Woman duped by cons claiming to be from Reliance, Service Tax Dept

A South Delhi-based woman has been duped of more than Rs 4.5 lakh by a group of alleged cons, who claimed to be from Reliance Life Insurance, a fake government-controlled insurance-related body and service tax department over a period of ten months, the police said on Tuesday.

On June 2014, the complainant — a Malviya Nagar resident, received a call from another woman, who claimed to be an employee in a government-controlled insurance related body, and her life insurance policy number was verified. After three days, the complainant received another call from a person, identifying himself as Rajeev Sharma, who claimed to be an employee of Reliance Life Insurance Company, where the complainant had an insurance policy. Sharma referred to the complainant’s previous conversation with the woman caller and informed her that she had earned a ‘huge bonus’ on her insurance policy. However, she was also asked to deposit Rs 1,15,000 to claim the same, said a police official.

After a few days, another man, who claimed to be from the Service Tax department, allegedly called up the complainant and asked her to pay ‘advance taxes’ for the taxable bonus amount. The complainant, now further convinced that the documents related to the bonus had reached the service tax department, claimed to have paid off a total amount of around Rs 4, 55,000 to the alleged cons, said the official. She reported the matter to the police on April 25. However, the accused have yet not been arrested.

“In a recent case cracked by the Crime Branch, the alleged cons had opened a website claiming to be from the PMO and allegedly duped people to the tune of crores with data acquired from banks. Any employee who has access to customer information can be a roped in by the cons,” said a senior police official.