Ghost broking

In England, a driver stopped without valid insurance faces six penalty points and a £300 fixed penalty, even if he paid in good faith for the policy he was sold. Ghost broking manufactures exactly those drivers. A fake intermediary, with no FCA authorization, offers half-price motor insurance on Instagram, Snapchat or messaging groups, with a favorite audience: young drivers priced out by normal rates. Three set-ups are found. The document is fake from start to finish. Or the policy exists but was taken out with invented information, an address in a cheap postcode, an older main driver, someone else's license, then canceled a few days later once the certificate has been downloaded. Or the fraudster buys the policy with a stolen card, and the insurer cancels at the first failed payment. In every case the buyer thinks he is covered and is not. If he causes an accident, the victims are compensated by the Motor Insurers' Bureau in the UK or by the FGAO in France, and the fund then recovers from him. France rarely uses the term but knows the fraud, in the form of fake brokers and fake insurance certificates. The Fichier des véhicules assurés, the register of insured vehicles run by AGIRA and available to the police since 2019, has made a fake paper certificate much easier to expose at a roadside check. On the insurer's side, the defense happens at underwriting: checks on identity and payment method, consistency between address and use, alerts on quick cancellations after issue. An abnormal cancellation rate in the first fifteen days on a given channel is often the first clue.