Fake insurance call centre busted

Four scamsters, who set up a fake call centre and opened bank accounts by the name 'Make in India', were arrested by Delhi Police from Tilak Nagar, police said on Tuesday.

The accused would pose themselves as representatives from Governing Body of Insurance Council (GBIC) and lure people on the pretext of providing refund against their lapsed insurance policies.

The four accused have been identified as Naveen Gupta (28), Sunil Shah (24), Sumit Kapoor (30) and Sonu Sharma (20).

According to the police, the group members had worked with various insurance companies in the past and had used their experience to lay the plot and entrap their victims.

The case came to light when the South District police had received a complaint from a resident of Vasant Kunj, Praveen Kumar Sethi, that from November 2016, he had been receiving calls on his mobile phone from a purported representative of GBIC. The caller had the correct details of various insurance policies which had been purchased by the complainant in the past but which had, for various reasons, lapsed before they could attain maturity.

"Thereafter, on the promises made by the tele-caller to facilitate a return of his investments against his lapsed policies, Praveen started depositing various amounts under the heads like 'service fee', 'security deposits' and more in various bank accounts under names like Standard Services, Make in India Service and Bali Associates," said Additional Commissioner of Police (South), Chinmoy Biswal.

The police later tracked the four accused by pulling up a detailed analysis of account statements, ownership details and transaction patterns.

Their fake call centre was traced to Mukherjee Park in Tilak Nagar, following which a raiding team was sent who managed to apprehend the accused.

Further, Rs 2 lakh in cash, 20 mobile phones and 56 SIM cards, were recovered from the accused.

During the interrogation, it was found that Naveen Gupta was the mastermind of the racket. The accused would procure the database of all the persons whose insurance policy was about to lapse and would contact them and offer a refund.

They had also set up bank accounts under the name 'Make in India' to get the victims to trust them. The police is now trying to find out all the victims who have been duped by the accused.