Fake car insurance taken out in my name

[Madness60]

I've now had 2 lots of car insurance taken out in my name in last week. The first one was for a commercial vehicle and has been sorted with the broker it went through, the one today is with HastingsDirect and they're not answering the phone on a Friday afternoon. I've emailed their fraud email but not got a response.

Any advice as got a feeling this may not be the last of this.

Out of interest the Hasting one has the reg of the car that has had the insurance taken out, can I report this to the police to get added to ANPR?

Thanks

[E-bmw]

Can I ask how you know you have had insurance taken out in your name?

Was it at your address?

Did you pay for it?

Why do you say it is "fake"?

[TonyRPH]

This happened to me a couple of years ago.

The insurance comapny concerned dealt with it very swiftly, with no repercussions to myself.

Most of these fraudulent policies seem to be discovered fairly swiftly.

[Wackywoo105]

Were these taken out using your home address. I can't recall but I think a few policies I have taken out were all online, so no paperwork was sent to my home? How did you find out?

Are these taken out so a banned/no licence driver can use the vehicle without attracting attention, or is the plan to "have a crash" and cash in?

[Madness60]

One was taken out via a broker and a loan so the finance company contacted me using my correct name and address and the other one I got all the paperwork in my name and address but for a car I do not have, a random email address and random bank details

Both been cancelled by the insurance companies and the finance company

[98elise]

Wackywoo105 said:

Were these taken out using your home address. I can't recall but I think a few policies I have taken out were all online, so no paperwork was sent to my home? How did you find out?

Are these taken out so a banned/no licence driver can use the vehicle without attracting attention, or is the plan to "have a crash" and cash in?

I don't think any of our policies have paperwork these days. I get an email, and save the docs direct to my Google Drive.

[carreauchompeur]

Yes, this is a real thing. I’d wager that you are of advanced years and live somewhere decent and rural.

Its done to make cars look legit. Definitely report to cops. If you dont get any joy, drop me a PM

Edited by carreauchompeur on Monday 29th May 22:30

[Louis Balfour]

Madness60 said:

I've now had 2 lots of car insurance taken out in my name in last week. The first one was for a commercial vehicle and has been sorted with the broker it went through, the one today is with HastingsDirect and they're not answering the phone on a Friday afternoon. I've emailed their fraud email but not got a response.

Any advice as got a feeling this may not be the last of this.

Out of interest the Hasting one has the reg of the car that has had the insurance taken out, can I report this to the police to get added to ANPR?

Thanks

You have the last laugh. They have insured with Hastings, who are utter cretins.

[djohnson]

We live somewhere fairly rural, and low risk from an insurance perspective (but Bradford is fairly close). I started seeing a few letters addressed to a name I didn’t recognise, and knew for certain wasn’t someone who had lived in our house in the previous 20 years at least (we bought the property from a family friend, and are very sure we know who has lived here in recent years). I fully appreciate I shouldn’t have done this, but after a while I started opening the letters and found car insurance documents in our address but using this unrecognised name. I suspect that someone in a fairly close higher risk area had used their own name, and what they knew to be a much lower risk but fairly close address to insure their car. The insurance company were totally uninterested, despite my protests that they likely had a fraudulent policy on their books they simply stated that I wasn’t the insured and hence they couldn’t discuss the policy with me, and I shouldn’t have opened the letters. The police were even less interested. Eventually the letters stopped, and I hope either I was wrong and it was an error, or the fraudster has moved on.

[LosingGrip]

Happens fairly regularly. Is anyone else on the insurance policy? I'd log it with your local force. If they have a date of birth on the policy even better...provide that. It properly wont be anyone in your local area (think big cities with high insurance risk) but they should be able to do some checks in the car to find out its rough location.

Maybe also contact the MIB. They are like a dog with a bone with dodgy insurance policies! https://www.mib.org.uk/

[Hol]

I had someone insure a vehicle online with my full name and address, but a bogus email and DVLA address for all paperwork. I was told to go through action fraud website (because online fraud) to get it recorded and sorted.

In my case there were speeding fines in two counties the other end of the contry involved and when the DVLA registered address for the vehicle (not my name and address) proved bogus, they sent the fines to the insurance address held in MID. Which was me.

It was all cleared up quickly when I quoted the action fraud reference on each fine received and I later got a random standard letter from the insurance telling me the policy was cancelled. I also got letters from each Police force confirming no further action.

Apparently it isn’t uncommon to pull a name and address from somewhere like companies house,then set up a bogus email with broadly similar details and use a different stolen credit card number to pay for it.

I’m just glad they didnt crash into someone as unraveling that might have taken a few years.

Edited by Hol on Tuesday 30th May 06:29

[Hol]

https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/

[vikingaero]

djohnson said:

We live somewhere fairly rural, and low risk from an insurance perspective (but Bradford is fairly close). I started seeing a few letters addressed to a name I didn’t recognise, and knew for certain wasn’t someone who had lived in our house in the previous 20 years at least (we bought the property from a family friend, and are very sure we know who has lived here in recent years). I fully appreciate I shouldn’t have done this, but after a while I started opening the letters and found car insurance documents in our address but using this unrecognised name. I suspect that someone in a fairly close higher risk area had used their own name, and what they knew to be a much lower risk but fairly close address to insure their car. The insurance company were totally uninterested, despite my protests that they likely had a fraudulent policy on their books they simply stated that I wasn’t the insured and hence they couldn’t discuss the policy with me, and I shouldn’t have opened the letters. The police were even less interested. Eventually the letters stopped, and I hope either I was wrong and it was an error, or the fraudster has moved on.

Just to put your mind at rest. It is categorically not an offence to open mail that is correctly delivered to your address by Royal Mail. Many people get this wrong much like No MOT = No Insurance. Once the Royal Mail deliver to the address displayed that is their part done and it would be different if you were to steal mail sticking out of an overflowing postbox.

What is an offence is to open the mail and use the contents for a pecuniary advantage - for instance you receive a bank card and PIN number which is in someone elses name and you use that card to fraudulently make purchases.

[djohnson]

vikingaero said:

Just to put your mind at rest. It is categorically not an offence to open mail that is correctly delivered to your address by Royal Mail. Many people get this wrong much like No MOT = No Insurance. Once the Royal Mail deliver to the address displayed that is their part done and it would be different if you were to steal mail sticking out of an overflowing postbox.

What is an offence is to open the mail and use the contents for a pecuniary advantage - for instance you receive a bank card and PIN number which is in someone elses name and you use that card to fraudulently make purchases.

Thanks