Uncover the cheap tricks and fraudulent schemes that are plaguing unsuspecting learners and young drivers across the nation – so you don’t fall foul of them.
Learning to drive is challenging enough but with scammers, con artists and other forms of human flotsam hoping to cash in on the process, it can make the experience even more stressful for learners and young drivers alike. So arm yourself with this guide to spotting the fraudsters to avoid being stung.
Ghost Brokers
The Practise? Preying on young drivers, ghost brokers offer up fantastic insurance deals via websites, online forums, listing sites and even university message boards. And unsurprisingly, their deals are invariably too good to be true, ripping off the unsuspecting driver and leaving them with no actual insurance – and a potential criminal record and fine to boot.
The Problem? Ghost brokers operate in many different ways, making it a minefield for young drivers looking for the best insurance deals. Scammers may give you false insurance documentation that is worthless; they could furbish you with a genuine policy – but to drive down costs, they’ve submitted false information to the insurer (such as increasing your age) rendering the insurance policy void in the process; or the broker might set up a genuine policy but then quietly cancel it after a couple of months, cashing in the insurer’s refund, and leave you unwittingly without any insurance.
Our Advice? If you have any concerns about your policy, check you’re actually insured by heading to askMID.com. You should also phone the insurer listed in your documents directly to confirm your policy and its contents. If you want to source genuine cheaper car insurance, consider signing up to a insurance policy that uses black box technology.
‘[Two fraudsters have been] jailed in what has been labelled Britain’s biggest fake insurance scam. These ghost brokers had duped around 600 drivers, many of them insuring their first car, into buying worthless policies. The two criminals had pocketed £500,000.” – Daily Telegraph, November 2013
Cash-for-Crash Scammers
The Practise? Why work for a living when you can prey on unsuspecting drivers and defraud insurance companies instead? That’s the mentality of cash-for-crash scammers who will use basic but effective techniques to create a low-level crash – for instance, slamming on their brakes for no seeming reason so the car behind rear ends them. Cue insurance claim and some easy cash.
The Problem? You actually. Anecdotal evidence suggests that scammers prefer to target inexperienced drivers – either those who are learning to drive with an instructor or are displaying P plates – because they’re easier targets to assign blame to when dealing with insurers.
Our Advice? Ensure you (or your instructor) has a dashcam installed so if the worst does happen, you’ll have video footage to show insurers and hopefully, the police. It’s an approach that’s already worked for instructors when dealing with dodgy claims – or with people who are too cowardly to take responsibility for their own lousy driving.
Posting Your Driver’s Licence Online
The Practise? You’ve sunk countless hours and money into learning to drive and you’ve finally passed – and the first thing you want to do? To tell the world of course but recently, a craze has swept social media which sees newly-qualified drivers posting pictures of themselves holding up their new driving licence.
The Problem? That licence holds detailed personal information about you; where you live, your birthdate and more besides. By putting it up on social media, everyone can see it including hackers who can then take the personal information and use it to commit identify fraud – from trying to hack into your sensitive online accounts (many of us use our birthdates as passcodes) through to booking driving lessons, ordering goods and obtaining loans, all in your name.
Our Advice? Stick to the traditional ripping up of L plates to show the world you’ve passed, and leave your driving licence in your wallet where it belongs, not on Instagram.
If you insist on posting your licence online, then blur your details to ensure identity thieves can’t steal your personal information.
Illegal Driving Instructors
The Practise? Unlike qualified ADIs who’ve been CRB checked and have spent hour upon hour working hard to qualify, cowboy instructors with zero qualifications or government checks can dupe pupils into signing up with them.
The Problem? Where do we start? First, parents will have no idea who the instructor is – does the “ADI” have criminal convictions? Can they be trusted with a teenager? Second, who knows just how bad the illegal instructor is as a teacher or a driver? Do they even have valid insurance? Doubtful. The list of issues is endless.
Our Advice? Look for the ADI licence mounted in the instructor’s windscreen; a pink licence with a triangle shows that the instructor is a trainee while a green licence with a green octagon denotes a qualified instructor. Both licences should measure 10.5 by 10.5cms, be made from hard plastic and feature a valid date. It should also display the instructor’s licence number and a recent photo on the reverse side (which must be less than four years old). If not, walk away.
If you believe you have come into contact with an illegal driving instructor, contact the DVSA fraud and integrity team here and report them – fraudulent ‘instructors’ are harming the good name of dedicated ADIs across the nation while endangering lives on our roads and potentially destroying a learner’s driving career before it’s even started.”
– Henry Dillon, Theory Test Pro
Impersonator Websites
The Practise? Misleading websites aping official government sites, which offer to make the process of acquiring a provisional or full driving licence simpler, faster and more efficient, all for a fee.
The Problem? Some companies fleece the buyer by taking more cash than is possibly justifiable and in some cases, providing their customers with forms that the latter could have picked up at their local post office or online for free.
Our Advice? It’s better to be safe than sorry, so only use official government sites for the services you require – head to www.gov.uk/browse/driving for all your licensing needs.
The only time you should consider using an impersonator is when the real deal is sadly no longer available.
Images: Scams © Widjaya Ivan Cockroaches © Liz West, Driving Licence © Ed Seymour, Elvis Impersonator © LuAnn Snawder Photography