How to protect your policy from fraudsters

Earlier this month, a senior bank employee in Mumbai was defrauded of about Rs 1 lakh with the promise of refunding the insurance policy promise. The investigation led to the busting of a fake call centre.

Fraudsters impersonating as IRDAI officials regularly call policyholders in NCR in their bid to extract key details.

In these pandemic times, cheats have taken the cyber route to defraud gullible policyholders. Greater exposure to cyber risks is a reality in this digital era. Enough caution is warranted at a time when online insurance purchase/renewal is preferred.

Cyber security firm Check Point has said that “going into 2022 we will see an increase in data breaches that will be on a larger scale”. A US insurance giant had to cough up $40 million in ransom to hackers. This was a record, and we can expect ransom demanded by attackers to increase in 2022, Check Point said in its report. India is one of the top 10 countries that face most of the cyber/phishing attacks.

Enough caution is warranted at a time many customers opting to buy or renew their insurance policies online.

Here is a list of do’s and don’ts to ensure your insurance is safe from cyber-attacks.

Do’s

Ensure credibility of agents, intermediaries such as brokers or insurance company staff

Create a strong password to set up an e-account with the insurance company’s website. Ditto with web aggregators

Personal information should be given only on a need-to-know basis

Use different passwords for different accounts

Intimate the insurer about changes in contact details, address

Account information should be given only to the insurance company’s staff/claim team only after verification of their authenticity

Don’ts

Do Not provide sensitive information to insurance intermediaries

Do not engage with sellers/intermediaries with suspicious and spurious identity

Do not visit insurance-related websites that are not starting with https

Do not share passwords with anyone

Do not respond to requests for personal information via email

Do not give information on the pop-up screen

Do not click any links listed in the e-mail.

Do not click on suspicious attachments, for example, those containing .exe file extensions