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NEW DELHI: Are you a regular social media user? Then, you’d definitely want to read this. Incidents of false messages floating across various online platforms are on the rise. From misleading stock market tips to linking of Aadhaar (a 12-digit unique code) with LIC insurance policies via SMS, fake messages are being circulated almost on a daily basis.

Amid this, one such fake message caught attention of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) which asked LIC policyholders to link their Aadhaar details by sending an SMS to a designated number. The state-owned company on Tuesday issued a notification clarifying that it has not started any such initiative.

LIC stated that "no such messages have been sent by LIC" and as of yet there is no facility available to link Aadhaar with policies through SMS. The insurance company also cautioned the clients to check with the LIC offices before sharing their personal details.

After false messages, the menace of fake calls is also growing with a number of LIC policyholders getting "spurious" calls from people posing as insurance agents or officers from legal department of the company.

One such type of call promises a hefty dividend amount that needs to be claimed by the policyholder immediately.

How these fake call starts:

These fake calls mostly starts with a brief address of the person (who is calling, although you won't be able to get his/her name in the first chance) saying that your insurance policy has gained a good dividend this year and are you willing to give it to the insurance agent (if your policy is done via an agent). Policies taken from the agents have a specific code attached to it.

The person will then say that the dividend of previous year has been given to the agent and this year if you don't claim it, the amount will again go to the agent.

What really works for them:

When policyholders come to know that they can save the current year’s dividend, they usually fall prey to the fake callers and share their personal information like, date of birth, licence number or Aadhaar details.

How the call further develops:

The person then asks you to buy a policy from a different company as it will generate a new code that will replace the agent's code on your existing policy. And, from then onwards you can get the benefits of existing policy instead of the agent.

What LIC has to say:

Responding to an e-mail query regarding such calls, LIC said, "We would like to inform that it seems a spurious call from some fraudster's group. They make false/misleading statements posing as LIC officials/Agents/IRDA officials. Please never divulge any information about your policies or other personal details to such callers. Complaint may be lodged at Police Station regarding such fraudulent calls."

Recently, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) initiated an awareness campaign, 'Suno RBI Kya Kehta Hai', through SMSes to warn the public against falling prey to unsolicited and fictitious offers from fraudsters.

People can also give a missed call to 8691960000 to get more information through Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) on fake calls or e-mails as "well as investing wisely and cautiously in chit funds", RBI said in a statement.

The central bank has time and again been alerting the public against such fake offers.

