Insurance Space

Connecticut insurance regulators, concerned about a possible increase in the sale of fake auto insurance cards, are warning consumers not to get scammed and reminding them that using phony cards is illegal.

Drivers who buy legitimate policies receive cards from insurers to show that they’re covered. They are required by Connecticut law to present a card when registering a car and to keep one in their vehicle at all times.

Fake cards aren’t new, but the Connecticut Insurance Department says hard economic times could be prompting an increase in the sale of bogus cards to people who may or may not know the cards are counterfeit.

“While legitimate insurance coverage provides protection for you, your family and other people injured in a motor vehicle accident, trying to use fake insurance leads only to trouble,” the department says.

Auto insurance is mandatory, and you’re at risk of a fine, of having your registration voided and of having your license plates confiscated if you drive without it. In addition, though using a fake card saves you money up front, you could be wiped out financially if you have an accident and have no insurance.

Sometimes fake cards are offered by people falsely claiming to be real agents.

In one recent case, a Waterbury area couple paid $540 to a man purporting to be an agent for what they thought was a Nationwide Insurance policy. They got suspicious later, when they hadn’t yet received an insurance card or policy in the mail and the man demanded another $600, threatening that the “policy” would be canceled if they didn’t pay.

The couple learned for sure that they had been ripped off when they contacted a Nationwide office in Waterbury. The insurer notified regulators.

Some insurance card swindles target undocumented immigrants, but they’re not the only ones who are vulnerable, according to Dawn McDaniel, a spokeswoman for the Insurance Department.

“Consumers who are not well educated about purchasing insurance in general are at risk of being scammed,” McDaniel said.

Consumers should either buy insurance from a licensed agent or broker, or directly from a licensed company. You can verify licenses on the Insurance Department’s website at www.ct.gov/cid or by calling the department at 800-203-3447. Consumers can use the same number or 860-297-3900 to report suspected insurance fraud.

The state Department of Motor Vehicles hasn’t noticed an uptick in fraudulent cards because it doesn’t keep statistics, department spokesman Bill Seymour said.

Bogus insurance cards tend to look real, but DMV offices around the state detect several fakes a week, Seymour said. Sometimes it’s because an insurance company’s name is misspelled on a card that a driver presents at the time of registration.

Other times, the policy number on a card is the tip-off because each insurer has its own way of numbering policies with numerals and letters. A DMV employee may recognize that a policy number isn’t in the style of the insurance company whose name is on the card, Seymour explained.

If a DMV employee suspects a fake, the police are called, he said.

Seymour noted that there’s no state law requiring the department to verify whether consumers’ insurance cards are legitimate.

There’s another way that people with bogus cards and no insurance get caught. Each month, insurers send computer lists of policy cancellations and new customers to the motor vehicles department.

If a driver has been canceled but no company’s list shows that a new policy has been issued, the person will be notified by the department. The consumer then has 30 days to show proof of insurance. If that doesn’t happen, the department moves to suspend the vehicle registration, Seymour said.

An increase in the sale or use of fake cards and some crackdowns have been reported in some states.A Tampa, Fla., woman was arrested recently after selling a bogus card for $100 to undercover agents. Nine people in Kentucky were charged with insurance fraud earlier this month for having or creating fake insurance cards.

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Tags: Auto Insurance, Auto Insurance Scam