RSA Insurance : Cost of car insurance fraud to victims revealed in new police campaign

The City of London Police's Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED) has launched a national awareness campaign today to warn motorists about the dangers of buying fake car insurance from fraudsters, also known as 'ghost brokers', who are potentially leaving thousands¹ of unsuspecting victims driving without insurance.

From November 2014 - October 2017, Action Fraud, the national fraud and cyber reporting centre, hosted by the City of London Police, received more than 850 reports linked to ghost broking, with reported losses for both individuals and organisations totalling £631,000². On average, each individual victim lost £769³ from this type of fraud.

Of these reports, 417 resulted in action being taken against the offenders by IFED following their investigations into ghost broking over the past three years, which included a man who set up 133 fake policies, a teenage ghost broker who was sentenced to jail and a man who made £59,000 from ghost broking.

However, it is thought that the true number of ghost broking victims may be much higher than this figure, as some motorists may be driving on the roads right now unaware that their policy is fraudulent. It is only when they are stopped by police or attempt to make a claim will they find out that they don't have genuine cover.

This leads police to believe that ghost broking is actually being under reported each year due to the way ghost brokers deceive motorists into thinking they have legitimate insurance, when in fact it's worthless.