Don't be caught out by fake car insurance

Not everything you buy online is what you bargained for

Even car insurance is faked and sold on social media, down the pub or at the gym to unsuspecting customers just like you. The policies might look genuine, but they're not worth the paper they're written on.

Buying fake car insurance can be crushing

You've just started college or uni and money is tight. Last thing you want to spend your student loan on is car insurance! So what do you do? Go online and search for the cheapest deal, obvs! BUT if you buy a fake insurance policy it could really cost you.

You won't just be out the cash you've paid. If you're stopped by police driving with a fake insurance policy, it's a BIG deal that could cause you BIGGER problems getting real cover down the road.

Remember, if you've been offered a cheap deal online and it seems too good to be true, it probably is!

Crushing, isn't it?

Oh and did we mention, one in every three cars seized by police for no insurance (and driving with a fake policy means you're not insured) is crushed.

In the insurance industry, we call selling fake car insurance Ghost Broking

Basically, it's fraudsters (the Ghost Brokers) selling fake policies to unsuspecting people who are looking for a cheap deal.

So how do these fraudsters do it?

They're clever criminals – often involved in other crimes and scams too. They target unsuspecting drivers with cheap car insurance deals and issue policies that often look like the real thing.

Scams most commonly work in one of two ways:

1. Genuine insurance policies are bought by the fraudsters from legitimate insurance companies using false information and then doctored before being sold on to you at a profit.
2. Fake policy documents are either designed online or printed to look like they've been issued by legitimate insurance companies and sold on to you, allowing the Ghost Broker to keep all of your money.

The policies you receive are absolutely worthless.

Think it can't happen to you?

Manpreet, a student at Birmingham City University, reported to CheatLine after falling victim to a Ghost Broker which left her £2,000 out of pocket and her identity stolen. Having struggled to find an affordable insurance quote online, she turned to TikTok where she found an 'insurance broker' who claimed to have helped lots of people find a great deal.

Despite Manpreet asking all the right questions, the Ghost Broker lured her into his web of lies. She describes him as being very manipulative, telling her "you need to trust me" and "I've got you sorted", the red flags obvious when she looks back on their exchanges. When she questioned how he was able to secure such a cheap deal, he simply said "It's just what we do". After spending two hours on the phone and watching him seemingly enter her details on the system, she was convinced. Little did she know her world was about to come crashing down.

Manpreet shared this piece of advice: 

"My message to everyone around my age group would be if [on social media] a broker has posted insurance advice or they've shown pictures of what they call evidence to help other people and it looks too good to be true, then I would not go for it... they would probably end up lying on your policy."