Retired central excise commissioner duped of Rs 26.43 lakh

Lucknow: A retired central excise commissioner was allegedly duped of Rs 26.43 lakh by cyber fraudsters who impersonated officials of a fictitious govt insurance grievance department and promised to facilitate the release of a large insurance maturity amount.The complaint was lodged with the cyber crime police station, Lucknow, after the incident came to light on Friday. According to the complaint submitted by the daughter of a retired officer from the central excise department, her father had multiple insurance policies with Max Life Insurance and earlier filed an online grievance related to them. On Jan 13, he received a call from an unknown number in which the caller introduced himself as an official from a department named "GBIC", claiming it was a govt body that resolves insurance grievances. The caller allegedly informed the victim that the maturity value of his multiple insurance policies was around Rs 1.30 crore and assured him that the amount could be released after completing certain formalities. To process the claim, the caller initially asked for Rs 50,000 as stamp duty, which the victim transferred through Google Pay. Over the next few weeks, the accused continued to demand additional payments on various pretexts, including service charges and documentation fees. The fraudsters also allegedly threatened that the maturity amount would lapse if the payments were not made promptly. Following these instructions, the victim transferred money to several different bank accounts between Jan 13 and Feb 5. Later, the caller asked the victim to contact another person using a different mobile number. The woman claimed to be an insurance agent and allegedly sent bank account details through WhatsApp, persuading the victim to transfer additional amounts. Acting on the instructions, the victim transferred Rs 26,43,407 through accounts in different banks. The complainant stated that the accused later demanded another Rs 9.85 lakh, but by then the victim exhausted his savings and became suspicious.