While writing this post there’s a huge phone scam currently going on in India, where the victims get a call from low lives who claims to be calling from Life Insurance Corporation of India’s Head Office or Claim Office and the person at the other end of the phone starts pressing you for following details about your policy:

  • Policy number and date of commencement.
  • Exact name of policy holder,
  • Premium paid by you.
  • Date of birth of policy holder.
  • Address.
  • Agent’s name, code and address.
  • Your PAN/Aadhaar card number.

When you ask him/her the reason why s/he is asking for these details, then the low life will start saying any one of the following things to you:

  • Your policy has accumulated a huge bonus (in lakhs) and you need to claim this amount on a urgent basis. They will tell you that your agent has fooled you and didn’t tell you about this additional bonus at the time of policy sign up. In order to claim this bonus amount you need to buy a membership card of XYZ company with whom LIC has partnered. They may also say that the accumulated bonus is exempted from any Income/Government Taxes, but you need to claim this amount as soon as possible.
  • They will ask you to buy a policy of a completely different company because certain percentage of your policy amount is invested with Government of India and remaining percentage is invested with a reputed private insurance firm. If you buy a policy of XYZ amount with this private insurance firm then they will release a huge bonus check for you.
  • etc.

When you show any reluctance in giving your policy related information or opting for new policy/membership, these low lives literally starts using foul language and abuses against you!

What you should do?

Note: In case you have already opted for a new policy or membership card from these low lives, somehow paid them your hard earned money and now in turn you have got nothing/completely different thing from their side, then you need to file a FIR with your nearest police station – No other option!

I seriously don’t think that LIC of India office or IRDA (Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India) will help you with these type of cases. They may guide you, but don’t expect any direct help from their side, as this is a mistake at your end. Only police can help you. You may also want to get advice from a knowledgeable lawyer.

We will tell you what you should do a bit later. First read what we did and what was the response from the other side:

As a fluent Hindi speaker from Central and North India, we had to use foul language with these low lives! The person at the other end of the phone was completely shocked and disconnected the phone himself – Holy Cow!

Now after 1 or 2 hours we got another call from a completely different number. The person at the other end of the phone told us that we have abused a LIC agent and they have filed a defamation lawsuit against us. We need to report to our nearest court of law with a fine of half a million Indian Rupees. You know what was our response to him?:

  • Had to use foul words again!
  • A very simple sentence: Do whatever you want.

Never got any calls from these low lives again on our phone. Now coming to the part about what you should do? If using foul language is not an option for you, then you can do any of the following mentioned things to handle these low lives:

1. Simply ignore their call. As soon as you hear that a person is claiming to be calling from LIC of India office, just hang up the phone. Real LIC of India officers don’t call policy holders to give information about bonuses or ask for policy details.

2. If you have a smartphone then you can block certain callers in it by using a third-party application or using the inbuilt call block feature of your mobile OS. For example, long press on any particular contact or number in Android’s Call Log and then tap on Add to reject list and the caller will be blocked permanently unless you unblock it:

block caller

3. Directly contact your mobile operator/landline (fixed line) provider and ask them what they can do about these bogus calls and text messages? Chances are very high that they may block certain callers for you, but keep in mind that these low lives can always contact you from some other number.

4. If these bogus calls don’t stop and your phone keeps on ringing day and night, then change your mobile/landline number and try not to circulate your number this time.

Why are we receiving such calls?

The reasons are very simple:

  • Some private insurance company or organization sold your number. Sometimes websites that allows you to send free text messages online, also leak your and others number to low lives. Even online mobile recharge/wallet services are also responsible for selling your number.
  • Database of a particular reputed company gets hacked, you are/was a customer of this company and all your contact details now went to the culprits!
  • In the past you have posted your number on websites which are publicly accessible. These websites may include Twitter, Facebook, blogs, forums, Usenet groups, internet dating/marriage sites, resume/curriculum vitae on job sites, complaint boards etc.

Even LIC of India has regularly started urging its policy holders via SMS (sender: BP-LICIND) to beware of fraudulent callers posing as LIC officials:

lic

Stay alert, Stay safe and don’t disclose your policy or bank account related information to anyone in any case.