NEW DELHI: Police have busted a fake insurance call centre which was allegedly misusing the name of Policy Bazaar to cheat the Delhi residents by distributing them fake insurance policy certificates, a senior police officer said on Monday. Two men have been arrested and 10 women have been detained in this regard.
As per the officer, the accused, Nihal Khan alias Mayank and Deepu (the kingpins of the syndicate), and the women had a database of car owners which they allegedly used to dupe people.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Raja Banthia said a victim of cybercrime lodged a complaint on October 5 stating that he was duped of Rs 12,000 when he was trying to purchase car insurance online in June.
“When he was searching online (for car insurance), he received an email from an email address, mayank@policybazaarinfo.com, in which a person, claiming to be an employee of Policy Bazaar, shared his ID card with him,” the DCP said.
Then, the same person called him several times and gave an account number to the complainant and asked him to deposit the money. Once the payment was made, Nihal Khan provided policy documents but somehow complainant got suspicious of the way the policy was written.
“He contacted the policy issuer Tata AIG Insurance Company, who told him that this policy is fake,” the official said.
Following this, the official said a probe was launched. After scanning CCTV cameras of the area where the calling numbers were located, it came to light that a group had been using a building at Sewak Park near Dwarka Mor Metro Station. The police raided the place and discovered the call centre.
During interrogation, both the accused confessed to their involvement in the case and disclosed that about 50 other persons had been cheated by them.
Modus operandi
The accused used an online portal to hire the staff, instructing them to contact car owners from a provided database and inquire whether they need car insurance or not.
“Nihal Khan and Deepu had created four fake mail IDs and used them to send their fake IDs, fake bank account details and fake policy quotations at low prices to the customers who wanted to get car insurance policies,” the officer said.
The officer said that on further investigation, over 25 fake bank accounts have been identified and further identification of victims is in process.