ‘RECOVERING’ ALL YOUR MONEY, IN EXCHANGE FOR A “SMALL” INSURANCE POLICY !
Cheers… and take care !
Khushnood
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Khushnood Viccaji
I had reported this call to TATA AIG’s helpline, and also sent an email, to life.complaints@tataaia.com, which was never acknowledged.
Interestingly enough, I kept on receiving further phone calls from the same number series with the last couple of digits being different !
In one case, I even told the caller that I was aware about this fraud, and not to waste time with me.
He gave me a couple of choice abuses in Marathi, and hung up.
But the calls stopped after that — they must have tagged me as a ‘hopeless case’ 🙂
Gunda
About SBI credit cards, it is a lousy service. I was a victim of their EMI trap. COnverted the purchase amount into 6 EMIs and no one mentioned the processing fee, it was a significant fee.
Another instance, my brother’s SBI card number was misused from a Malaysia shop. He had to prove that card was with him when the transaction happened and that he never visited Malaysia during that period.
I would avoid SBI credit cards.
Abhijit
The same happened with me too a couple of years back for SBI card!!!
Shankarraju
Hi Subra,
Thanks for letting us know about the fraud. Also can you please list down what are the victim’ options are to recover the money and to punish the persons, if it is internal job. This will definitely help everyone.
Sujit
I often get calls from people who claim to be representing Kotak Life Insurance, they offer to pay me back for the policy (It was a term policy with Kotak)which I had for a period and later discontinued for being quite expensive. Not sure if its agents paddling new policies for Kotak or someone doing fraud. I have never entertained them, however just an FYI for all.