Is Reliance Life’s corporate agent AB Capital involved in fraudulent “interest-free loan” offers? Will Reliance or the regulators initiate action?

Moneylife Foundation’s Insurance Helpline has received a second  case of fraudulent “interest-free loan” offer from AB Capital. This time, the victim took a loan of Rs2 lakh to pay the high insurance premium, lured by the carrot of a fat, interest free loan of Rs10 lakh

On 4th July Moneylife Insurance Helpline received an email from Prashant Gupte (name changed) saying that he had purchased two Reliance Life Insurance  policies for himself and his wife by paying a Rs1 lakh premium each. Worse, Mr Gupte did not have the money. He took a personal loan to pay the premium, because AB Capital, a corporate agent for Reliance Life promised him an “interest-free” loan on Rs10 lakh on buying the Reliance Money Back Guaranteed Plan. He wrote to us on reading out reports about Dr Sujay Verma (name changed) who was similarly trapped and how our intervention led to a refund. Also, there was no sign of the interest-free loan he was promised. Clearly, a second case of outright cheating ought to make the regulator sit up, but until they do, people are getting trapped into taking a loan to buy high premium insurance plans of trivial value with the lure of an “interest-free” loan of 10 times the premium.
 

Read Is Reliance offering 10-year interest-free loan for buying insurance?
 

Moneylife Insurance Helpline immediately wrote to the head–corporate communications of Reliance Capital. While we are still to hear form the company, our communication had immediate effect. Mr Gupte has written to say that he received a call from AB Capital on the same day (4th July) and from Reliance Life customer care asking the bank details for refunding the amount. He also received another call from the Senior Manager, Compliance, at AB Capital. Mr Gupte says he was very apologetic and promised to refund the full amount shortly and he also promised to initiate strict action against the persons involved in the fraudulent sale. He also requested Mr Gupte not to take the complaint to the next level for fear of damaging the company's reputation.
 

Earlier, the intervention by Moneylife Foundation’s Insurance Helpline had helped Dr Verma in getting refund of Rs60,000 premium for Reliance Life policy fraudulently sold by the same corporate agent—AB Capital, with the false promise of an “interest-free” loan of Rs6 lakh from Reliance Capital. Dr Verma was running pillar to post for six months to get the refund without any success, but within two hours of our taking up his case with the company, Reliance Life promised to make amends.
 

Read Reliance Life refunds Rs60,000 in a suspicious transaction: Another Moneylife success
 

At that time, Reliance Life Insurance had claimed to us that “the calls are made by spurious callers, a menace faced by the industry, and not part of any mis-selling. The industry has sought help from the EOW and we, as Reliance, have also filed over 170 FIRs against these spurious callers.” Reliance Life pointed to an article in the Times of India which assures us:  “These complaints have not made much headway since there was no transaction.” This is not entirely true. Moneylife Insurance Helpline has now forwarded two such cases with full details, which are not about nuisance calls of “interest-free loan” but actual transactions involving a Reliance Life insurance policy purchase which amount to outright cheating because they customers were denied the promised ‘interest free’ loan from Reliance Capital.
 

Moreover, AB Capital is clearly listed as a corporate agent of Reliance Life on its website http://www.reliancelife.com/Contactus/CorporateAgents/CorporateAgentsDetail.aspx?CityId=1. It has IRDA license number 5484516 and IRDA agent code 20879724. The license is valid from 22 June 2012 to 21 June 2015. The name of director is Raj Kumar Bhatter / Padma Bhatter /Anubhav Bhatter. Sharmistha Banerjee is the chief insurance executive. Its address is: 14/1, Paul Mansion, 6 Bishop Refroy Road, Kolkata, West Bengal-700020.
 

Can Reliance Life adopt a hands-off attitude? If the agent is peddling lies on its own, shouldn’t Reliance Life discontinue its relationship with AB Capital? Will the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) act quickly to cancel AB Capital’s license before it cheats more people? We will be tracking this story to bring you updates.

 

UPDATE: Reliance Life has refunded Rs2 lakh to Mr Prashant Gupte
 

Read:

 

Reliance Life ULIP mis-selling: Justice served

 

Life insurance: Don’t fall for assured returns, look for comprehensive cover and avoid dubious agents who promise you fantastic combination plans

 

Are your insurance details all in the public?

Comments
Sandeep Shukla
9 years ago
AB capital also given false information about Policy to me and cheated. Please guide me i have invested 94000 in relience how do i get my money back.
My contact number- 9773613685
[email protected]
reshma
9 years ago
I am also the victim of the Fraud of Reliance Life Insurance, Kindly requesting you to advise me to How I will recover my Money and What's the procedures to complaints regarding the Fraud selling of Life Insurance with the promise of giving lower interest rate loans.,but still not get any reply. Pls help me. Thanks.


[email protected]
DHARMA PATIL
10 years ago
Dear Sir,

AB capital also cheated me and asked me to buy policies of 30k and 75k. Last three years i am paying premiums with great difficulty.

There may be thousands of people cheated by AB capital.

Dharma Patil M:9325218518
email:[email protected]
satwasheel U Mohite
10 years ago
I am also the victim of the Fraud from AB Capital, Kindly requesting you to advise me to How I will recover my Money and What's the procedures to complaints against the AB Capital. I am also mail many times to the Reliance Life Insurance regarding the Fraud selling of Life Insurance with the promise of giving lower interest rate loans.,but still not get any reply. Pls help me. Thanks.

Mo. 09326260960
[email protected]
Satwashil Mohite, Pune.
pradeep
10 years ago
As complained earlier, now I am getting calls again to deposit security of Rs.28000/- for getting the loan. Pls see in this matter
pradeep
10 years ago
As complained earlier, now I am getting calls again to deposit security of Rs.28000/- for getting the loan. Pls see in this matter
Vamsi Pala
10 years ago
Hi,

The following policies are done for me from Reliance Insurance Company fraudulently.

Policy number :

1. 50670727
2. 50759202
3. 50724154
4. 50700125
5. 50676972

They have informed me that they have outsourced the policy business to 3rd Party company called AB Capital which has done these policies.

The caller calls says he is from Reliance Insurance Company and he promises bonus of 2000 per month on each policy and other stuff and has done these policies. They told there is a verification call which I have to tell in specific way and they ask me to deny everything, that nothing is promised. They even told me that everything was converted into one time.

Reliance has accepted that AB Capital was doing fraud and they have terminated their service but they are not willing to cancel my policies.

I am not in a position to pay 2 lakh per Year for these policies. As I am not capable of paying this huge sum.

Even after repeated complaints to Reliance about this, I get the call from fraud asking for NOC for cancelling the policies, there is no good response from Reliance. I have decided to take this up further so that nobody can suffer like this.

Please help me on this, so that I can cancel the policies.
Shreyas Nayak
Replied to Vamsi Pala comment 9 years ago
Madam,
My name is shreyas nayak & I am from Dombivli (Mumbai suburb)& I am also victim of these people & duped for 75,000/- but I am not going to keep quite. I request you to join me & I am also contacting others to strong our voice in Police case. If you are ready & really want to get help from police then mail me on my email address on [email protected] I have evidence against these fraud people which I am going to submit to police if you want to join us then your complaint will also be registered at same time.
pradeep
1 decade ago
Complaint of Fraud against Reliance Capital and its agent- AB Capital
On 21.3.2012, I received a call from a lady caller and introduced herself as Ms. Avantika from Reliance Capital office, New Delhi. She then illustrated a Life insurance plan with interest free loan facility upto the maturity value. On consequent discussions with her and later with her senior, Mr Rajiv, they described that ‘U pay Rs. 25000/- for 10years in Reliance Guaranteed Money Back Plan. You will be given of loan of Rs. 250000/- within two months of the purchase of policy. At the end of the policy, we will not get anything. As such, a policy of Reliance Guaranteed Money Back Plan was purchased on 26-3-2012.
The details of the policy are as follows:
Name of the Policy Holder- PRADEEP KUMAR BEBARTA; Policy No.-50887724; SA-Rs.206000/-; Premium Amt: Rs. 24847.00; Yearly mode; Paying Term-10years; Client Id- 85897711
In this conversation, first they called from a call center no and later she gave her mobile no-09711320171 and her senior Rajeev’s no is 09015147362. As such, I received my policy on 25th of April’2013. Then I contacted them back. She told me that your application is in process and will soon get the loan. But that was the last call recd. And from then, the no of Rajeev was out of service and Avantika’s number was either ringing or switched off.
After a period of 4months, on 26.06.2013, suddenly I received a call from a person named Bipin Choudhary calling from Reliance Capital Office with his no-07503089567 and told me ‘U had applied for loan with the above policy. Are u still interested?’ I gave the answer ‘Yes’ and then he said that he is sending the file for processing. After 2days, he again called me up and told that Ur application is in process and is scrutinized. According to the company norms, I have to deposit Rs.20000/- as security and this will be sanctioned within 3days and the security amount will be released after 7days of sanction. Firstly, I doubted and tried to avoid and told him to call me up at evening as I am busy at office. He told me that I will be calling from the new no- 08285406012. Again in evening, he called me from his new no and repeated the same question and also said that u had been offered as per the conversion with Avantika during the purchase of the policy. When he took the name Avantika as reference of the policy, then I believed that it may be true and then I agreed to pay. He gave me an account no of the Sales Manager of Bodhgaya [[Name- Syed Shahbaz Mujtaba; Account No- 1616000100129632; Bank- Punjab National Bank, Bodhgaya branch]]. I asked me to give an A/c no of any SBI as it will be appropriate. But he told me that no one is having any account in SBI. Later he gave no of a Sales Manager, Arun Kumar, A/c No.- 12641050055794, Bank- HDFC Bank, Gurgaon Branch. But the local bank officials refused to deposit the amount in the said account as it is Salary Account and as per the norms of RBI, cash cannot be deposited by third party. When told to Bipin, he again gave me another account no of Ravi Prasad, A/c No.-14431050003704, Bank-HDFC Bank, Gurgaon Branch. But again, the local bank officials refused to deposit the amount in the said account as it is Salary Account and as per the norms of RBI, cash cannot be deposited by third party. Later on 02/07/2013, I went to the Punjab National Bank Jeypore branch and deposited cash in the account of Name-Syed Shahbaz Mujtaba; Account No- 1616000100129632; Bank- Punjab National Bank, Bodhgaya branch, Transaction No- M380744 Srl No-40. Again, after 2 day he said that the application is in process but as per the terms, the required amount is Rs.45000/- for security. So I had to pay another Rs.25000/- for the loan. Then I paid the said amount of Rs.25000.00 on 05-07-2013 in the same account of Mr. Syed Shahbaz Mujtaba, Account No- 1616000100129632; Bank- Punjab National Bank, Bodhgaya branch, Transaction No- M410278 Srl No-55. And the same was confirmed by Bipin Choudhary regarding the receipt of the total amount of Rs.45000.00. And then the number of Bipin was not reachable/ switched. After 10 days, when called from a different number, he revealed that the application is in the process. After that day the number is switched off.
After 3months i.e. on 25th September’2013, a call was received from Mr. Manish Mittal from Reliance Capital and revealed that the application is in process and I had to pay Rs.20000/- for the approval of loan. When asked about the earlier deposit of Rs.45000.00, he said that this amount is received. Also he said that “ when u believed Bipin Choudhary, have faith on me and I will let the file processed.” When I asked for the receipt, he also said that he will provide the same. He gave the file no- RLI-RC-0079157117 of the loan application.
Hence, this is the brief.

Pradeep Kumar Bebarta
Qr.No.SSF/D/4, Irrigation colony,
Jeypore, Dist: Koraput,
Odisha-764003
Mayur
1 decade ago
I am also the victim of the Fraud from AB Capital, Kindly requesting you to advise me to How I will recover my Money and What's the procedures to complaints against the AB Capital. I am also mail many times to the Reliance Life Insurance regarding the Fraud selling of Life Insurance with the promise of giving lower interest rate loans.,but still not get any reply. Pls help me. Thanks.

Mo. 09924271217
Niraj Kumar
1 decade ago
I would like to state that I have been a victim to a similar situation. please advise me to how to recover the money from those situation.

Niraj
9099981218
Moneylife Foundation
1 decade ago
Mr Ray,

Greetings!
Moneylife foundation has launched a FREE Insurance helpline for Moneylife foundation members and subscribers to Moneylife magazine, providing one to one basic help and guidance on issues and problems regarding insurance.

To avail the free insurance helpline. We would suggest you to become a moneylife foundation member. It is FREE.

Our helpline is on a best effort basis. We would request you to send us a synopsis of your issue in not more than 500 crisp words at [email protected]



Nilay Ray
1 decade ago
I would like to state that I have been a victim to a similar situation. I am surprised to see that so many people has faced the same fate. I've got the call several times from the number 9022927749 in the month of Feb/Mar 13. The caller was "sweta or sneha". Later on, I've taken the policy from them with the assurance of interest free loan of 4 lacs against the insurance of Rs.40000/annum. During that time Mr.Amit Jain called me and told me that, my loan is confirmed and I'll get two verification calls. If I face any problem, I can call him back. I also got the calls - in one they confirmed me the loan & in another one, they confirmed me the insurance. I got the insurance papers also. They told me that, within 45 working days, the loan will be disbursed. When it was nearing 45 days, I called several times to 9022927749 to talk to Mr. Jain. But, the call always got lifted by some other girls and they repetitively told me "Sir is busy, he'll call you back". But, no call came. In the mean time, I got the SMS confirmation stating that "Dear Premier Customer, your loan application has been accepted and is now under process. Your Loan Ref no is LAPMUM0008230. For further queries kindly contact the service help desk no 022-32260758". I contacted them and intimated that, I will get the final verification call between 7-17th of July. But, no call. Since morning I'm trying the no and it is continuously busy. I talked in this no last on 8th july. I do not know what will be my fate. The other no 9022927749 is "temporarily out of service". I tried to search any alternate no of Reliance with the help of 022-32260758 and surprisingly got this link.
If I don't get this loan I don't know how to survive further. As I have arranged money from my friends and taken the insurance in the hope that, with the help of this loan, I can clear all my credit card dues and also give back the money back to my friends. Can anyone please help me?????
sudiptachandra
1 decade ago
I would like to state that I have been a victim to a similar situation. I received a call in mar'13 as a telecaller from reliance loan deptt. called of availing personal locan for rs 2 lac by taking up a reliance insurance policy of rs 20000/ annum. i was assigned a representative by the name of amit jain as he also shared his emp id and the contact details (ph no: 9022962973) which worked for a week and then was out of service. this gentleman explained that the loan will be disbursed directly to my bank account after the policy is issued which is (15 + 45 days = 60 days)from the dat of signing up for th policy. i received a sms from the number (022-32260758 )stating that my loan is confirmed with a loan ref number (LAP0008230) in may'13 and they would process the loan after a final verification. i have received the policy document from reliance. everytime i contact the reliance loan department number as mentioned (022-32260758 ), they keep postponing the verification dates and the lady receiving calls keeps changing her name; hence it becomes utterly difficult to trace the person. Infact I hve asked for their office location and they were not ready to divulge their information.

I fail to undertand why would a branded and reputed company like reliance take such cheap steps in duping the people of the country. I am an existing customer of reliance and use couple of other services offered, but insurance scheme was the worst I have ever experienced.

If you have been able to successfully resolve other cases as mentioned, please provide me assistance.

Name: S Chandra
Contact: 865-278-3262
sudiptachandra
1 decade ago
I would like to state that I have been a victim to a similar situation. I received a call in mar'13 as a telecaller from reliance loan deptt. called of availing personal locan for rs 2 lac by taking up a reliance insurance policy of rs 20000/ annum. i was assigned a representative by the name of amit jain as he also shared his emp id and the contact details (ph no: 9022962973) which worked for a week and then was out of service. this gentleman explained that the loan will be disbursed directly to my bank account after the policy is issued which is (15 + 45 days = 60 days)from the dat of signing up for th policy. i received a sms from the number (022-32260758 )stating that my loan is confirmed with a loan ref number (LAP0008230) in may'13 and they would process the loan after a final verification. i have received the policy document from reliance. everytime i contact the reliance loan department number as mentioned (022-32260758 ), they keep postponing the verification dates and the lady receiving calls keeps changing her name; hence it becomes utterly difficult to trace the person. Infact I hve asked for their office location and they were not ready to divulge their information.

I fail to undertand why would a branded and reputed company like reliance take such cheap steps in duping the people of the country. I am an existing customer of reliance and use couple of other services offered, but insurance scheme was the worst I have ever experienced.

If you have been able to successfully resolve other cases as mentioned, please provide me assistance.

Name: S Chandra
Contact: 865-278-3262
mohammed faisal
1 decade ago
i think in this case irda should investigate with call detail also take help from hi authority this is clear fruad case irda should take immediate action against all involed person not only cancelled licene but also black list person who innvoled in directily in this case also make a system who watch regulary black listed company and black listed person with name and identy and photo should be show all financial releated department and in future prohabited for that kind of person life time in india and abroad, and arrange system that person find in that kind of case and after investgation if person find in fraud case irda can make rule and issue guide line to all life insurance company that no experience certificate would be issue to that kind of person in future join purpose or other company job purpose,and all life and financial web site should arrange option link to fraud list in india and to make arrange link in wesite who involed in fraud case and name photo and age with adress with qulification and last joining and nauture of fraud also shuld be mention in this colum,
company etc.

and i request to irda and govt of india to arrange a web portal only for fraud person and should category can view like life insurance fraud,gerneral insurnace,mutual fund stock market,nbfc,chitfund etc
website regulary and govt should adopt tecnology to create a website for indian consumer who can directly approach and upload that kind of fraud case to consult depart ment with also should provide unique email id from govt department as a proof that information which sent with customer have life time proof that particular time date was email sent to department with that kind of file,
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