Alarmingly, mischief makers are out to swindle innocent people who have taken insurance policies! Getting an insurance cover, especially for the later part of the life, is a great achievement for the common man. People must cover themselves adequately to ensure they, and their families, are protected and do not end up short of money in case of an accident, ailment or an untimely demise of an earning member. Of course, one needs to be careful about how one maintains the policy and adheres to the dos and don'ts. However, no one warned this couple about other dangers. In this case, cheats surreptitiously targetted many elderly people and persuaded them to transfer money so that they could get a bonus amount, from the insurance company, credited to their account. With this modus operandi they minted crores. 
 
The modus operandi of the cheats was to call people pretending they were IRDA officials, and told the gullible targets that their insurance policy has been selected for bonus, DNA reported. According to the police, they would persuade the people that if they want to avail the bonus, money needs to be transferred. They targeted hundreds of people and duped them of more than Rs 7 crore!

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According to the police, the cheats used to call people and tell them their insurance policy has been selected for bonus. They then persuaded their targets to transfer money in order to crack a code set by the company if they want to avail the amount. 
 
However, after many successes, the cheats were finally arrested for duping elderly people on the pretext of giving bonus offers on their insurance policy. They were identified as Madhuvendra Singh alias Sanjay (31), a resident of Etah district in Uttar Pradesh, and Renu Pandey (29) alias Rashi of East Delhi's Mandawali, 
 
This was after a case was reportedly filed against them two years ago in Maurya enclave police station. Police seized account statements of as many as 13 companies, along with several forged documents of ROC, IRDA, banks and other government agencies.
 
Fifteen bank accounts, opened in the name of companies and firms, were reportedly used by the two to get the money transferred. 
 
Notably, they had collected data on policy holders while working with some reputed insurance firms in the past. Lashed with these information, they wanted to make fast money, therefore, targeted elderly people as they are less suspicious. 

Insurance dos and don'ts and more: Check full list 
1. Beware of fraudulent intermediaries/ Check if you are dealing with registered or licensed parties.
2. Claiming to be representatives of IRDA and offering insurance policies of different insurance companies with various benefits.
3. Claiming that IRDA is distributing bonus to insurance policy holders out of the funds invested by insurance companies with IRDA.
4. Claiming that the policyholder would receive bonuses being distributed by IRDA if they purchase an insurance policy and wait for a few months after which the bonus would be released by IRDA.
5. Advising customers to subscribe to fresh policy after surrender of the existing policy and wait for a few months after which the fresh policy would be entitled for additional enhanced returns / benefits.
6. Informing that ‘Survival Benefit or Maturity Proceeds or Bonus’ is due under their existing policy and investing in a new insurance policy is mandatory to receive the amounts which are due.
7.  Advising public to invest in insurance policies to avail gifts, promotional offers, interest free loans, or setting up of Telecom towers or other such offers. 
8. IRDA does not involve directly or through any representative in sale of any kind of insurance or financial products. 

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9. IRDA does not announce any bonus for policyholders or insurers.
10. Any person making any kind of transaction with such individuals/agents will be doing the same at their own risk.