Tips to Avoid Car Insurance Scams

Just like every other industry, scams are prevalent in the UAE car insurance market as well. Back in 2019, the news was full of insurance products being mis-sold to its customers in the UAE. A large number of buyers had to suffer severe financial losses after putting their capital in car insurance Dubai and life insurance plans.

However, this was not just the end of scams for the car insurance Dubai market, there are numerous events that do not make their way to the headlines and therefore consumers remain unaware of such malicious activities. With the objective of educating and spreading awareness amongst UAE investors, we have come up with a series of tips and tricks that will help you to avoid car insurance Dubai scams.

Moreover, we will be sharing some common things that might go wrong when you buy car insurance Dubai. Without wasting any more time let us begin this blog with a checklist for you to go through to make sure that you do not end up getting trapped in the vicious trap of scammers that are in the search of prey.

Ghost Broking: The Most Common Practice

Ghost broking is one of the most common scamming practices that has been prevalent all across the globe within the past few years. There have been several incidents of ghost broking in the UAE as well. Considering the threat, it becomes extremely important for consumers to be aware of the malicious practice so that they do not fall prey to any such scam while looking for car insurance dubai. 

In the case of ghost broking, a false broker acts as a genuine middle that helps the customer to strike a magnificent and beneficial insurance deal at lesser prices than the market. Ghost brokers function by fooling the consumer by offering them attractive deals that appear tempting and the customer ends up paying the scammer.

Where does it Go Wrong?

Let us take a quick look, what actually happens under these scams. 

‘Save money by getting the cheapest deal’

Typically, insurance companies never come up with events like season end sales. In case someone is offering you car insurance Dubai that is cheaper than the usual price, this is the first thing you should take into consideration seriously. The fraud here is that the brokers make money from the customer as registration fee and premium but in reality, never pay the amount to the insurance provider. Without any valid proof of payment, you might not receive what you have paid for. The most important point to be kept in consideration while getting insurance from any third-party is that you should always ask for a receipt that validates your payment for car insurance Dubai.

Altering the Value of your Vehicle

There have been several incidents where scams have occurred in the form of tampering the value of the vehicle without providing any information to the customer and thereby offering cheaper prices than the market. The customer understands the reality when they receive a claim amount lesser than what they actually paid for. In order to avoid any such scam, it is vital to make sure that you receive the original policy documents of car insurance Dubai directly from the insurance company instead of receiving it from a broker or a third-party agency.

The best way to get the right insurance is by car insurance Dubai compare, as you can get several options at different premiums along with different facilities.

The trap of ‘Cash’

As mentioned earlier, back in 2019 there had been events where customers have been scammed on the name of a cash facility. In most of these cases, the scammers pretend to be insurance experts who visit you and collect your details along with the details of your vehicle. On the following day, the scammers come up with cheap and attractive car insurance quotes.

In order to make things easier for you, they will ask you to make the payment in the form of cash. Once they have received the fee in the form of cash, they will send the policy documents to you by post. In such a scenario the customer is in the impression that they have received the policy.

However, in the following days, you will receive a notification that the insurance broker was unable to make the payment for the policy under your name to the insurance and this is when you realize that you’ve fallen prey to a car insurance scam in the UAE.

In such cases, comprehensive car insurance plans should be degraded into third-party liability insurance if the customer has no proof of payment from the broker or the insurance company.

Make use of Web Aggregators

The best way to safeguard yourself from such scams is to follow the DIY approach i.e. do it yourself approach. The internet is filled with a plethora of web aggregators that are transparent and make it easy for the customer to get themselves insured without falling prey to any scams.

Another important point to be kept in consideration is that you should request the insurance company to directly share the paper-work of the policy with you. Furthermore, always do proper research before making any decision regarding the car insurance policy.

In a Nutshell

If you don’t want to wreck your hard-earned savings by falling prey to insurance scammers, make sure you indulge in proper market research and purchase insurance policy from a reputed and regulated insurance provider in the UAE.