A fake call centre run by former insurance agents in Noida defrauded hundreds of people in a multi-crore loan scam using phone data bought online with just ₹2,500. Police arrested 11 people, including nine women, for selling fake insurance policies and loans, according to a report by broadcaster NDTV.
The racket was being run by two former life insurance policy agents and operated out of a call centre located in a building in Noida’s Sector 51 market for over a year. The gang lured individuals from outside the Delhi-NCR region with false promises of high returns on loans and insurance policies, police officials told the broadcaster.
The masterminds of the scam, Ashish and Jitendra, recruited nine women to work as call centre executives. These women called people to sell them fake policies. The gang obtained SIM cards using illegally-bought fake Aadhaar cards.
The gang used these SIM cards to hide their identities while targeting unsuspecting victims. The organisation operated on a commission basis, meaning the more people they lured in, the more money they earned.
The scammed sent their money to a Punjab National Bank (PNB) account which belonged to a Karnataka resident named Arvind. Ashish and Jitendra rented his account for ₹10,000 a month and used debit cards to withdraw the money in Noida.
Police found a black diary used by Ashish during the raid and found that the duo logged in every financial transaction in the year-long scam which generated crores of rupees.
A joint operation by the Crime Response Team (CRT) and the local Sector 49 police station officials busted the racket, Shakti Mohan Avasthy, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) told the broadcaster.
He said that a case was lodged against the duo for their role in a similar scam that was filed against them in Jharkhand’s Ranchi.
“Ashish and Jitendra started this fraudulent activity after working for SBI Life Insurance in 2019. They bought data of about 10,000 people from India Mart for ₹ 2,500 and began calling people across India, defrauding them under the pretence of offering loans and insurance,” Avasthy was quoted as saying by the broadcaster.
The police identified the key accused as Ashish Kumar, also known as Amit, and Jitendra Verma, also known as Abhishek. The nine women arrested are Nisha, also known as Sneha; Reju, also known as Divya; Lovely Yadav, also known as Sweta; Poonam, also known as Pooja; Aarti Kumari, also known as Ananya; Kajal Kumari, also known as Surti; Sarita, also known as Suman; Babita Patel, also known as Mahi; and Garima Chauhan, also known as Sonia.
A First Information Report (FIR) has been filed under provisions of the newly-enacted Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and all the accused have been sent to judicial custody.
