RVers targeted in insurance scams

Fraudsters are using social media to target RVers in insurance scams

Do not share your insurance company details on social media. That’s the recommendation of a friend and follower of ours who works within the insurance industry and has seen an increasing number of false claims after people share which brand of insurance they carry on social media.

It can start as an innocent request in a social media group where someone is evaluating various insurance companies and simply asks who the Group members have as their insurance provider.

This phone image has appeared multiple times

But, according to our source, from there it can go rapidly down hill. It’s not difficult for nefarious characters to then use your name from social media as well as the insurance provider you already admitted to having and file a fraudulent claim.

Often what happens with the false claim is that the insured says that the claimant hit them with their vehicle causing some minor injury and often caused them to drop their phone where it was damaged. It’s not difficult to get a photo of a damaged phone to substantiate the claim and, if the claimed amount of damage is small enough, insurance companies want to serve their customer base quickly so they pay-off the claim.

From here the insured will get a notification that a claim has been filed against their policy. The scammer has been successful many times posing as the insured aka YOU and will provide a recorded statement confirming the reported facts of loss which then prompts a quick settlement. A lot of customers ignore the emails or letters or simply get them when it's too late.

It’s very difficult to prove that you didn’t do something and the insurance company has already paid the claim as quickly as possible - it can cost less to simply pay out $1,000 than investigate and fight the claim.

Our source says that most of these claims are caught and denied but the sheer volume of claims means that not all of them are caught and many people just ignore emails or letters from their insurance providers.

“Once someone has your name and the area you live in it’s not difficult to now find your address. You’ve already shared the name of your insurance provider so they’re off to the races.” said our follower. “Companies want to settle some of these quickly and end up paying small amounts.”

The bottom line - do not share personal information on social media including whom you are insured with or any other details that can help someone with bad intentions.