Save yourself from credit card, insurance and other scams - MUST READ

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montsa007

montsa007

Galvanizer
Not sure if you have fallen prey to these traps, make sure that you read and implement these.
Generally techies have little know how about finance, I hope this post helps you.

General Rules
-Always keep a xerox of your filled up forms for future reference.
-Always, always always insist that the details are provided in writing as verbal communication has 0 value.
-If the concerned guy/chicklet is not comfortable in providing what he/she said in writing insist that they provide the same in writing (That they cannot provide a written confirmation of what they just said)

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Insurance Policies
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Never buy insurance on a phone call, make it a rule avoid tears of blood.
Always insist that whatever is told in the scheme on the phone, is provided in writing, with date and official stamp + signature on official letter head before making ANY payment, if not available DO NOT buy the policy, else you'll make a thread saying 'help i'm in a fix'.
Ask the caller to come and meet personally instead of selling on phone, 99.999% will say no.
Don't buy policies on the internet, always buy them in person, as internet policies have loopholes.
My personal advise is use LIC as its the best and hassle free insurance co., others are thugs
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Credit Cards
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Again always ask for scheme details in writing, many sales officers say "No Annual fees, No extra charges etc.," but they lie, always insist its provided in writing.
Know your credit limit
Opt for sms alerts & internet login facility

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Real life experiences
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1 - An SBI branch manager not willing to transfer 2 PPF accounts from his branch (a village) to mumbai. The accounts were nearing the 15 year maturity and the agent who opened the accounts was looking to eat up the money.

After 6 months of going circles with the manager, wrote a letter to SBI Main Branch, the manager begs that why was the complaint lodged and the account transferred instantly
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2 - SBI Manager refusing to open an account saying "We already have a lot of work don't bugger us"

Same remedy, wrote a letter and manager begs for his job and treats royally.
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3 - Share Broker offering a free demat account with no annual charges etc.,

Just said that give that in writing that the demat account is free, seller denies and call closed.
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4 - Kotak Guy selling insurance policy (6k a year for 1 crore worth of cover)

A friend of mine gave my no. to the kotak guy and I stuck to my guns that I don't need an insurance, call closed.
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5 - A chap in office gets 4-5 calls daily, poor fellow picks them up too

I have a consultant who handles these stuff, do you want his number? (Most of them deny, if they agree give the most rudest person's number XD)
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Also whenever you use Justdial.com's service, your no. is shared with lot of tele marketers, make sure you know how to tackle them.

What do I do? - Whenever I get a call from "+140", I reject it right away. if I happen to pick up a call, I know how to make the guy suck his own foot ;)
Alternatively install Truecaller, helps a lot :)

I hope this guide helps, please share your experiences and I'll add those to this post.

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raksrules
I always pick up the calls from +140 and when they start explaining their scheme I start telling them that I am slimming belt salesman and I will buy their scheme only if they buy 100 belts from me.
And constantly keep speaking and they hang up on me.
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mathrisk
Another one I heard(also read many times) from some folks, people going for Home loan asked to buy an Insurance else home loan will not get sanctioned.

Solution: 4 things to do, when you are forced to buy a Policy with Home Loan !
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6pack
From my personal experience - If anyone from your bank or demat broker claims to be your account manager or whatever and calls you for KYC to his office along with your checkbook they are trying to scam you into buying some useless insurance policy. My bank's demat division (icici direct) does this a lot. You can go to his office for kyc, but never take your checkbook along with you. For the record, they wont do any KYC. they probably throw the documents in the waste paper basket after you say you dont want to buy their stupid insurance policies.

This same modus operandi is used by telemarketing scamsters saying your phone has won some lucky draw and you need to be present with your checkbook in some fancy hotel. This is just a disguise to get you to buy into some crap bonds etc.
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Thx buddy will take a printout of it and will paste in my room , if i had followed all these above rules, i would have avoided paying hell lot of money as premium every year :(
 
Thanks a lot OP for the tips. I always pick up the calls from +140 and when they start explaining their scheme I start telling them that I am slimming belt salesman and I will buy their scheme only if they buy 100 belts from me.
And constantly keep speaking and they hang up on me.
 
Being.smart said:
Thx buddy will take a printout of it and will paste in my room , if i had followed all these above rules, i would have avoided paying hell lot of money as premium every year :(
Click to expand...

Printout isn't really needed, just remember to obtain whatever is said in writing, which the crooks won't give, so you know whom to avoid :)
 
I had taken a mtnl landline on my mothers name two years back, the mtnl people must have shared the details with telemarketers because i get a lot of telemarketing calls on this no specially from banks /insurance agents, my mother recently informed me that on this same no some insurance guy called twice about some dividend due to her for some insurance policy which she had taken & wanted to confirm her details , she hasnt taken any such policy & hung up the phone with out asking any details, now i am not sure what this call was about , was it some scam attempt or possible identity theft through id proofs arranged through mtnl ?
 
montsa007 said:
Don't buy policies on the internet, always buy them in person, as internet policies have loopholes.
Click to expand...

I definitely do NOT agree with this. No policy - online or otherwise - has hidden charges. It is just that people feel it is a 'waste of time' to go through all terms and conditions. If one signs on a document without reading it, be it an online only or paper policy, he is going to repent later.

Internet policies go a long way in doing away with the agent's commission, which happens to be significant in the case of ULIPs.
 
agantuk said:
I definitely do NOT agree with this. No policy - online or otherwise - has hidden charges. It is just that people feel it is a 'waste of time' to go through all terms and conditions. If one signs on a document without reading it, be it an online only or paper policy, he is going to repent later.

Internet policies go a long way in doing away with the agent's commission, which happens to be significant in the case of ULIPs.
Click to expand...

ULIP's NAV falls in long term which means your investment decays/depreciates, not sure if you are aware of whats happening in the finance field lol. The steps involved to file a claim for a policy taken over internet is full of headaches, don't believe my words pal, try it yourself ;).
@Arjun,
Avoid telemarketing calls, do your own research before buying anything :)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I wasn't talking only about ULIPs. If you read my post, you should get some idea. Have you ever heard about term insurances? Online term insurances? Never mind.
 
^Personally I do not take any loans or opt for EMI schemes, as they are debt holes. Once you sign the agreement for a loan, you end up paying almost double of what you have borrowed. Ofcourse there are people who will advocate against me, but do the math yourself ;).
 
From my personal experience - If anyone from your bank or demat broker claims to be your account manager or whatever and calls you for KYC to his office along with your checkbook they are trying to scam you into buying some useless insurance policy. My bank's demat division (icici direct) does this a lot. You can go to his office for kyc, but never take your checkbook along with you. For the record, they wont do any KYC. they probably throw the documents in the waste paper basket after you say you dont want to buy their stupid insurance policies.

This same modus operandi is used by telemarketing scamsters saying your phone has won some lucky draw and you need to be present with your checkbook in some fancy hotel. This is just a disguise to get you to buy into some crap bonds etc.
 
6pack said:
From my personal experience - If anyone from your bank or demat broker claims to be your account manager or whatever and calls you for KYC to his office along with your checkbook they are trying to scam you into buying some useless insurance policy. My bank's demat division (icici direct) does this a lot. You can go to his office for kyc, but never take your checkbook along with you. For the record, they wont do any KYC. they probably throw the documents in the waste paper basket after you say you dont want to buy their stupid insurance policies.

This same modus operandi is used by telemarketing scamsters saying your phone has won some lucky draw and you need to be present with your checkbook in some fancy hotel. This is just a disguise to get you to buy into some crap bonds etc.
Click to expand...

If you give them a check, make sure its a cancelled check, and if they insist that you write a check of some amount, get a proper receipt stating the purpose of the payment. As said in 1st post insist on 'writing' :)
This applies to people who want to do TP by going to that fancy hotel :p

Strangely I've never got a call saying I've won 10 kilo of gold :p
 
Not sure if it was prevalent in any other part of India but in Mumbai, i along with some of my friends and relatives used to get call from someone asking us three questions like Where is Taj Mahal, which is called pink city and all and then told to come to Fariyas resort (somewhere close to Mumbai) to collect gift.
I always told them to send the gift home, i will pay courier charges but they never obliged :P

My dad has been victim couple of scams and from the time i started understanding things, i have instructed him not to put money ANYWHERE even if it is very small amount without asking me.

Worst is when relatives come with the MLM schemes, i once insulted that relative (not really a relative but someone we know well) and they felt bad and never talked to me, all because i did not let my dad put money in their stupid pyramid scheme. I don't care for such relatives.
Similarly i do not buy stuff from people i know, they always try to con you. Like you want to buy a TV etc and your relative runs an electronic shop, i wont buy from them. It is personal stance.
 
The gift scam is also carried out by Country club vacations across India. They are the biggest corporate looters. Never fall for such scams if you get a call like "you got some gifts from BigBazaar. You need to come along with spouse to collect it at a particular place. We cannot write you an email or courier the gift. you will need to attend a presentation before collecting the gifts"
raksrules said:
Not sure if it was prevalent in any other part of India but in Mumbai, i along with some of my friends and relatives used to get call from someone asking us three questions like Where is Taj Mahal, which is called pink city and all and then told to come to Fariyas resort (somewhere close to Mumbai) to collect gift.
I always told them to send the gift home, i will pay courier charges but they never obliged :P

My dad has been victim couple of scams and from the time i started understanding things, i have instructed him not to put money ANYWHERE even if it is very small amount without asking me.

Worst is when relatives come with the MLM schemes, i once insulted that relative (not really a relative but someone we know well) and they felt bad and never talked to me, all because i did not let my dad put money in their stupid pyramid scheme. I don't care for such relatives.
Similarly i do not buy stuff from people i know, they always try to con you. Like you want to buy a TV etc and your relative runs an electronic shop, i wont buy from them. It is personal stance.
Click to expand...
 
raksrules said:
Worst is when relatives come with the MLM schemes, i once insulted that relative (not really a relative but someone we know well) and they felt bad and never talked to me, all because i did not let my dad put money in their stupid pyramid scheme. I don't care for such relatives.
Similarly i do not buy stuff from people i know, they always try to con you. Like you want to buy a TV etc and your relative runs an electronic shop, i wont buy from them. It is personal stance.
Click to expand...

A very good friend of mine called me and asked that should he invest in speakasia (as his friend came to him with the offer), I clearly said 'no man, don't go for that sh*t', but he had some itch in his bum so he invested 11k, as I was curious I asked for his login credentials so I can see what sort of questions were asked.
"Should lokpal be passed?"
I was laughing hard and told my friend that he is scammed, he was hesitant to believe me, and in a few weeks the company was in the news as sh*t hit the fan :p

- - - Updated - - -

Vasishta.Sushant said:
I really liked that point. Any concrete basis of saying that ????[/FONT]
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When you opt for a policy physically, the insurance guys do your urine test, stool test, heart rate etc., and then issue a certificate saying that he/she has these problems which won't be covered if claimed for.
As for internet policy, the details you key in are the details company receives, which means if you have a bed wetting problem (am not saying you, just a wild example), and if you put a claim tomorrow saying you have to undergo a surgery for the ailment, getting the claim will give you various ailments like nausea, loose motions, piles etc., as there was no proof to show that you were 100% fit when you took the policy online.

Again, don't take my word, take a dip and buy a policy online and then file a claim.

As always, I recommend to opt for LIC or GIC policies as they are very transparent and reliable, private players are here to screw up the common man.

Again, don't take my word, experience yourself ;)
 
montsa007 said:
When you opt for a policy physically, the insurance guys do your urine test, stool test, heart rate etc., and then issue a certificate saying that he/she has these problems which won't be covered if claimed for.
As for internet policy, the details you key in are the details company receives, which means if you have a bed wetting problem (am not saying you, just a wild example), and if you put a claim tomorrow saying you have to undergo a surgery for the ailment, getting the claim will give you various ailments like nausea, loose motions, piles etc., as there was no proof to show that you were 100% fit when you took the policy online.

Again, don't take my word, take a dip and buy a policy online and then file a claim.

As always, I recommend to opt for LIC or GIC policies as they are very transparent and reliable, private players are here to screw up the common man.

Again, don't take my word, experience yourself ;)
Click to expand...
Looks like you do not have the complete picture painted in your perspective towards the online policies. Online policies are very much the same as the ones you get from insurance agents, just that in this case you deal directly with the company. There is no payout to be done by the company to the agents and they pass on some of the benefit to you, hence the online policies are cheaper.

And just to mention, you do go through all the medical tests, very much the same as you'd go with the offline ones. You policy remains just a "proposal" until the company sees your medical tests and only they are fine, they'll offer you the insurance and that's how you get into a insurance agreement, a "contract".

Second, all the insurance activities are governed by IRDA and there is absolutely no disparity between the players. Its incumbent upon the policy buyer to check the "Most Important Document" (as they put it), which contains all the terms and conditions. A company can't modify the contract/policy terms once they have been established. By signing all those documents, you are giving your consent. Generally the terms are too much to read, the important ones are always clubbed together in the "Most Important Document", as I mentioned, so that the buyers can go through them quickly.

I feel that information given in the first post is more directional yet misleading. Without going through all the facts, you are just generalizing your thoughts as the guiding lines for the prospective buyers. While I do appreciate your effort, I think it should be mentioned as your thoughts. Gullible readers might create an impression which might not necessarily be right.

Things like "Always do this", "never do this" should better be backed up by data points than just someone's opinion, that's all I want to emphasize upon.
 
Even for credit cards , each credit card has a type (platinum plus , gold etc etc) and there is a manual providing details of the Credit Card so irrespective of what the agent tells you , always refer to the pdf.
 
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