ACKO General Insurance, one of India’s leading insuretech company, has launched a meticulous inquiry into a policy fraud racket that has been operating in the cities of Jaipur and Gurugram, where scamsters are swindling people out of money in return for issuance of fake auto insurance policies. The company has joined hands with the Rajasthan police to initiate an investigation to identify these fraudsters and ensure that the illegal operation is shut down.
The incident was first brought to light when ACKO received a request from an insurance agent to update the details of some auto policies on the government’s RTO portal. Initial scrutiny showed that the policies were not available in the system and it did not take ACKO long to discover that the policies in question were fake, since the company operates entirely online, without any intermediaries such as the broker partner from Gurugram that had allegedly issued the policies.
To get to the crux of the matter, ACKO conducted its own investigation in order to collect sufficient evidence to register a formal complaint before the police. They interrogated the broker involved, and looked into a Facebook advertisement that offered commission to agents on Third Party Motor Insurance. This line of investigation revealed how the fraudsters collected premiums in a fake account and issued fake insurance policies and it led to identifying individuals who worked as ‘insurance agents’ in Jaipur as well as other district of Rajasthan . ACKO also reached out to some of the people who had purchased these fake policies and obtained statements from them attesting to the same.
ACKO reached out to the Special Operation Group (SOG) in Jaipur, Rajasthan to report the matter, and filed a criminal complaint along with the requisite documents before the Cyber Crime Police Station of SOG at Jaipur. The SOG directed various other police stations throughout the state, where the false policies had been sold, to initiate a preliminary inquiry and submit Action
Taken Report.
To ensure that suitable action was taken against the racketeers, Acko’s representative Mr. Rajesh Dhane (Senior Director Litigation & Claims) also connected with them and shared valuable evidence. Presently, an FIR has been registered with the Pratap Nagar Police Station in Jaipur City and they have now launched an intensive probe into the matter.
This case is not unique and the issue of fraudulent policies being sold by miscreants has plagued the insurance industry and policyholders for many years. Now, post the pandemic, with insurance companies encouraging vehicle owners to use online portals for buying motor insurance, the menace is growing and there’s a significant increase in the number of fake insurance policies in the market. The victims in such cases do not realize that they would not be able to claim their rightful compensation from the insurance company in case of any untoward incident. Most of these threats can easily be thwarted if people are made aware of the risks of buying policies from unverified sources.
An ACKO spokesperson said, “At ACKO we have always prioritized the needs and the welfare of our consumers, and we took immediate corrective action in accordance with the IRDAI guidelines when we learned about the fake policies. We are confident that the investigation would yield a positive outcome not only in terms of a successful resolution in the current case, but also in playing its part in making people more aware of the existence of such fraudsters who take advantage of their lack of knowledge and sell them fake policies. As a digital-first insurance company ACKO sells policies directly to customers, who can purchase motor insurance products with zero commission on our app and website, and reduces the likelihood of such fraud occurring. ”