THREE PERSONS have been arrested by the Cyber Crime Branch (CCB) of Ahmedabad for duping a person of Rs 35 lakh under the pretext of being insurance agents for legal protection. According to officials, the accused - two women and a man - had accessed data of customers of the HDFC Bank Legal Protection Insurance (LPI) scheme. They used to promise fake refunds and other benefits, claiming them to be on behalf of their company. Then, they asked gullible customers to deposit the premium amount in their bank accounts. “A complaint had been registered by one K M Patel of Vastrapur, who alleged that on February 4, this year, he received a call from a man claiming to be Alok Saksena, an insurance agent for HDFC. The man claimed that he could provide certain refunds and benefits to Patel for the yearly LPI premium of Rs 2.99 lakh, which he deposits every year,” said Rajdeepsinh Zala, Deputy Commissioner of Police, CCB. “Making fake promises of refund, Saksena connected Patel to one Ramandeep Sharma and J P Prajapati, who further asked him to deposit large sums of money to different bank accounts, to avail the benefits allegedly offered by HDFC bank. From February to July, the gang managed to make Patel deposit Rs 35,42,858 in various bank accounts.” Police added that after putting the phone numbers on surveillance, it was found that the accused were living in Gautam Budh Nagar district and Ghaziabad city of Uttar Pradesh. A Cyber Crime Branch team then picked up the trio from their respective locations. “The three accused have been identified as Parvesh Kumar Singh of G B Nagar and Priyanshi Bhagirath and Renu Singh of Ghaziabad. They had access to data of several HDFC LPI customers, where they called them up and offered assistance. Upon earning the customers’ trust, they asked the gullible customers to deposit money in their own bank accounts,” said Zala.
