Mumbai Crime: Insurance cos insiders aiding con gangs, says Police

While probing incidents of imposters cheating policyholders, the cyber crime units in Mumbai and Mira Bhayandar have learned that there has been a huge amount of data leaks from insurance firms. While cyber cops have arrested a few former employees of insurance companies for their involvement in the racket, they suspect the involvement of existing ones, too.

The cyber units of Mira Bhayandar-Vasai Virar (MBVV) police and the Mumbai police have registered four such cases in just a month. Both the police have so far arrested seven people in connection with three of the four cases. According to the cops, fraudsters are calling up people posing as insurance agents and duping them on the pretext of renewing or upgrading their policies.

Also Read: Cyber crime cases in Mumbai rise by more than 63 per cent in 2022 compared to 2021: Police

The cases

The recent arrest was made by Kherwadi police. On Saturday, they took custody of four accused from their MBVV counterparts. The four men had allegedly duped a 56-year-old Bandra East resident of Rs 1.12 lakh, by offering to help stop the auto-debit facility. The accused called the victim and told him that his life insurance policy has matured, but the next premium will be deducted anyway, cops told mid-day. They told the man that he has to make a payment of Rs 5,575 to stop the auto-debit facility, and sent them a QR code to scan for the payment. Later, they stole Rs 1.12 lakh from his bank account, said the cops.

Mumbai cyber cops with the debit/credit cards, cash and mobile phones seized from the accused

Realising that he had been duped, the man lodged a complaint at the Kherwadi police station on January 10. During their investigation, the Kherwadi cops learnt that three of the four accused in the case were arrested by MBVV cops a couple of weeks back for duping someone else. They took the transit custody of Salim Akbar Siddique, 24, Chand Vakil Ahmad, 26, Aftab Shaikh, 26, from the MBVV cops, and arrested the fourth accused--Shahrukh Shaikh, 26. Kherwadi cops said they produced the four men in court that remanded them in police custody.

On January 23, the eastern cyber unit had busted another gang involved in the same scam and arrested three men for cheating a Ghatkopar-based senior citizen of Rs 4.39 crore. Last year, the victim, owner of a dry fruits shop, received multiple messages from an unknown number, claiming to be an employee of the company from where he had bought his policy. The accused offered him a profit of Rs 7.71 crore on his insurance policy if he surrendered it before maturity. In the process, the victim lost R4.39 crore and filed a complaint with the eastern cyber unit last year.

Under the guidance of Deputy Commissioner of Police Balsingh Rajput (Cyber), senior inspector SS Sahastrabuddhe's eastern cyber unit and their team, including Inspector Jagannath More, began the probe and caught three men from Noida and Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh. The accused were identified as Sandeep Kumar Laltapratap, Ravikumar Saroj Singh and Anujkumara Saha. Ravikumar, believed to be the mastermind of the gang, had worked in several call centres of insurance firms in Noida before starting his own call centre. Earlier, the MBVV cyber unit had busted an inter-state gang, which had cheated 40 people of R11 lakh across the country.

The data leak

Police said that the employees, who quit insurance companies, stole data of the policyholders and passed it on to the fraudsters in exchange of monetary benefits, while some used the data to cheat people on their own. Police said they will soon hold a meeting with the representatives of the insurance companies to discuss how such data can be secured. "The policyholders fall prey to these fraudsters easily, because they have all their personal and financial details," an officer, who is part of the investigations, told mid-day.

"We have learnt about the data leakage and are conducting inquiries into the matter. During the investigation, we have found that scammers are mainly targeting senior citizens. We request all policyholders not to entertain third-party calls. In case of any such call, they should contact the nearest branch of the insurance firms, and must not open any kind of links or make online payment. If anyone suspects a fraud, s/he should immediately contact the nearest police station or call the cyber helpline number: 1930," said DCP Rajput.

"The data leak would not have been possible without an inside employee. Work from home during the pandemic caused most of the data leaks. In office, insurance companies monitor their employees' systems, which didn't happen during remote work," said a development officer of a prominent insurance company, requesting anonymity.

Rs 1.12 lakh
Amount a Kherwadi man lost to one such scammer