A national awareness drive to combat the growing threat of ghost broking was recently launched by the Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB), alongside the ABI, City of London Police's Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED), and the government’s Stop! Think Fraud campaign.

Ghost brokers are scammers who pose as legitimate insurance brokers to sell fake motor insurance policies, often through social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok.

They might:

• Sell fake (aka photoshopped) or invalid insurance policies
• Use stolen personal information or forged documents
• Offer fraudulent policies at cheaper rates to attract customers
• Take money from customers but never actually buy insurance for them

The policies are taken out with personal or stolen information, then doctored before being sold on; and in some instances, they are simply photoshopped pieces of paper. In either case, there is no valid insurance policy in place and the driver faces serious consequences for breaking the law by using an uninsured vehicle.

The IFB's investigations have shown a significant rise in ghost broking activity across the UK, with over 50% more cases identified in the past two years. Furthermore, these scammers are increasingly targeting younger drivers; including those who have just passed their test, and even learners who need learner driver insurance.

Road policing teams play a vital role in helping to identify victims of ghost broking and sharing insights with counter-fraud teams. To help support you in your commitment to keep roads safe from uninsured driving, we've put together top tips on the checks to carry out if you suspect an insurance policy might be fraudulent.

What to look out for

• Obvious signs of fraud - the policy may use poor grammar, low quality logos or watermarked images
• The email address of the sender may be @gmail or @mail
• The driver producing the certificate may not be able to access a genuine insurance app or web log in, or the log in may be for a fictitious company
• If the certificate looks valid but it's not showing as insured on the PNC, call MIB's Police Helpline (PHL) to verify the policy
• Check the personal details of the driver against the details provided on the policy document. For example, dates of birth may not match, or the vehicle may be insured to an address which differs from their home address.

If working outside of PHL hours:

• You can issue a HORT/1 (if in use in your force). This will come back to the issuing officer once produced, who can conduct further enquiries with PHL during opening hours.
• Report the offence without S165A seizure, as it can always be discontinued by the central ticket office if checks later confirm validity.

Questions to ask

• How was the policy was taken out?
• How did they find the broker?
• Does the provider have a website or do they only utilise social media/WhatsApp?
• How did they pay for the policy?
• Who supplied details of the ghost broker site?

Make a report

City of London Police's IFED’s Op Devoran also accepts intelligence on suspected ghost broking instances from forces, including the outcome e.g. vehicle seized, process contemplated, etc. Complete intelligence on your system and request your Force intelligence Bureau to share the intelligence with City of London Police, sending it to IST@cityoflondon.police.uk marked as OP DEVORAN.

Members of the public can report evidence of Ghost Broking to the IFB's CheatLine, where counter-fraud specialists can look further into the matter and flag any potential fraudulent actors to the industry. Evidence of insurance fraud can also be reported to Action Fraud.