Chennai, Jul 24 (IANS): Reliance Life Insurance Company Ltd has lodged hundreds of police complaints across India to put an end to the menace of spurious phone calls by fraudsters using its name, the company said Wednesday.
The private life insurer has filed 190 complaints at various police stations across the country against call centres and spurious callers offering lucrative loans or insurance policies with huge gains using its name, an statement from Reliance Life Insurance said.
Spurious calling is a term used in the insurance industry to refer to a group of fraudsters who call customers posing as representatives or staffers of a company and lure them into buying insurance products by making false and bogus offers.
"Spurious calling is an industry problem and the industry is taking steps to curb this menace. Reliance Life Insurance is one of the few insurers to have filed complaints with the police of respective areas after acquiring information regarding calling numbers and names of callers," Anup Rau, chief executive of the company, was quoted as saying in the statement.
"We have been receiving queries from customers who are getting spurious calls with unrealistic offers, including interest-free loans and extraordinary bonuses. We have launched public awareness campaigns across the country to inform customers of such bogus calls that are aimed to mislead them," he added.
According to Rau, the company is taking the assistance of police and investigating agencies to check the increasing incidences of frauds.
Reliance Life Insurance has set up a call-back system that allows it to ascertain that the buyer has understood the benefits and terms of the policy before it is issued.
The modus operandi of the fraudsters is to call people and introduce themselves as employees or agents of the insurer and make a bogus offer of interest-free loan and additional bonus, according to the statement.
On hooking the prospect the fraudster would ask the former to pay a minimum percentage and collect the cheque/cash and other documents.
The fraudster would fill up the insurance proposal form with fictitious data and earn huge commissions and move forward to con others.