Two people in Calcutta were deceived by unknown callers, resulting in losses exceeding ₹16 lakh each.
One of the callers posed as an insurance agent and promised to help one of the victims in claiming benefits from an old insurance policy. The other caller, impersonating a bank official, offered to update the KYC information for the other victim without requiring them to leave home.
According to police, Sheikh Salauddin, 57, residing in Utsa Condoville, New Town, filed a complaint alleging that he had received a phone call from an unknown individual on January 22, 2025. The person on the line, a woman who introduced herself as Ankita Ghosh, claimed to be an official from the insurance agency referred to as the Life Insurance Ombudsman.
The woman called the complainant and assured him that she would help him claim a pending insurance policy amount, said the police.
Salauddin had further told the police that he had received several other calls from "other employees" of the same agency who convinced him to invest in a new policy so that he could access the benefits of an old policy.
The complainant paid ₹16,83,507 in multiple transactions over the next 11 months.
“The fraudsters also provided the complainant with some documents as proof of his investment, which he later learned were fake. Later, he also realised that the old policy that he was told about was non-existent,” said an officer of Bidhannagar cyber police station.
Salauddin reported the matter to the cyber police station, and a case was drawn up on February 3.
The second complaint of online fraud was reported when 52-year-old Jayanta Singha Roy, a resident of Rajarhat, received a call from an unknown person who identified himself as a bank official and advised him to update his “Know Your Customer” documents from the comfort of his home on January 29 this year.
The police said that the complainant agreed to click on a link forwarded to him through WhatsApp, resulting in the unintentional disclosure of his banking information, as he thought he was updating his KYC.
“The fraudsters made 14 transactions on January 29, 30 and 31 to transfer ₹16.04 lakh without the complainant's knowledge or consent,” said an officer.
A probe is on.