7 Ways to Avoid Fake Insurance Calls & Frauds

As per several studies and reports, a whopping 43% of added time is spent by citizens in India for tackling the overall effect of online frauds and crimes as compared to their counterparts worldwide. This revelation throws up the state of the woefully inadequate grievance redressal system and also the inadequacy of the entire system of making complaints. There is no suitable infrastructure that prevents customers from complaining since the entire procedure is long and exhausting and more often than not, results are hard to come by. Additionally, there is no single agency or body which collates and monitors all data and other details pertaining to financial cybercrimes.

However, do not let these factors deter you from staying alert and combating fake insurance calls and frauds which represent a major chunk of all these online crimes and crimes over the phone. Here are 7 ways by which you can avoid fake insurance calls and frauds.

1. Avoid revealing any bank details over the phone- Do not ever reveal your bank details to anybody over the phone even if he/she claims to be calling from your insurance company or your agent. Always insist on a visit in person to the insurance company’s office and you will most of these people disconnecting calls immediately!
2. Do not give you bank details to anyone or write them down in a careless manner- Avoid writing your bank details carelessly on little chits or papers which can be stolen or misplaced. Also, do not provide your bank details to anybody including friends, colleagues, acquaintances and so on.
3. There may be fake insurance calls and fraud schemes which insist on you surrendering your current insurance policy in order to get a new one that will give you better returns. You may also be told that you are making losses from your current policy. Do not fall into this trap and surrender your present insurance policy.
4. Never ever expect huge returns on anything related to insurance and you should not fall for returns which seem too good to be true. Keep your expectations to a minimum.
5. You should always post your complaint with the relevant agency/authority and the police whenever you receive any such fraudulent insurance call. This should be done at the earliest.
6. Remember that no insurance provider will ever call you and ask you for your bank account details and other personal information. Similarly, no truly registered and honest agent will ever do this. As a result, the best way is to ignore such calls and insist on going to the local office/branch.
7. Disconnect your call in a few seconds and make sure that you do not call back unknown numbers from which you get missed calls. Do not call back on missed calls from international numbers, i.e. those which do not start from +91.

There are other situations where fraud callers offer you special bonuses, bigger returns on policies, advice on how you were cheated by the previous insurance company and how you can get the earlier policy canceled to get your money back and even guidance supposedly from IRDAI where you are told about the bonus on your life insurance policy for which you have to invest something first.

These are all traps that you should NEVER fall for! In fact, callers often state that there are mistakes or errors in policies and ask for money transfers in order to get the same corrected which is absolutely fake and misleading. Do not be taken in by these so-called Good Samaritans who are out to give the insurance sector a bad name and cheat you out of your hard-earned money.