Insurance is good and is designed to protect the insured from unforeseen eventualities, but the insured could inadvertently expose himself to financial risks from insurance agents and companies without realizing it early until he suffers insurance frauds.
Many people fall prey to insurance frauds on a daily basis even in spite of the measures put up by the government and relevant insurers to prevent insurance frauds.
There is no debating the fact that most insurance fraudsters target elderly citizens who are above 60 years of age because of their debility and desperation for what might transpire after their demise. But whatever the case, you can employ the following tips to avoid becoming a victim of insurance fraudsters:
7 Top Ways to Protect Yourself from Insurance Frauds
Don’t be rushed into buying any policy especially if you’re a senior citizen or much elderly
Most insurance agents brainwash senior citizens into buying new life policies and abandoning existing ones, and that is why you must exercise caution that no one rushes you into buying any life insurance policies.
Senior citizens are prime targets and we must watch out to ensure that our parents and dependents don’t just change their insurance companies overnight for no tenable reasons.
Don’t be quick to dump an existing for a new one because a stranger says so
This relates to the above and it drives home the point that you must never agree to being rushed into dumping any existing life policies for new ones, most especially if the call for the new policy comes from a relatively unknown insurance agent. Be careful of new agents that force new policies on you and don’t be taken in by their arguments and analysis.
Don’t pay your insurance premiums through agents
Be careful not to pay your insurance premiums through new and known insurance agents. This is necessary because it might be like asking a cat to safe-keep your meat.
You don’t want to trust insurance agents with your monthly or annual premiums only to find out much later that they have not been remitting your premiums. Visit insurance companies personally to pay your premiums or you might open up yourself to frauds from agents.
Read the fine prints
You must ensure that you read and understand the fine prints or Terms of Service before signing the dotted lines.
Insurance companies hide behind terms and conditions in the fine prints to spring surprises on people when they sue for claims, and that is why you must read and understand or even ask relevant questions before signing any new insurance policy forms.
Although insurers are not to be trusted every time, they often hide behind terms and conditions to do things that people might interpret as their unwillingness to pay up compensations.
Do not lie or give false information on health etc because that is the first fraud
That is explicit enough. Insurance agents and firms expect you to be totally honest with them so that they can adequately rate you, but when you give incomplete or misleading information about your person or your health, then you are given insurance companies grounds to be evasive with your compensation when claims arise.
Don’t give SSN, bank info or personal info to agents
Ensure you also don’t give your SSN and bank or personal information to insurance agents so that they don’t turn around to use these information to their own advantages. Do not give them anything that could be used against you except what is required on insurance forms and agreements.
Access database sites to check on agents background
There are websites where you could check the authenticity of any agents as genuine staff of any particular insurance firm and company, and you might save yourself a lot of trouble to do some checks on any insurance agents before committing to his purposes. This is how you can prevent yourself from running into insurance frauds and scams.
