Cyber crooks held for cheating Max Insurance policyholders; company says zero tolerance for fraudulent practices

New Delhi, April 27 (IANS) The Intelligence Fusion & Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit of Delhi Police has arrested five cyber criminals for cheating 22 Max Insurance policy holders to the tune of Rs 2.38 crore, an official said.

The official said that the gang, including two ex-employees of Max Insurance company, was allegedly involved in fraudulent withdrawal of unclaimed money of Max Life Insurance policy holders through bank accounts opened using forged documents.

The accused have been identified as Prem Parkash (37), Chandan Jain (41), Sujeet Kumar Mishra (41), Rohit Kumar Aggarwal (28), and Vikas (30).

Aggarwal, a former senior executive at Max Life Insurance Co., used his access to policyholders' data to identify those with unclaimed surrendered and maturity amounts. He then shared these details with Mishra, another employee at the company, who passed them on to Jain. Jain, in turn, passed the information to Prakash, who opened bank accounts in the names of these policyholders.

Meanwhile, Max Life Insurance said in a statement: "At Max Life Insurance, we believe in conducting business with the highest standards of ethics and integrity. We have zero tolerance for any unethical and fraudulent practices that compromise our customers' interest and put Max Life's reputation at risk. During our internal enquiry, we discovered that the implicated individuals had indulged in unethical practices.

"We had taken strict action against employee involved and terminated their employment with immediate effect. The FIR was registered on complaint by Max Life only. We are extending the necessary support to aid ongoing investigations to ensure justice is met. We remain resolute in delivering the best services with necessary fraud control measures that our customers expect from us."

According to the police, the matter came to light after a case was registered under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code at the Special Cell police station on the complaint of Max Life Insurance, wherein it was alleged that a sum of Rs 51 lakh related to surrendered/maturity amount of two Max policyholders - Ashutosh Joshi and Abdul Hye Choudhary - had been fraudulently received by unknown persons whose requests for refund were processed through their ex-employees.

It was later discovered by the company that Choudhary had expired on March 13, 2018 and no such request was made on his behalf.

"During inquiry, further documents and information shared by the company were examined and it was revealed that around Rs 2.38 crore pertaining to 37 policies of 22 Max Life Insurance policyholders got refunded fraudulently," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (IFSO), Prashant P. Gautam.

The police then collected relevant account-related documents from the banks which revealed that several accounts were opened in Equitas Small Finance Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bandhan Bank, Yes Bank, IDBI Bank and Jana Small Finance Bank in the names of policyholders.

"Many of these accounts were opened digitally using the e-Aadhaar authentication process. It was also found that most of the money received in these accounts was transferred to accounts in the name of Rinku Sales, whose proprietor was Prem Prakash, having the address of Kabir Nagar, Rana Pratap Bagh, Delhi," said the DCP.

However, the said address was not traceable.

"Prem Prakash was nabbed from near Burari and on the basis of his interrogation, five more persons were also arrested subsequently," Gautam said.

The officer said that Prakash lured his known persons and others, mostly poor people residing in jhuggis near Rana Pratap Bagh, and took them to the Aadhaar Centre to get their names/addresses changed to the names and addresses of the policyholders.

"Vikas, who worked at the Aadhaar Centre, got these changes updated without collecting any relevant documents against Rs 1,000-1,500 per case. Many of these accounts were opened digitally using the e-Aadhaar authentication process," the officer said.

Aggarwal used to fill up the NEFT mandate forms using the signature of the policy holders and sent them along with scanned copies of cheque/passbooks through his official email ID to the data entry team of the company to initiate the refund process.

"The refund amount was received in the bank accounts opened in the names of policyholders from where most of it was transferred to the bank accounts of Rinku Sales. From the account of Rinku Sales, the amount was withdrawn in cash and shared by the accused persons," the officer said.

The police have also recovered 39 mobile phones, 55 PAN cards, 33 Aadhaar cards, 32 voter ID cards, 46 debit cards, 73 cheque books/passbooks, six point of sale machines, and 10 rubber stamps.

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