The Cyber sleuths of the Mumbai north police have ripped the lid off a fake inter-state online insurance policy racket by arresting six persons who were allegedly selling fake online life insurance policies of various prominent companies and cheating people of huge amounts.

The police said that some persons – who identified themselves as Bani Singh and Vijay Mehta  from  Bharti AXA General Insurance company and Deepak Dube, Sneha and Pooja from PNB MetLife Insurance had approached him during the lockdown period between June 2020-March 2021 and lured him with attractive offers.

The accused sold the complainant an online policy and sent the policy documents from the purported email of bhartiaxa@aol.com, claiming that they were authorised representatives of IRDA of India in Hyderabad.

The accused allegedly lured the complainant by offering benefits of Rs. 71.87 lakhs, plus an interest free loan of Rs. 12 lakh, lifelong pension, and forced him to deposit Rs. 18.98 lakh.Having realised that he had been duped by the alleged insurance agents the victim approached the Mumbai Cyber Police, North Region.

The Mumbai North Cyber police – who investigated the case in close coordination with the Uttar Pradesh Cyber police -- found that the scam had spread to five states -- Maharashtra, Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Telangana, where the scamsters had used fake SIM cards acquired in the name of genuine customers by misusing their KYC documents submitted with mobile card retailers.

The Cyber Police also learnt that some of the accused have similar police cases registered against them in Lucknow, UP and other places. The investigators are trying to unravel the nexus of the gang in other states selling such fake online insurance policies.

The cyber police have so far arrested six persons and sealed two accounts with Kotak Mahindra Bank and ICICI Bank, seized at least five mobile phone and several fake SIM cards.