Punishment for mediation in insurance. How to protect yourself from purchasing a fake electronic insurance policy. “The intermediary in the transaction must be a licensed brokerage organization”

Previously, the insurance lobby convinced the Central Bank that the ban on intermediaries would curb the risks of fraud. But now the regulator insists that aggregator sites will significantly increase the availability of compulsory policies and reduce insurers’ costs.

As the Bank of Russia reported, participants in the expert council on insurance “noted the relevance of lifting restrictions on the activities of insurance agents and insurance brokers” in electronic sales of insurance products. Let us remind you that from January 1, 2017, the law on compulsory motor liability insurance obligated insurers to sell auto insurance policies on their websites. At the same time, the law prohibits the participation of any intermediaries - brokers, agents - in the sales process. The ban was based on insurers' arguments about the risks of fraud.

“The ban on electronic sales through insurance intermediaries seriously reduces the opportunities for the development of online insurance,” the Central Bank said in a statement following the event. “Providing them with the opportunity to work on the Internet, primarily as aggregator sites, will significantly increase the level of availability of insurance services for consumers, will increase competition and reduce insurers’ costs.” Kommersant’s interlocutor, familiar with the Central Bank’s position on this issue, argues: “When buying airline tickets or staying in hotels, the consumer uses aggregator sites, why doesn’t he have such an opportunity in OSAGO? Consumers should get the most technologically advanced option possible.”

However, representatives of the insurance community are not yet ready to quickly admit intermediaries to MTPL. “To allow agents and brokers to participate in electronic sales of voluntary insurance products, standards for such intermediaries should be developed,” says Evgeniy Ufimtsev, deputy head of the Russian Union of Auto Insurers (RUA). “In terms of compulsory motor liability insurance, the ban on the admission of intermediaries should be maintained until the end of next year. The norm about mandatory sales e-OSAGO is only a few months old, there are a number of technological difficulties that need to be resolved, and in addition, the risks of fraud are still high.”

According to RSA, from January 1 to March 21, 2017, 627 thousand e-OSAGO contracts were concluded. In 2016, when such sales were voluntary for insurers, the number of policies sold in this way amounted to 331 thousand. On average, car owners enter into 7.7 thousand contracts with insurers per day in electronic form, on some days this figure reaches 15 thousand. Largest quantity contracts are concluded electronically in regions that insurers call toxic due to the large volume of losses - Krasnodar Territory, Volgograd and Rostov Regions, Stavropol Territory.

Insurers are confident that intermediaries are already circumventing the ban on participation in electronic sales. It is alleged that in March 2017, about 30% of Rosgosstrakh electronic policies were purchased through intermediaries. “Policies are either purchased from the same IP or paid from the same bank card“,” TASS quoted the speech of the vice-president of Rosgosstrakh, Renat Konurbaev, at an event on e-commerce at OSAGO. “The same phone numbers are used or fictitious email addresses are created, which are used to enter your personal account. The combination of all these parameters allows us to make the assumption that this is not a direct client and the insurance company, but someone standing between us.” According to him, the service of issuing an electronic policy by an intermediary costs from 500 to 1 thousand rubles. The danger with intermediaries is that they can cancel the payment transaction - the policy will become invalid without the policyholder knowing about it.

Let us note that the Central Bank and the market are confident that changes regarding the admission of intermediaries to electronic insurance sales will not happen quickly and will be implemented no earlier than 2018.

Tatiana GRISHINA

See other materials on this topic:

The MTPL online sales system launched in January may change - participants of the Central Bank's expert council on insurance at a meeting on Friday discussed the admission of intermediaries to sales of electronic policies. Currently, agents and brokers are prohibited from doing this. Previously, the insurance lobby convinced the Central Bank that the ban on intermediaries would curb the risks of fraud. But now the regulator insists that aggregator sites will significantly increase the availability of compulsory policies and reduce insurers’ costs.

“The ban on electronic sales through insurance intermediaries seriously reduces the opportunities for the development of online insurance,” the Central Bank said in a statement following the event. “Providing them with the opportunity to work on the Internet, primarily as aggregator sites, will significantly increase the level of availability of insurance services for consumers, will increase competition and reduce insurers' costs." Kommersant’s interlocutor, familiar with the Central Bank’s position on this issue, argues: “When buying airline tickets or staying in hotels, consumers use aggregator sites, why doesn’t he have such an opportunity in OSAGO? Consumers should get the most technologically advanced option.”

However, representatives of the insurance community are not yet ready to quickly admit intermediaries to MTPL. “To allow agents and brokers to participate in electronic sales of voluntary insurance products, standards should be developed for such intermediaries,” says Evgeniy Ufimtsev, deputy head of the Russian Union of Auto Insurers (RUA). “In terms of compulsory motor liability insurance, the ban on the admission of intermediaries should be maintained until the end of next year. The norm on compulsory sales e-OSAGO is only a few months old, there are a number of technological difficulties that need to be resolved, and in addition, the risks of fraud are still high."

According to RSA, from January 1 to March 21, 2017, 627 thousand e-OSAGO contracts were concluded. In 2016, when such sales were voluntary for insurers, the number of policies sold in this way amounted to 331 thousand. On average, car owners enter into 7.7 thousand contracts with insurers electronically per day, on some days this figure reaches 15 thousand. The largest number contracts are concluded electronically in regions that insurers call toxic due to the large volume of losses - Krasnodar Territory, Volgograd and Rostov Regions, Stavropol Territory.

Insurers are confident that intermediaries are already circumventing the ban on participation in electronic sales. It is alleged that in March 2017, about 30% of Rosgosstrakh electronic policies were purchased through intermediaries. “Policies are either purchased from the same IP or paid from the same bank card,” TASS quoted the speech of Rosgosstrakh vice-president Renat Konubraev at an e-commerce event at OSAGO. “The same phone numbers are used or fictitious numbers are created email addresses that are used to enter your personal account. The combination of all these parameters allows us to make the assumption that this is not a direct client and an insurance company, but someone standing between us." According to him, the service of issuing an electronic policy by an intermediary costs from 500 to 1 thousand rubles. The danger with intermediaries is that they can cancel the payment transaction - the policy will become invalid without the policyholder knowing about it.

Recently, information appeared that a new type of fraud in the field of compulsory insurance civil liability when taking out a compulsory motor liability insurance policy. The meaning of insurance fraud is to provide the insurance company with false information about the vehicle, the owner, the persons allowed to drive the vehicle and the region where the vehicle is used.

This allows attackers to underestimate the insurance rate when issuing an electronic policy. How can ordinary car enthusiasts avoid becoming victims of scammers?

According to insurance companies, the share of incorrectly issued electronic insurance policies for MTPL for 2017 averages about 10 percent of all issued electronic insurance policies. This means that about 10% of car owners risk not receiving compensation for damage through no fault of their own.

The fact is that current legislation provides for the following. namely, if, during registration, the insurance company receives or receives inaccurate information about the policyholder, as well as about the subject of insurance, then the legally issued insurance policy will be considered invalid.

That is, if you purchase such a policy with false data, then you cannot and will not be able to count on its validity in any way. and therefore, accordingly, to cover the damage itself. Also, such a policy will not cover losses in road accidents that were caused by your fault. In particular, you will not be able to use such a policy in the direct settlement of losses caused to your car by third parties as a result of the same accident.

Insurance fraud scheme in the market of electronic MTPL policies

Let us remind you (electronic MTPL policies) through special sections of the official websites of insurance companies. This MTPL registration scheme was designed to simplify the procedure for car insurance throughout the country, and was also launched in order to eliminate the abuse of insurance companies in some regions of Russia, which consisted of imposing various third-party insurance services.

As a result, its popularity has grown significantly. Currently, this service has appealed to many car enthusiasts. But unfortunately, not everyone in our country knows how to purchase an e-Osago policy via the Internet. Therefore, they continue to turn to various intermediaries working in the car insurance market.

The danger of such a purchase of a policy due to ignorance and skill lies in the fact that not all intermediaries are bona fide agents or brokers representing insurance companies. Naturally, there are also criminals who used to be engaged in sales, but today have decided to retrain themselves to sell official electronic policies issued on the basis of obviously unreliable data.

What then is the benefit of insurance fraudsters? The fraud scheme is quite simple. To apply for e-OSAGO, fraudsters submit false data to insurance companies via the Internet in order to minimize the cost of the OSAGO policy.

Let us remind you that when calculating the final cost of an MTPL policy, insurance companies take into account the following, and the holding period vehicle, and also regional coefficient. Ultimately, all this data can significantly influence the final cost of the MTPL policy itself.

For example, in Moscow and St. Petersburg the regional coefficient today is -"2". In other regions, the coefficients are correspondingly significantly lower. For example, in the Chechen Republic, the regional insurance coefficient when taking out a compulsory motor liability insurance policy is “0.6”.

You understand that with such a difference, the cost of an MTPL policy for the same car for the same driver between regions can differ significantly.

The result is the following. Fraudsters, when issuing a policy to the car owner, despite the fact that they indicate in electronic form on the insurance company’s website all reliable information about the car (for example, the state sign), knowingly provide the insurer with false information about the policyholder and the region of use of this vehicle, and thus thus lowering the insurance rate almost to a minimum.

And as a result, these unscrupulous intermediaries, when applying for a policy, actually pay for it after the fact, only a few thousand rubles, and naturally they charge several times more from the car owner. There are cases where the difference between what the scammers paid and what they received from the driver was 1000% of the profit.

Fraudsters also use various computer programs that allow them to modify the data specified in the printed electronic OSAGO policy. This is done so that the car owner sees his reliable data in the printed form of the e-MTPL policy and does not doubt anything.

As a result of such rapid activity of fraudulent intermediaries, in the insurance market at the moment, according to RSA, in Russia, drivers currently have about 250 - 500 thousand electronic MTPL policies issued on the basis of obviously unreliable data.

What threatens car owners who have taken out such MTPL policies from unscrupulous intermediaries?

In accordance with the law, if a compulsory motor liability insurance policy was issued based on false data, then it cannot be considered valid and cannot cover the liability of the driver who took out such insurance. The maximum that such an MTPL policy is good for is for protection, which, when checking the MTPL policy through the unified RSA database, will find it in this system.

Naturally, traffic police officers will not have any claims against the driver under the policy. But we must remember that the MTPL policy was created to insure the liability of drivers through whose fault an accident may occur. This means that if you buy such a fake OSAGO policy and God forbid, an accident occurs due to your fault, then you will not be able to count on the insurance company to cover all losses caused by you to other cars or participants traffic, that's the law.

How not to buy an electronic MTPL policy issued based on unreliable data?

Since the advent of the possibility of issuing an MTPL policy via the Internet, most agents, brokers and other insurance intermediaries have also switched to electronic registration of MTPL insurance policies. It’s even more convenient for them, since they don’t have to worry about having the MTPL forms themselves, which, as usual, are in short supply.

That is why many car enthusiasts currently have . So today, car enthusiasts do not have any questions about such black and white copies of e-OSAGO. Moreover, now traffic police officers do not have the right to demand from drivers a compulsory motor liability insurance policy issued strictly only on Gosznak forms.

But there is one thing -But... Unfortunately, such black and white copies of e-OSAGO forms are easily forged by scammers. Therefore, you must obviously understand from whom you are purchasing this MTPL policy, and also realize that the MTPL policy could not have become twice as cheap in a year. After all, it is precisely the low cost of insurance that scammers lure gullible motorists into their networks. Therefore, it is better not to trust insurance intermediaries who promise to issue you compulsory motor liability insurance at half the price. Remember that there is definitely some kind of catch hidden in this.

Including, after purchasing a compulsory motor liability insurance policy, you must check whether the data was submitted by the intermediary to the insurance company to be accurate. To do this, you will either have to visit the official representative office of the company in your region of residence (branch of the insurance company) or check your MTPL policy via the Internet.

Among other things, we advise you to check the cost of the MTPL policy for which you paid a certain amount. This can be done on the official website of the insurance company by going to a special section for issuing electronic policies. It is also advisable to check the cost of your MTPL policy on the websites of other insurance companies that issue electronic e-MTPL policies via the Internet.

If in several insurance companies the online calculation of the cost of e-OSAGO significantly exceeds the amount you previously paid to intermediaries, then there is a possibility that the one who issued you insurance when sending data to the insurance organization indicated deliberately false information about both you and your car, and about your region of residence.

In this case, immediately demand a refund for the policy. And then contact a reputable insurer.

Approximately every tenth electronic MTPL policy sold in 2017 contains information that does not correspond to reality. And insurance companies receive it from intermediaries who act behind the owners’ backs and strive to reduce the cost of insurance to a minimum value.

The fraudulent scheme with electronic compulsory motor liability insurance, which has become widespread in the insurance market, is relatively new, and therefore achieves a positive result. It consists of intermediary companies providing false information to insurers, which allows them to lower the price of the policy. It is assumed that the number of such insurances is 5–10% of the total number of electronic compulsory motor liability insurance – or from 250 to 500 thousand pieces.

Fraud scheme with electronic policies

Principle of deception:

First, scammers issue e-MTPL for the most affordable vehicle insurance costs, choosing regions with the minimum coefficient.
Thanks to this scheme, policy prices are minimal – 1–2 thousand rubles.
A paper policy cannot be changed, but an electronic one can be easily changed. Having received the policy in hand, the scammers then use graphic editors, such as Adobe Photoshop, and change the indicated numbers by a larger amount, making money on the resulting difference. The policies indicate the real registration and identification numbers of the cars of the policyholders to whom insurance is sold.

The main feature of electronic policies that distinguishes them from the paper version is that representatives of the insurance company cannot quickly verify the information provided. Changing the data - driving experience, and region of registration to another, with a lower coefficient and amount of insurance payments - allows fraudsters to get a low insurance price and profitably resell a fake electronic policy.

Features of fake insurance

Fraudsters are helped to deceive insurers by a flaw in the RSA database, which is used to determine the authenticity of the information provided by drivers. When registering for electronic MTPL, there is no automatic verification of the region of registration and make of the car with the traffic police database.

Thus, when taking out a policy for transport registered in Crimea or Chechnya, where insurance calculation coefficients are minimal (0.6), the difference with Moscow or St. Petersburg registration will be more than three times higher - the figures for these regions are 2.0. It turns out that when registering a car with minimal power (from 50 hp) on the territory of Crimea, taking into account the minimum use of the car (3 months) and the maximum length of service (more than 3 years), a driver over 22 years of age pays only about 618–741 ruble For the capital region, the highest cost (engine performance 150 hp, vehicle use life more than 10 months, length of service up to 3 years and age less than 22 years) of insurance can reach 19.8–23.7 thousand rubles.

Moreover, even such a fake e-policy can be used and not suspect that it is being faked. Traffic inspectors rarely perform a detailed check of the policy, limiting themselves to a formal inspection and paying attention only to its availability. Even if you try to check your compulsory motor liability insurance using the RSA database with insurance data, the traffic police officer will still most likely not notice the fakes. The check will show a complete match of information about the state and identification numbers, and almost never pay attention to the region and brand.

Problems with an invalid policy

A problem with an insurance policy arises when a driver contacts an insurer after an accident. The insurance company does not have any difficulties in determining that the electronic compulsory motor liability insurance is fake, after which it refuses payments due to discrepancies in the information in the RSA database. After all, even if the license plate number and VIN of the car are the same, other information differs. In this case, the driver will have to conclude a new insurance contract and pay for the damage from the current accident himself.

The counterfeit discovered by the traffic inspector also leads to serious consequences. A criminal case may be opened against the driver under Article 12.37 of the Code of Administrative Offences, which prescribes punishment for failure to comply with the requirements for compulsory motor liability insurance. Minimum size The fine in this case is 800 rubles.

In addition to the penalty for a fake policy and the need to independently repair a personal vehicle, the car owner is faced with a problem that will entail even more expenses. If the driver is to blame for the accident, he will also have to pay for the damage from own funds. To do this, the victim files a lawsuit against the culprit of the incident in court and recovers from him the costs of repairing his car.

Reasons for the spread of fraud

Initially, it was assumed that the advantage of electronic compulsory motor liability insurance would be the ability to avoid fraud and increase the convenience of obtaining insurance for clients. In fact, it turned out that even such a simplified procedure is too complicated for many car owners who do not want to deal with scanning and filling out documents. Therefore, they turn to specialized sites for help, some of which are fraudulent.

As a rule, intermediaries from Internet resources who offer to issue electronic compulsory motor liability insurance for the driver engage in deception. Moreover, there is no guaranteed way to distinguish a fraudster from a real assistant.

Problems with mismatched information in electronic policies have become even more serious due to the possibility of simultaneous registration of several insurance policies for one motorist. Each electronic MTPL is issued at the minimum tariffs in the country, with different state and VIN numbers.

Often, motorists are forced to use the services of intermediaries by insurers themselves, who do not want to sell policies in regions with high loss rates for insurance payments. Drivers from such regions of the Russian Federation, who are trying to independently apply for e-MTPL, have problems loading information and updating pages on the insurer’s website. And this is done intentionally by the insurer. Having failed, the car owner decides to turn to third-party organizations for help. Moreover, scammers consider their target audience to be residents of regions that are problematic in terms of car insurance, offering them their services. But they buy policies in those areas where it is profitable to sell them to insurance companies. To profitably resell insurance, fraudsters only need to correct the information on the computer, replacing information about the car make and region.

Ways to protect yourself from being scammed with a fake electronic policy

In order not to fall for scammers when purchasing e-MTPL, a motorist must check his purchase with the data in the RSA database. As a rule, information appears on the association’s website within half an hour after applying for online insurance. The user can check whether the information from the policy matches the database independently.

Having discovered inaccurate information in the insurance contract (typos due to the inattention of the policyholder himself), the motorist must contact the insurer and write an application to correct the data. After this, the company will correct the erroneous information or recalculate.

If a comparison of data with the RSA database shows a motorist that he has become a victim of fraud, he should immediately contact law enforcement agencies. The application indicates all the circumstances of the purchase of insurance, including the details of the scammers. This procedure is considered standard, and the police will be engaged in further searches for the creators of the fraudulent scheme.

Recently, the President of the Russian Union of Auto Insurers (RSA), Igor Yurgens, said that the RSA was faced with the first facts of fraud during the implementation of electronic OSAGO policies.

“The champions in purchasing electronic policies are the Krasnodar Territory, Rostov and Volgograd regions, where crime is the highest, where scammers are buying up these policies, since people over 40 and 50 years old have difficulty filling out information,” said I. Yurgens.

Fraudsters, under various pretexts, ask people who have difficulty filling out information to sign the right to claim the assignment. After this, a whole series of fraudulent operations begins, said I. Yurgens.

Renat Konurbaev, head of the direct sales development department of Rosgosstrakh PJSC, reported that more than 50% of purchases of electronic MTPL policies, sales of which began in Russia on July 1, 2015, were made by intermediaries.

“Someone profited from this, from helping their closest relative or neighbor. In general, the law says that intermediation in electronic compulsory motor liability insurance is expressly prohibited,” recalled R. Konurbaev.

The issue of intermediation in electronic compulsory motor liability insurance may become especially acute when the sale of e-policies becomes mandatory for all insurers operating in this market.

Market participants interviewed by Korins.ru have not particularly encountered fraud, but are ready to predetermine possible schemes of fraudsters and propose measures to combat them.

“So far, Zetta Insurance LLC has not encountered fraud in the sales segment of electronic policies. But we can predetermine possible fraud schemes with compulsory motor liability insurance,” said Konstantin Agafonov, deputy director of the investigation department for loss settlement of Zetta Insurance LLC. For example, the expert notes, the sale of electronic compulsory motor liability insurance at a premium, when an intermediary resells a policy issued on the company’s website. The danger for the insurance company in this case may lie in reputational losses.

As K. Agafonov explained, fraud associated with double sales is also possible. When an attacker sells a fake policy in pdf format with a number that has already been sold previously. “Such a policy will be available on the RSA website. After all, it is legitimate, just registered to another client. When checking on the RSA website, it is not visible to whom the MTPL policy is issued. Only valid/not valid,” said K. Agafonov, adding that this is an obvious fraud, which must be dealt with jointly with law enforcement agencies.

Deputy general director Liberty Insurance Alexander Potitov also reported that the company had not identified any intermediaries in the sales of e-policies.

However, as A. Potitov explained, this kind Fraud can happen in two ways:

– issuing an e-policy after an accident, in the information about which the time of the accident will be indicated later than the actual one. This kind of fraud is possible with the participation of traffic police officers or when registering an accident according to the Europrotocol.

– return of someone else’s money to your account by terminating the contract. The fact is that the intermediary, when issuing an e-policy on the insurer’s website in his personal account, indicates itself as an insured (the law does not limit the ability to enter into MTPL agreements in relation to vehicles not owned by the insured). In this case, the intermediary, being the policyholder, also receives the right to terminate the contract.

As A. Potitov explained, thus, having received an insurance premium from the car owner in cash and transferring it to the insurance company on his own behalf, after some time the intermediary can contact the insurer with a legal requirement to terminate the MTPL policy and return part of the premium. Insurance company is obliged to make a calculation, make the deductions required by law and return the remaining premium to the policyholder. The policy will cease to be valid. The owner of the car, not knowing anything about it, will use the vehicle with an inactive policy, and the intermediary will enrich himself by the amount of the return of the premium.

According to A. Potitov, the simplest and in an efficient way The fight against intermediaries in e-OSAGO is to legislate the issuance of an e-policy only in the case where the policyholder is the owner of the vehicle.

In addition, Zetta Insurance noted that unscrupulous intermediaries in the sale of auto insurance policies are the biggest problem for the insurance company.

“The company has encountered fraud when selling auto insurance policies. The biggest problem for an insurance company, fraught with both property and reputational damage, is unscrupulous intermediaries who enter into agency agreements, initially having the intention of deception rather than honest work. The actions of such persons often show signs of insurance fraud,” said Konstantin Agafonov.

The Zetta Insurance company, among other things, carries out targeted work to identify fraudsters (insiders), noted K. Agafonov. A leak prevention system (DLP) has been implemented and used, employee actions in the company’s information systems are monitored and “anomalous” activity is identified, only necessary rights V information systems companies.