Insurance Scams on the Rise with Covid-19

With COVID-19 keeping people indoors and off unsecured servers, the number of malicious scams have gone up in frequency and in number of cases. One of the most common trends in recent times has been scams relating to insurance fraud.

The insurance industry has taken massive hits thanks to the sudden business interruptions and resulting losses. Scammers are out there looking for valuable information. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners has identified several sources of such fraud, including the following:

• Vaccine and treatments
• Shopping
• Medical
• Charity
• Phishing and malware
• Apps
• Investments

In addition, Utah’s Insurance commission has identified several different ways that hackers have pulled these scams off:

1. Fake Insurance payments: Scammers are using this chaos to send emails and phone calls about potential insurance against COVID-19. If anything, insurance companies are starting to exclude this from their standard coverage so do not open these.
2. Fake Travel Insurance: With the multitude of trip cancellations, scammers are using this to try and trick people into buying them. Most of these coverages don’t cover pandemics.
3. Contractor Schemes: Tied into the stimulus payments people received, fake contractors would contact people and do spotty work in exchange for the $1200 they received from the government.[1]

Scammers and malicious actors are enjoying this time of chaos. Monitor your emails and phones and don’t fall for these endeavors.

[1] https://www.propertycasualty360.com/2020/05/11/alert-clients-colleagues-to-these-covid-19-insurance-scams/?kw=Alert%20clients%2C%20colleagues%20to%20these%20COVID-19%20insurance%20scams&utm_source=email&utm_medium=enl&utm_campaign=dailynews&utm_content=20200511&utm_term=pc360&enlcmp=nltrplt2&slreturn=20200411154622