Mumbai: Fake insurance executive dupes banker of Rs 90,000 for ‘policy refund’

MUMBAI: City police have arrested a 28-year-old Thane resident for allegedly duping a 50-year-old employee of a nationalised bank of Rs 90,000 by promising to refund Rs 2.9 lakh she had invested in a life insurance policy.

The accused’s WhatsApp chats reveal he had similarly contacted more than a hundred other policy holders of various insurance companies with refund offers, said the police.
Cops warn that frauds involving surrender of insurance policies before the lock-in period ends are on the rise. Many in need of lumpsum funds fall victim to such scams.
The accused, Suraj Waghmare, had allegedly called up the complainant posing as an employee of a well-known insurance company and had given a fake account number of the firm for depositing “processing fees”. The bank employee transferred Rs 90,000 in various transactions into the account till she realised she had been defrauded.
The complainant approached D B Marg police on October 10 and lodged an FIR for cheating. Police also invoked sections of the IT Act. A team led by senior inspector Pradip Khude, PI Raja Bidkar, API Rajaram Pol, PSI Pradip Patil and staff members Suraj Dahigude and Rambhau Sangle began working on the case.
The complainant told the police she had received a call from a person who introduced himself as an executive of an insurance firm from whom she had taken a policy. “Even though she had been regularly paying the premium, the caller told her they had not received the last installment. He then asked her if she was interested in surrendering her policy and getting a refund,” said a cop. The woman, who had a total of three policies, agreed.
Based on the bank account number and his phone number, police arrested Waghmare, a resident of Wagle Estate, Thane. “A Mumbai court has remanded him in police custody,” said a cop.
“Waghmare, who dropped out of school after SSC, had earlier worked in an insurance company for a year and knows how they function,” said a cop. In the chats, he pretended to be an executive of various insurance companies. Police have found transactions of over Rs 7.5 lakh in his account.