Bharti AXA Life policies worth Rs3.8 lakh were sold to a senior citizen allegedly with the bait of installing mobile tower of Airtel that would give him monthly rent. HDFC Life, Reliance Life products were also mis-sold, but they gave refunds after finding out the truth. Why is Bharti AXA Life silent?

Con artists have taken their game to sell insurance to a new level with offers such as installation of Airtel tower to get monthly rent and even sending a fake engineer to check the soil for getting clearance certificate. That is how senior citizen, Om Raj Singh (name changed) from Karnal Haryana, was taken for a ride of Rs3.8 lakh investment in six Bharti AXA Life policies.
 

The story of Mr Singh is bizarre as it involves multiple insurance company polices and repeated defrauding with the fake promise to make good the prior investment.
 

Promising to set up Airtel towers is certainly an innovative way to push dud life insurance products with an inducement of lucrative monthly rent of Rs50,000 in this case. Mr Singh even deposited Rs45,000 in a bank account of an individual as fee for clearance certificate for the soil check from the engineer, which tells about his foolishness too.
 

Mr Singh has given phone numbers of several people who were involved in sales and follow-up on complaints. HDFC Life and Reliance Life products were also mis-sold, but they gave refund immediately after finding out the truth from Mr Singh. Moneylife had written to Bharti AXA Life couple of times for getting their side of the story on this peculiar case, but there has been no response which tells us that they may have something to hide. After Moneylife intervention, Mr Singh got mail from Bharti AXA Life declining his request for cancellation by saying that they sold the right product. But, is it correct to use deceitful ways to sell the “right” product? Did they do any investigation to contradict Mr Singh’s allegations?
 

According to Mr Singh, “For the Airtel tower setup, the fraud gang sent an engineer to my place for measurement of land and soil check. He came and took samples of soil from different parts of my land and measures as per their norms. I was told that my land is not compatible for placing the tower and asked me to cancel my investment or to provide some other land. They were asking me to invest the same amount in Reliance Life insurance company’s policy and promised me that my amount invested in Bharti AXA Life would be refunded as and when this process got completed. As I wanted this tower project eagerly, I again invested Rs4 lakh in Reliance Life policies from Sep 2010 to Dec 2010 with a view of getting refunded from Bharti AXA Life policies.” 
 

Calls were made to him with crooks posing as deputy director of Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) with the promise to look at his complaints. The third phase of scam was the imposters calling as IRDA Chairman. According to Mr Singh, “He assured me that if I put Rs1 lakh as a token amount for the cancellation process then all my money would be refunded and this is the judgement of my complaint lodged in IRDA against these swindlers.” Mr Singh believed that the “IRDA” call was based on his complaint to the regulator.
 

Clearly, the cheats wanted to get Mr Singh to put another one lakh in for a repeat of fiasco. The gang of fraud sellers lured him into purchasing two HDFC Life policies worth Rs50,000 and Rs37,000 respectively, but the insurer has immediately refunded the money to Mr Singh after they came to know about his case. Similar action was taken by Reliance Life. But, why is IRDA silent and not questioning Bharti AXA about the policies? Mr Singh has IRDA Token Number: 05-13-030775. Will IRDA really investigate, considering the gravity of deceptive selling? A tough message is needed to counter this rampant brazen scam.
 

Mr Singh, says, “When these people stopped picking my call, I understood that this was a racket of some people who as a gang counterfeited and ensnared innocent people like me. All my signatures were forged on the application to illustrations and the details about my profession and my wife were also wrongly mentioned. I am a retired scientist and the education qualification of my wife is class twelfth, whereas her profession was mentioned as an accountant in the forged forms. Reliance and HDFC Life have cancelled my all policies and gave my money back after their investigation. But, Bharti AXA Life personnel are only hiding the facts and gave unjustified reasons for not able to cancel these policies.”
 

There has been a steep rise in fraudulent calls to surrender your existing policy and buy a new one with numerous reasons like product is discontinued or fund performance not doing well, etc. It is mis-selling all over again done by bank personnel, agents or dubious callers. Call from “IRDA” is another trick used by con-artists who push their own agenda for earning commissions. Offering unclaimed bonus if you buy a policy is another deceit. We certainly hope that IRDA gets it act together to curb this menace.