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It is a sad fact that scams are now part of our daily lives, they are increasingly more sophisticated, and there has been a worrying increase in scammers since the Coronavirus or Covid-19 epidemic. Fraudsters are exploiting people who have concerns about their financial situation, and the state of the economy and victims have been tricked out of millions of pounds in fake insurance.
We have also seen an increase in our clients contacting us concerned that companies are phoning them claiming to be the life insurance company who own their policy. These companies are offering to do a review and rewrite your insurance policy. But what this means is that we cannot help to service that policy if you need to make a claim. And importantly, you are not receiving impartial advice that covers the entire market for your needs.
These scams can also be from clone firms pretending to be FCA-authorised and try and convince you they are genuine. They can even have live websites that use names similar to those of legitimate firms. These scammers may make you think you are saving money, but you can end up out of pocket with no cover at all.
How to avoid a scam
If you arranged your insurance through Greenshoots Financial, then no genuine insurance company will contact you directly offering to save you money on your insurance.
Where possible, do not engage. These people are trained to respond to every objection. It is best to hang up.
If you don't hang up immediately, do not give away any of your personal or financial information such as policy details, bank account details or confirm dates of birth etc.
Trust your instincts. If something seems to be too good to be true, it typically is!
Do not click on links on emails or links on text. Email addresses can look like a genuine company, but if you see a generic "outlook" email or a mobile number as the point of contact, you can take a good bet it is a scammer.
Contact the team at Greenshoots as soon as possible, and we can verify the source and claims. If there is a genuine quote, we will assess your needs against the whole market to get the right product at the right price for you to ensure you do not find yourself unprotected.
We are registered and authorised with the FCA, and we advise you always to access the FCA's Register directly from register.fca.org.uk rather than from any links sent to you by any company.
Find out more about potential coronavirus (Covid-19) scams, how they could affect you, and how to protect yourself on the FCA website here.: Avoid Coronavirus Scams