The Voice - Consumer's Voice

They created a fake policy!

There are two insurance companies where their agents are busy committing fraud and theft and they seem to approve all that. There is a syndicate of agents who have my documents. How they stole them from their systems I am still trying to find out but they are using them to open policies without my knowledge or authorization.

I have now had two incidents. Last month I just saw money being deducted from my account to the first company, yet at that time I did not even know that I had a policy with them. I went to their offices, they listened to my story and said they would refund me and cancel the policy, but this month they debited me again. Now I am forced to go back to their offices again.

Then the following day the second insurance company also debited money from my account, and I still do not have any policy with them. Furthermore, they told me that three policies were opened, and they were opened by the same person.

Unfortunately, you're not the first person who's contacted us about this situation. I've heard from several people in the last few weeks with very similar stories. Somehow, an insurance agent has obtained the personal details of a consumer and then fraudulently created insurance policies in their name. The first time the victim hears of this is when money is deducted from their bank account. When I contacted the insurance companies, they've explained that they received an instruction to open a policy, which to them seemed genuine, but which was, in fact, fake.

One of the problems is that it's then sometimes difficult for the consumer to prove that they didn't open this policy. It can take a while for the insurance company to investigate and then to reverse the transactions and this can take a couple of months. Another problem is that the insurance companies are sometimes reluctant to treat this as a crime and to report it, in conjunction with the victim, to the Police. And that's what we need to do when this happens. A crime has been committed and the insurance companies need to treat this situation more seriously.

In your case, as with the others, I've alerted the insurance companies and I'm waiting to see what they're planning to do to fix the situation.

They took 3 times!

I have a loan with a microlender. Their last deduction was in December. In January they did not deduct the money so I sent them an email telling them to deduct the money but they didn't respond to my email and the did not deduct the money so I used the money. Yesterday they deducted 3 times taking all my salary. How best can you assist me? I know I skipped 1 month?

I think you skipped more than one month, at least two, maybe three.

Yes, I understand that it was the microlender's job, and probably your employer's, to do the deductions each month but it was also your responsibility to ensure that the payments were made.

You said "so I used the money". Unfortunately that was a very serious mistake. You knew that the money hadn't been deducted and you spent it on other things, knowing that it didn't belong to you any more. You should have set that money aside so you could afford to pay your debt.

You must contact the microlender as soon as possible and negotiate a repayment plan that you can afford.