Ghost Broking and Spoof Insurer Sites

Most fraud conversations in motor claims are about the claim. This one is about the policy. And it lands on a handler's desk in a very specific, very awkward way.

In February 2026, the City of London Police announced five arrests in an operation targeting spoof insurance apps. Among those arrested was a former Metropolitan Police officer, who had been dismissed for driving without insurance. The force said the fake apps may have been used by tens of thousands of drivers across the UK.

Read that number again. Tens of thousands.

These were not clumsy forgeries. They were built to be produced at the roadside: applications that look like a genuine insurance app, showing what appears to be valid cover to an officer who has thirty seconds and a queue of other things to do. Alongside them sat thousands of fraudulent insurance certificates.

Some of the people using them knew exactly what they had bought. Plenty did not.

The bit that reaches your desk

Here is why this is an operational problem rather than just a news story.

A ghost-brokered policy does not announce itself. The customer believes they are insured. They have a certificate. They may have an app. They have paid, usually a suspiciously good price, and they have a policy number that looks entirely normal on an intake form.

Then they have an accident, and the file starts moving.

For a non-fault claim, the immediate question is what happens when the policy behind your customer, or behind the third party, turns out not to exist. Cover that is not real cannot respond. An insurer that never underwrote the risk has nothing to indemnify. What looked at first notice like a straightforward file with a clear liability picture becomes something else entirely, and usually it becomes that at the worst possible moment, several weeks in, after work has been done and costs have been incurred.

For the customer, it is worse. They are the ones facing seizure of the vehicle, points, a fine, and a prosecution for driving without insurance. They are a victim of fraud and, in the eyes of the roadside, an offender. Explaining that they bought in good faith from a convincing website is not a defence that gets the car back.

Why the usual advice does not work here

The instinct is to tell people to look for the warning signs on the website. Check it looks professional. Check for the padlock. Check the domain.

That advice is worse than useless here, and it is worth being blunt about why.

The spoof apps in the February case were described as appearing genuine at first glance. That is the entire point of them. And clone firms, a related fraud, go further still: they copy a real, authorised firm's name, address and even its Firm Reference Number. The website looks right because it has been built to look right. The details check out because they have been lifted from a legitimate business.

You cannot tell by looking. Neither can your customer. Any advice that relies on judging the quality of what is in front of you is training people to trust the exact thing the fraudster has spent their effort perfecting.

The check has to come from outside the website.

The checks that actually work

These are the official routes. They are free, they take a few minutes, and they are worth building into intake if you are seeing this on your book.

1. Check the firm on the FCA register, and get the phone number from there. The Financial Conduct Authority's Firm Checker is the definitive test of whether an insurer or broker is authorised. The fuller Financial Services Register gives you more detail again. Use either before buying, or when a policy on a file looks questionable.

The critical part, and the part almost everyone gets wrong: do not use the contact details the website gives you. With a clone firm, those details are the fraud. Take the phone number from the FCA's own register entry and ring that. If the firm on the other end has never heard of the policy, you have your answer.

If a firm is not FCA authorised, there is no Financial Ombudsman route and no FSCS protection. That is the whole ballgame.

2. If it came through a broker, verify the broker. The British Insurance Brokers' Association runs a Member Check tool for exactly this. Note that this is a different thing from BIBA's Find Insurance service, which is a referral route to member brokers rather than a way of verifying one. For checking whether a broker is who they say they are, Member Check is the tool.

One caveat BIBA makes itself: brokers are not required to be BIBA members, so a broker not appearing there is not proof of anything on its own. If they are absent, fall back to the FCA register, which is the one that actually matters.

3. Confirm the policy actually exists on the Motor Insurance Database. The Motor Insurers' Bureau lets a keeper check free of charge whether their own vehicle appears as insured, through the askMID own vehicle check. This is the check that cuts through everything, because it does not care what the certificate says. It only cares whether a real insurer has recorded real cover against that registration.

One warning. Look-alike sites imitating this service do exist, which is a fairly pointed irony given the subject. Use the official address above. Note also that the database is not updated instantly, so a policy taken out in the last few days may not show yet.

4. Ring the insurer named on the certificate. Ghost brokers frequently set up policies in a real insurer's name, sometimes using falsified details that would void the cover anyway. A call to the insurer, on a number you sourced independently, confirming that the policy number exists and the details match, is the single strongest check available.

The red flags worth knowing

The Insurance Fraud Bureau's guidance on ghost broking is practical, and it works because it is about behaviour rather than polish. Nothing in it asks you to judge how convincing something looks. These are things that are either present or absent.

Be suspicious of a price that is far below anything else available, because that is the hook and it is usually the only genuinely distinctive thing about the offer. Be suspicious of a seller who only communicates through social media or a messaging app. Be suspicious of vagueness about how the price was achieved. And be suspicious of a seller with no legitimate website, no UK landline and no address.

Note the difference between that last one and judging a website by how good it looks. A missing landline is a fact. A professional-looking site is a design decision, and the fraudster gets to make it.

The consequences for the buyer are worth spelling out, because people assume it is a money problem and it is not. The cover is void, so you are uninsured. The vehicle can be seized. The IFB says one in every three cars seized for no insurance is crushed. On top of that sits a £300 fixed penalty notice, six points, the cost of recovering the vehicle if it still exists, the cost of buying real cover, and the possibility of court action, an unlimited fine and a ban. And you may be personally liable for third-party claims costs, which is the one that turns a bad week into a life-changing one.

Ghost broking is also sold heavily through social media, and often within communities, which is part of why it spreads. The person selling it is frequently someone the buyer knows, or someone who looks like they belong.

What is changing behind the scenes

There is movement on enforcement, though it is early and the detail is thin.

IFED, the Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department within the City of London Police, has said it is working with Nominet, the registry that runs the .uk domain, to tackle criminals spoofing recognised insurance companies online. Nominet's existing policy allows it to suspend .uk domains when it is alerted to criminal use by police or other law enforcement, so the shape of this is presumably a route for IFED to trigger takedowns faster.

We should be honest that no detail of the partnership has been published, and neither organisation has issued an announcement, so what it means in practice is not yet clear. It is not a consumer reporting channel. If you find a spoof site, or you think you have been sold a fake policy, the routes are the IFB's Cheatline on 0800 422 0421, and Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040.

Enforcement is moving, though. That is genuinely good news. It just is not a substitute for checking.

Frequently asked questions

What is ghost broking?

Ghost broking is the sale of fake or invalid motor insurance. A fraudster poses as a broker or insurer and sells a policy that either does not exist, has been taken out using falsified details and is therefore void, or has been cancelled shortly after purchase. The buyer is left uninsured, usually without knowing it.

How can I check if an insurer or broker is genuine?

Use the FCA's Firm Checker or the Financial Services Register to confirm the firm is authorised. Take the firm's phone number from the FCA register entry rather than from the website you are checking, because clone firms copy a real firm's name, address and reference number. If a broker is involved, BIBA's Member Check confirms membership.

How do I know if my car is actually insured?

Check the Motor Insurance Database through the official MIB service, which lets a keeper confirm free of charge whether their own vehicle is recorded as insured. Because it draws on what insurers have actually recorded, it is not affected by how convincing a certificate or app looks. Be careful to use the official service, as look-alike sites exist.

What happens if I am caught driving on a ghost-brokered policy?

The cover is not valid, so you are driving without insurance regardless of whether you knew. According to the Insurance Fraud Bureau that can mean the vehicle being seized and potentially crushed, a £300 fixed penalty notice, six penalty points, and possible court action carrying an unlimited fine and a driving ban. You may also be personally liable for third-party claims costs. Buying in good faith does not make the policy real, which is why checking before you buy matters so much.

The takeaway

Fraud in motor claims usually arrives dressed as a claim. This one arrives dressed as a customer, holding a certificate they believe in, and it turns a clean file into a mess weeks later.

You cannot spot it by looking at the website. Nobody can. But it takes about five minutes to check a firm on the FCA register and confirm a vehicle on the Motor Insurance Database, and those five minutes are the difference between a policy that responds and a policy that never existed.

KinClaims is the motor claims and credit hire system built by operators, for operators. See how it handles your desk at www.kinclaims.co.uk.