Fake / Fraud / Scam Calls

SS-Traveller · 25th November 2013, 17:28

I received a call from +91-120-332-5535 right now. The caller, a lady whose English left much to be desired, said that she was calling from the Insurance Verification Department, and asked to speak with my late mother!

I've never heard of such a department, and I told the lady so. She quietly disconnected.

A Google search shows this to be a common and well-reported scam. Some links below:

Beware of the Fake Calls from IRDA - Himachal Pradesh News

Insurance Verification Department Complaints - Complaintboard.in

Insurance Verification Department - fake call for policy cancellation

Fake irda insurance verification department call from delhi - Grahak Seva

Please be informed and careful.

straight6 · 25th November 2013, 22:15

Collection agencies also call people posing as other companies. Friends have told me they call saying that "we have your PF cheque with us, we need your address to mail it to you" and the friend was not expecting any PF cheque.

Mr.Beat · 26th November 2013, 12:38

Since yesterday, i have been getting calls from a person named Lalit from HDFC bank asking to speak to my father. He says, he needs to talk about his financial details regarding the bank. In fact my father never had and does not have anything related to HDFC bank. To top it, the person was rude and manner less. Wish i had caller ID installed for my landline

rohanjf · 12th March 2015, 17:05

Today I got a call from +91 120 483 6300. The caller introduced himself as calling from a German based placement agency, and that he had many jobs that suited my profile. Then he asked me what kind of professional I am. With his first question, I knew where this was going.

I told him my profession. Then he asked my current salary. I told him. Then he said he has a job in Wipro for me, and Wipro can offer 30L Rs annual package. Now I was convinced that this is a scam. I have been rejected by Wipro two times, after all rounds of technical and HR interviews. Both the times, the rejection email mentioned that they cannot offer 15% hike over my current salary. And this 30L is way above that 15% mark!

Yet, I asked him for details. He said there will be a telephonic round of interview first, and then a face-to-face round. But first, I need to register first in his website. He told me to open http://perfect4career.com/ and register. Only then he mentioned that I must pay him a lifetime membership fee of 1800 Rs plus 12.36% government tax.

Since I got the details I wanted, I told him to call back later and disconnected the call. Now I have to block his number

saket77 · 12th March 2015, 17:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by rohanjf

Today I got a call from +91 120 483 6300. .... Only then he mentioned that I must pay him a lifetime membership fee of 1800 Rs plus 12.36% government tax.

I have got these calls as well. I forgot the name of the organization (of scums) but the crux of the matter was exactly the same; just that the offer for me was for HDFC Bank. I knew it was a scam as soon as he spoke first four lines. In fact, I tried to play as dumb as I can but still he had a job for me at HDFC

that too, twice of my current salary! In fact, I played so dumb that he also offered to guide me for making the 'online payment' to their account with my debit card!

They even said that they will provide me with interview questions before hand as they have 'good links' and after some time they even told me that they have the appointment letter ready!

sanjaykk · 12th March 2015, 18:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by rohanjf

Today I got a call from +91 120 483 6300.

Quote:

Originally Posted by saket77

I have got these calls as well. I forgot the name of the organization (of scums) but the crux of the matter was exactly the same;

I think they keep changing company names. I had once got a call from such a number (starting with +91 120) and they mentioned the company name as naukrijobs.com (very smart, eh). Discussion went along in the same lines as you mentioned. In between they talk Hindi as well 'aapko 50% salary increase milegi tho chalega' etc. (translated: will you mind a salary increase of 50%)

Jaguar · 13th March 2015, 00:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by rohanjf

Today I got a call from +91 120 483 6300. The caller introduced himself as calling from a German based placement agency,

I get similar calls from TimesJobs and almost always the person is barely able to hold a conversation in english. The same twice the salary story is repeated and when I ask about the company detials, they tell that it is a paid service. The moment I say I am not interested in a paid service, the call gets disconnected without even a ok or thank you.

drmohitg · 23rd August 2015, 09:34

New possible banking fraud alert. Just got a call from some guy telling me that my yes bank ATM card has been blocked from today due to failure of renewal. According to the guy I should have gone to the bank once to keep it activated and this has to be repeated every year. He probably didn't know that my account was opened only 2 months back. I told him that I am busy and driving currently and he insisted that this is very urgent and has to be done right now, so I should park my car and listen to him. Next he tells me that if i want to unblock it then he can do that for me and I need to tell him the card details. I could sense some foul play in this and hence told him I will call the bank and do it later and let the card remain blocked till then. Probably seeing his plan going to waste, he changes his tone and says that he will only do it and there is no need to go to the bank and he is fine by calling me back in an hour.

So am I right in suspecting foul play here? I have never heard of such card renewal verification. 😃

The number I got the call from was 8535975866

Dry Ice · 23rd August 2015, 10:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by drmohitg

New possible banking fraud alert. Just got a call from some guy telling me that my yes bank ATM card has been blocked ...

So am I right in suspecting foul play here? I have never heard of such card renewal verification. ��

In my case, it was a SBI bank manager, no less! Same ploy. I was kinda free that time and decided to have some fun.

He was talking in an authoritative tone through out and I acted gullible and scared. Whenever I asked him to get the details himself as he was the bank manager, he threatened to block my account and I wouldn't be able to withdraw even a rupee.

Anyway, told him everything that he asked, like card number (made up, starting with 7), name (imaginary again), CVV number (911

), expiry date, PIN etc. The best part was date of birth. I told him as per the Hindi calendar - Chaitra Maah's second purnima. He started probing to get it in English and after about 15 mins of this drama, he finally understood what was happening and hung up. lol!

drmohitg · 23rd August 2015, 18:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dry Ice

In my case, it was a SBI bank manager, no less! Same ploy. I was kinda free that time and decided to have some fun.

The guy had the audacity to call back in an hour and request the details again. This time I told him that I will deal with the bank directly. So he tells me that if I don't do this right now all my bank balance will be transferred to some govt account. I started laughing at this and put the phone down.

The scary thing is that how did he get to know I have a YES bank account which was opened just 2 months back. A lot of people might fall for this and give there card details.

On a side note even with my card details, can he make any fraudulent transaction without knowing my internet password for the card?

Dry Ice · 23rd August 2015, 18:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by drmohitg

The scary thing is that how did he get to know I have a YES bank account which was opened just 2 months back. A lot of people might fall for this and give there card details.

Most banks I guess usually share the customer's name and number with their other departments -loan/credit card etc. For future business prospect maybe. He might have got it from an ex-employee.

Quote:

On a side note even with my card details, can he make any fraudulent transaction without knowing my internet password for the card?

International transactions still go through without the need of your password. You can ask your bank to disable its international usage.

NPV · 23rd August 2015, 18:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by drmohitg

The scary thing is that how did he get to know I have a YES bank account which was opened just 2 months back. A lot of people might fall for this and give there card details.

I'm not surprised, similar thing happened with me but via email.
I'd opened a new account in a nationalized bank and opted not to have online access since there wasn't a need for the same. About a week later, I received an email from the same bank (purportedly) asking me to verify details like card number and PIN to allow me to continue using my online account access

This was a give away and I suspected the email and on looking up the servers/IP in the links, it was in an African country

diyguy · 20th September 2016, 08:09

I received a call yesterday from so called "Birla Sun Life Policy cancellation team". The number was 9211282733. I consider myself very savy when it comes to spotting a scam, however this one was a curve ball. He called out my full name and policy number. He told me he is calling from the cancellation team and when I said I had not requested to cancel any policy, he dropped the call. I was concerned as it is a term policy that I have in force for a long time.
I called the number back and it was busy. I tried again later and it went through. He remembered my name and told me some more astonishing details about my policy and me. He told me that the branch manager had informed him that the agent was related to me and that there is a benefit on my policy and if I am fine with allowing this benefit to be credited to my agents account. I asked him how much is the benefit, he said one second, punched in a few keys and came up with 52000 Rs. I told him to go ahead and do that and hung up.

The guy introduced himself as Vikram <something>. I called the local office of BSLI and was informed that it is likely a phishing call.
He was trying to bait me into giving my account information to get the benefit myself. He did not even ask me once for my bank details though and was relying on (my) greed to put it forward. I am very astonished they have reached this level of sophistication.

From this I understand that my information has been compromised and is likely to be true to all/most BSLI subscribers. I have been receiving SMS from BSLI on warnings of fake and scam calls, but this was a first for me. My concern is how the whole database has been so easily compromised from a company the size of Birla Sun Life.

centaur · 20th September 2016, 13:01

There is one another type of scam on credit cards. Has happened with me more than thrice and many times in the friends circle.

You - Hello
Scamster - Hello sir, aapke paas XYZ bank ka credit card hain na (you have a credit card of XYZ bank)

You - Haan hai (yes I do)
Scamster - aapko ispe kuch offers hai aur upgrade ka bhi option hai bank ki taraf se (you have some offers on your card and also a chance to upgrade your card)

You - ok
Scamster - uske liye mujhe kuch details chahiye. Aap bata sakte hai ki aapka card visa hai ya mastercard (I would need some details for that. Can you tell if your card is a visa or mastercard)

And then they take all details of the card which starts with the 16 digit card number, expiry etc. In my case, I got a call when this scam was not at all common probably because I was among the first few (un)lucky customers they chose to con.

When they asked me the first question I got a bit suspicious and asked them that if they are calling from the bank, they should be having the details on the card type. I got a response saying that they do, and they are just trying to verify me as the card holder. I replied back saying that I am not carrying my card and dont have the details. They said I would be know this atleast if its a Visa or Master card and I replied in the negative. They then asked when will I have my card with me to confirm this and I said after 25 years. Call was cut.

Got a call twice few months late with similar tactics, but my responses were the same and eventually the calls stopped.

Why I remember this type of scamming is because what my friend told me about one people in his circle. Apparently an ex-Bank (IIRC RBI/SBI) got a similar call and they said they were calling from the head office or something. This guy immediately realized the game and just played along. After sometime he said that head offices dont get into such nonsense and that these people are scamsters.

The lady on the other side went on the backfoot and immediately handed it over to her "boss" who got in and said that they are not fake. This gentleman again gave the explanation and said he will get them caught by cops, to which the other person replied saying, he can do whatever he wants but they will never be caught and cut the call

cooljai · 20th September 2016, 13:22

Just got a call this morning from the number, 918877582240. The guy introduced himself as my "Bank Manager", and told that my Debit card has expired.
Wanted to know the account number and card number for him to verify if it was the same as per "his records".
Played around for some time with fake numbers, finally he understood that and hung up!

25th November 2013, 17:28	#16
SS-Traveller Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: New Delhi Posts: 8,164 Thanked: 27,143 Times View My Garage	Beware : Fake Call Scam from Insurance Verification Department I received a call from +91-120-332-5535 right now. The caller, a lady whose English left much to be desired, said that she was calling from the Insurance Verification Department, and asked to speak with my late mother! I've never heard of such a department, and I told the lady so. She quietly disconnected. A Google search shows this to be a common and well-reported scam. Some links below: Beware of the Fake Calls from IRDA - Himachal Pradesh News Insurance Verification Department Complaints - Complaintboard.in Insurance Verification Department - fake call for policy cancellation Fake irda insurance verification department call from delhi - Grahak Seva Please be informed and careful.
	() Thanks

25th November 2013, 22:15	#17
straight6 Senior - BHPian Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Bombay Posts: 2,548 Thanked: 296 Times	Re: Beware : Fake Call Scam from Insurance Verification Department Collection agencies also call people posing as other companies. Friends have told me they call saying that "we have your PF cheque with us, we need your address to mail it to you" and the friend was not expecting any PF cheque.
	() Thanks

26th November 2013, 12:38	#18
Mr.Beat BHPian Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Navi Mumbai Posts: 383 Thanked: 240 Times	Re: Beware : Fake Call Scam from Insurance Verification Department Since yesterday, i have been getting calls from a person named Lalit from HDFC bank asking to speak to my father. He says, he needs to talk about his financial details regarding the bank. In fact my father never had and does not have anything related to HDFC bank. To top it, the person was rude and manner less. Wish i had caller ID installed for my landline
	() Thanks

12th March 2015, 17:05	#19
rohanjf Senior - BHPian Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Adelaide Posts: 1,193 Thanked: 706 Times	Re: Fake / Fraud / Scam Calls Today I got a call from +91 120 483 6300. The caller introduced himself as calling from a German based placement agency, and that he had many jobs that suited my profile. Then he asked me what kind of professional I am. With his first question, I knew where this was going. I told him my profession. Then he asked my current salary. I told him. Then he said he has a job in Wipro for me, and Wipro can offer 30L Rs annual package. Now I was convinced that this is a scam. I have been rejected by Wipro two times, after all rounds of technical and HR interviews. Both the times, the rejection email mentioned that they cannot offer 15% hike over my current salary. And this 30L is way above that 15% mark! Yet, I asked him for details. He said there will be a telephonic round of interview first, and then a face-to-face round. But first, I need to register first in his website. He told me to open http://perfect4career.com/ and register. Only then he mentioned that I must pay him a lifetime membership fee of 1800 Rs plus 12.36% government tax. Since I got the details I wanted, I told him to call back later and disconnected the call. Now I have to block his number Last edited by rohanjf : 12th March 2015 at 17:06.
	() Thanks

23rd August 2015, 09:34	#23
drmohitg Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Liverpool/Delhi Posts: 5,439 Thanked: 7,543 Times	New possible banking fraud alert. Just got a call from some guy telling me that my yes bank ATM card has been blocked from today due to failure of renewal. According to the guy I should have gone to the bank once to keep it activated and this has to be repeated every year. He probably didn't know that my account was opened only 2 months back. I told him that I am busy and driving currently and he insisted that this is very urgent and has to be done right now, so I should park my car and listen to him. Next he tells me that if i want to unblock it then he can do that for me and I need to tell him the card details. I could sense some foul play in this and hence told him I will call the bank and do it later and let the card remain blocked till then. Probably seeing his plan going to waste, he changes his tone and says that he will only do it and there is no need to go to the bank and he is fine by calling me back in an hour. So am I right in suspecting foul play here? I have never heard of such card renewal verification. 😃 The number I got the call from was 8535975866
	() Thanks

20th September 2016, 08:09	#28
diyguy BHPian Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Chennai Posts: 517 Thanked: 578 Times View My Garage	Re: Fake / Fraud / Scam Calls I received a call yesterday from so called "Birla Sun Life Policy cancellation team". The number was 9211282733. I consider myself very savy when it comes to spotting a scam, however this one was a curve ball. He called out my full name and policy number. He told me he is calling from the cancellation team and when I said I had not requested to cancel any policy, he dropped the call. I was concerned as it is a term policy that I have in force for a long time. I called the number back and it was busy. I tried again later and it went through. He remembered my name and told me some more astonishing details about my policy and me. He told me that the branch manager had informed him that the agent was related to me and that there is a benefit on my policy and if I am fine with allowing this benefit to be credited to my agents account. I asked him how much is the benefit, he said one second, punched in a few keys and came up with 52000 Rs. I told him to go ahead and do that and hung up. The guy introduced himself as Vikram <something>. I called the local office of BSLI and was informed that it is likely a phishing call. He was trying to bait me into giving my account information to get the benefit myself. He did not even ask me once for my bank details though and was relying on (my) greed to put it forward. I am very astonished they have reached this level of sophistication. From this I understand that my information has been compromised and is likely to be true to all/most BSLI subscribers. I have been receiving SMS from BSLI on warnings of fake and scam calls, but this was a first for me. My concern is how the whole database has been so easily compromised from a company the size of Birla Sun Life.
	() Thanks

20th September 2016, 13:01	#29
centaur BHPian Join Date: May 2009 Location: -- Posts: 897 Thanked: 1,169 Times	Re: Fake / Fraud / Scam Calls There is one another type of scam on credit cards. Has happened with me more than thrice and many times in the friends circle. You - Hello Scamster - Hello sir, aapke paas XYZ bank ka credit card hain na (you have a credit card of XYZ bank) You - Haan hai (yes I do) Scamster - aapko ispe kuch offers hai aur upgrade ka bhi option hai bank ki taraf se (you have some offers on your card and also a chance to upgrade your card) You - ok Scamster - uske liye mujhe kuch details chahiye. Aap bata sakte hai ki aapka card visa hai ya mastercard (I would need some details for that. Can you tell if your card is a visa or mastercard) And then they take all details of the card which starts with the 16 digit card number, expiry etc. In my case, I got a call when this scam was not at all common probably because I was among the first few (un)lucky customers they chose to con. When they asked me the first question I got a bit suspicious and asked them that if they are calling from the bank, they should be having the details on the card type. I got a response saying that they do, and they are just trying to verify me as the card holder. I replied back saying that I am not carrying my card and dont have the details. They said I would be know this atleast if its a Visa or Master card and I replied in the negative. They then asked when will I have my card with me to confirm this and I said after 25 years. Call was cut. Got a call twice few months late with similar tactics, but my responses were the same and eventually the calls stopped. Why I remember this type of scamming is because what my friend told me about one people in his circle. Apparently an ex-Bank (IIRC RBI/SBI) got a similar call and they said they were calling from the head office or something. This guy immediately realized the game and just played along. After sometime he said that head offices dont get into such nonsense and that these people are scamsters. The lady on the other side went on the backfoot and immediately handed it over to her "boss" who got in and said that they are not fake. This gentleman again gave the explanation and said he will get them caught by cops, to which the other person replied saying, he can do whatever he wants but they will never be caught and cut the call
	() Thanks

20th September 2016, 13:22	#30
cooljai BHPian Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: KL-30/KA-53 Posts: 103 Thanked: 28 Times	Re: Fake / Fraud / Scam Calls Just got a call this morning from the number, 918877582240. The guy introduced himself as my "Bank Manager", and told that my Debit card has expired. Wanted to know the account number and card number for him to verify if it was the same as per "his records". Played around for some time with fake numbers, finally he understood that and hung up!
	() Thanks