21 Feb Protect Yourself against ‘Ghost Brokers’

Over the last number of months, there has been a lot of talk about the growing problem of ‘ghost brokers’. In this blog, we explain what ghost brokers are and how they operate here in Ireland.

Ghost brokers are simply fraudsters who sell forged or invalid discounted insurance policies to unsuspecting consumers. They are not recognized by the Central Bank of Ireland and their practices are illegal. They tend to target inexperienced drivers or foreign nationals who are unfamiliar with how motor insurance works in Ireland.

Very often they will advertise on social media sites such as Facebook and offer huge discounts off insurance policies that are just too good to be true.

In most scenarios, ghost brokers will create counterfeit policy documents and sell them directly onto customers. In other cases, they will purchase a real policy from a legitimate insurance company using a stolen credit card. The fraud if often identified very quickly by the insurance company if the ghost broker acquired the policy with a stolen credit card. At that stage, it is too late for the customer who will then be required to find a legitimate policy for their insurance needs.

If you purchase a policy from a fake broker, you won’t be covered for insurance. The consequences of driving without legitimate insurance are very serious.

Ghost brokers are not authorised to sell insurance to the public and are not supervised by the Central Bank of Ireland.

If you’re intending on purchasing insurance, check the online register on the Central Bank of Ireland’s website to ensure that the broker in question is authorised to provide the service it is offering.

You can check the online register here.