Kathmandu. Mumbai: A media person in the western suburbs of Mumbai has lost nearly Rs 3 crore to cyber fraudsters by promising high returns on insurance policies ranging from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 10 lakh.
The media persons have taken a loan of Rs 10 million from five banks and banking institutions for the amount received as insurance claims. For which he has to pay a monthly installment of Rs 2 lakh 70 thousand.
According to mumbai police, the fraudsters had projected themselves as officials of the central bank RBI and income tax department. Initially, the victim was asked to pay Rs 5.4 million in goods and services tax (GST) to get payment for the insurance claim. Not only this, he also misused the bank account of another victim in Bengaluru to transfer Rs 30.70 lakh.
According to the police, the media persons, who are said to be victims, had an insurance policy with the person, but after some time they stopped paying the monthly payment installment. He received a call from a person claiming to be an employee of the insurance regulator’s grievance redressal monitoring system, insurance trust. Who warned him of action if he did not regularize the installment. The caller assured him that if he paid more than Rs 1 lakh to revive the policy, he would get Rs 10.6 lakh after the maturity of the policy. The caller also sent fake letters via email to convince him.
On July 14, 2020, the victim received another email. Which stated that if he had more rupees. If you pay Rs 1 lakh, you will get Rs 15 lakh at the maturity of the policy. The email contained a letter with the stamp and seal of the Union Ministry of Finance. The complainant rs. 1.1 lakh was transferred to the account given by the fraudster. On August 4 of that year he received another email again. An additional payment of Rs 15.7 lakh was offered a benefit of Rs 84.3 lakh. He did not have enough money for this, but the fraudsters continued to pressure him. Later, he received another call asking him to pay an additional Rs 10 lakh to get back Rs 20 lakh more.
The fraudsters also presented themselves as RBI officers and sent him fake letters asking questions about several frequent transactions from bank accounts. Then came another email. In which it was claimed to have come from the Income Tax Department. He was directed to pay Rs 54 lakh in taxes (GST).
The victim’s media person paid the money this time too and then he narrated all these incidents to one of his friends. Only then did he realize that he had been cheated. The victim then approached the police. Officials of Mumbai’s Western Region Cyber Crime Police are investigating the matter.
