Tips to Avoid the Insurance Related Frauds and Scams in India

Health and Life Insurance Related Frauds in India

Are you planning to buy an insurance? Beware of the numerous fraudulent agents who cheat people in the name of affordable and good insurance policies. Insurance fraud has become a cause of real concern for people all across the globe.

It is quite alarming to see the rising number of fraud cases that are coming to the forefront in the recent time. In fact, over the years many customers have become a prey to such fraud agents selling fraud policies and cheating people of their money. They have been using new and innovative ideas to lure people and making money out of it. The ignorance or unawareness of the consumers is the reason why they fall prey to such tricks of insurance agents.

In this blog, we are discussing the various practices that the policyholders or people who are planning to buy health insurance are expected to follow to stay safe from fraudulent agents.

Below is a list of some practices that an insurance consumer is expected to follow:

1) Always verify the identity of the agent before commencing a discussion – 

IRDAI rule clearly states that each and every insurance agent has to undergo hardcore training and should have their identification proof. Moreover, each customer when interacting with an agent for the first time should enquire about the ID proof of the agent and should authenticate the same with the insurance company that he/she represents. This safety measure is necessary at the start of an insurance proceeding to protect you from insurance fraud and being a victim of any fraudulent trick.

2) Never pay for your insurance policy in cash –

The basic difference between a fraud agent and a genuine agent is that the fraudulent person will demand cash whereas an authorized agent will never ask for payment in cash. Also, while giving a cheque to the agent, you can verify the account of the insurance provider by calling the customer support service. This way, you can ensure that your cheque doesn’t fall in the hands of a cheater.

3) Do not disclose details of your plan to outsiders –

By disclosing your insurance details to an unknown person, you might draw fraud groups/agents dealing in insurance. If a fraud person comes across your policy details, he/she might use such details to get more information from you, thereby cheating you for your money. The person might even claim to be from your insurance company to lure you into his/her trap. Thus, it is necessary to stay alert so that you can avoid such threats.

4) Try to buy insurance plans online to be safe –

One of safest way to avoid fraudulent cases in insurance is to buy your health insurance online from a genuine and reliable insurance company. By using online process, you can eliminate the step where you need to interact with a policy agent. At the same time it will offer you safe and quick transaction option. However, here you must make sure to visit the suggested site of the insurance company to make the online payment by following the steps as directed. Also, remember not to share your credit card or debit card details with anybody.

5) In case of a loss of plan document, report immediately –

Keeping your information documents/records safely is also very important. In case you lose your documents and they land is someone else’s hand, who happens to be a fraudster, then you might get into trouble. Here, the fraudster might even make a claim on your behalf. So, it is better to keep your documents somewhere safe like in a bank locker, while you can keep the photocopy of the papers with you. Also, if somehow your policy papers get lost, you must immediately inform your insurance company. In such case, you might have to lodge a FIR at the nearest police station and publish an ad in the newspaper.

6) Fill in the details in a policy document on your own –

For those of you who want to purchase insurance through offline ways, you must fill in the information related to the policy on your own rather than asking someone else to do it. This will help in saving you from exposing your information to miscreants. Also, make sure you read and understand the policy details well, including terms and conditions, exclusions etc. before buying the policy.

7) Make sure you hand over your ID proofs to trusted employees only –

In many cases, fraud agents might keep your ID proofs and misuse them for fraudulent purposes. So, you must ensure that you hand over your ID proofs to trusted employees of a trusted insurance company. They should be from authorized company whom you have properly verified. This way you can avoid health insurance frauds.

8) Stay very careful in case you make a transaction from a public network –

Along with fraudulent cases through agents/groups, there has been a huge rise in the digital fraud cases in the recent time. In this type of insurance fraud, tricksters’ uses wi-fi networks to track data of your insurance policies and steal information to cheat you accordingly. So, it is equally important to be very careful while making online transactions and while using your personal data over different wi-fi networks. Moreover, every time you use online banking, remember to log out of the computer after you have done your work and try to use coded network for online transactions.