Couple arrested for running fake call center and duping 290 senior citizens in the name of insurance offer

Bengaluru: A married couple in their 30s has been arrested for duping around 300 senior citizens through false insurance proposals.
Uday, 36, and Tirtha Gowda, 34, allegedly ran a makeshift call center from their home in Indiranagar in east Bengaluru. An insurance agent by profession, he called retired senior citizens and lured them with false investment schemes in the insurance business.

Those who agreed to invest were asked to make an advance payment and transfer the money to the couple’s personal bank account. According to cyber crime police, the victims came to know about the fraud after a year when they did not get any returns on their so-called investment.

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Police investigation revealed that in many cases, the couple lured people into buying insurance policies with false offers. In some cases, he got them the original insurance policies and received a 25 percent commission from the insurance companies. However, the companies were not aware of the false offers presented by the suspects.

Police believe the pair duped at least 290 people into taking their insurance last year. They have frozen Rs 1.8 crore in the bank accounts of the suspects.

how they operated

Uday set up a call center at home, while Tirtha made the calls. Uday got victims’ numbers from insurance companies as he worked as their agent. Theertha would talk to the victims and make misleading offers. They targeted people looking to renew their insurance policy or apply for a fresh one.

Tirtha used to tell her elderly victims that if they invested Rs 1 crore, they would get Rs 5 crore after a year. To his potential targets whose insurance had expired, he suggested that if they renewed it, they could get their money back with interest.