FPJ Cyber Secure: Mumbai Woman Loses ₹9.44 Lakh In Insurance Fraud

Mumbai: The Mumbai police has registered a case of cybercrime against a group of fraudsters who cheated Diksha Ghadi, a 48-year old woman from Sakinaka, of ₹9.44 lakh in an insurance scam perpetrated between April 25 and May 25.

The fraudsters, Rakesh Kumar and Nandkumar Tiwari, posed as employees from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) and informed Ghadi that she is entitled to claim ₹25 lakh from her recently deceased father’s insurance policy. However, to claim the money, she would first have to pay a cancellation fee of ₹9,546 in a bank account provided by them, and promptly sent her payment receipts on WhatsApp.

Next, the fraudsters convinced Ghadi to pay ₹8,500 in order to claim the money and a few days later sent a receipt of ₹25,00,081 that was purportedly deposited in the complainant’s bank account. However, when Ghadi checked her account, she found no such amount had been deposited.

Fraudsters asked her to transfer ₹5 lakh due to technical glitch

The fraudsters then asked her to transfer ₹5,66,023 to their accounts, claiming that the previous transfer had reverted to the IRDA account due to a technical glitch. Ghadi also received a letter purportedly from the GST department, as per which she had to pay ₹3.60 lakh as GST in order to avail her father’s policy, which she paid with an assurance of a refund.

Ghadi got suspicious after yet another demand for ₹11.44 lakh. She then went to the IRDA office in Churchgate and found that all the documents and receipts provided by the fraudsters were fake. A complaint was lodged at the Bhoiwada police and an FIR was filed under the Indian Penal Code and the IT Act.