A new scam involves insurance companies: it reaches you directly via SMS. Here’s how it works and how to defend yourself
The latest scam to the detriment of motorists comes directly from the world of online insurance. We are not talking about the legitimate ones obviously, increasingly widespread and used in Italy because they actually allow you to save on the cost of car liability, but we are referring to a new system that exploits this trend for the purpose of scamming the victims.
We must not forget that on the Italian territory there are approx 38 million private carswithout counting the more than 6 million motorcycles that allow the fraudsters of the insurance system to look at a fairly large potential pool of victims.
To take out car insurance you need to rely on an insurance company that can provide us with the simple basic service, consisting of the RCA required by law and the coverage established within precise ceilings, and offer us a series of additional features that may depend on the user’s personal situation.
Let’s think about the glass insurance designed for those who have to leave the car in a high-risk area or the solution theft and fire ideal for those who want to sleep absolutely peacefully.
Once the stipulation of an insurance passed through the figure of the intermediary agent who is now often replaced by portals online that allow you to do everything just a click away, even comparing the different proposals. However, the new scam that we want to tell you about is born right here.
The online insurance scam arrives directly via SMS
Using certain web portals is very easy: just enter the vehicle data, some additional information, and you will immediately have one quote list which can be accessed with the practically immediate possibility of taking out the insurance and doing everything electronically.
Inexperienced users, however, are the most subject to the risk of falling victim to this new scam that concerns the system of online insurance. We repeat that we are not referring to legitimate and well-known insurance companies, but to presumed insurance agencies that claim to offer sensationally advantageous prices for the sole purpose, however, of defrauding the user.
Therefore, after having searched online for various offers, if you end up on the wrong sites by mistake, also giving your personal data, there is a real risk of receiving a SMS by an alleged employee of a mysterious insurance agency.
As mentioned, this agency will offer you some incredibly cost-effective solutions, too good to be true. And in fact there is nothing true: both because the requested payment is made via a Postepay top-up, a method that will not ask you for any online insurance, and because the promised prices are all too advantageous.
The damage is twofold: on the one hand you pay for insurance that does not exist, on the other you risk getting caught by the police with practically no insurance coverage which, according to Article 193 of the Highway Codeleads to the seizure of the vehicle.
How to defend yourself from this scam? Simple: rely on famous insurance agencies with certifiable data and don’t trust prices that seem incredibly too low compared to the competition. Above all, if they ask you to pay a Postepay top-up, an untraceable method, you understand very well that something is wrong.
The article Insurance via SMS, watch out for the scam: they empty your current account comes from Motori News.
