You might seem surprised but the auto insurance policy you have bought recently might be fake. If that is the case, then any claim arising from it won’t be honored. In fact, fraud cases in the insurance industry – not only in India but around the world – are rising and have become a cause of concern. According to industry estimates, around 1-2 per cent of the total vehicle insurance policies are fake in India, and the industry is losing crores of rupees annually due to such frauds.

Industry experts suggest that while buying an insurance policy, one should either buy it from a reliable aggregator or directly from an insurance company. If you don’t buy a policy with carefully understanding, then in the future while making a claim, your claim is likely to be turned down. Frauds in the insurance sector are not only committed at the time of applying for a claim by making false or inflated claims, but also at the time of buying the policy.

Find out how to spot a fake motor insurance policy and avoid buying it:

1. While buying a policy, try to buy it through credible resources. Experts say just by looking at the policy one might not be able to spot a policy. Try to get a policy from renowned and credible resources. If you are trying to bag in some discount while buying the policy or get hold of a lesser premium, through unknown agents or aggregators, you might get a lower premium but there are chances that you might get hold of a fake policy. Currently, there are many credible aggregators’ websites from where you can get your policy or get it directly from the insurance company’s website.

2. Try to make payments either through a cheque or online. If you are buying a policy offline, try to make the payment through a cheque. To validate the genuineness of the policy, the cheque has to be made in favor of the insurance company and not in favor of any individual. Hence, experts suggest one should avoid paying in cash because that minimizes the risk of getting hold of a fake insurance policy. Better yet, buy policies online to avoid any risk, which is also more convenient.

3. You can also verify a policy by using the verification link. Most insurers offer a policy verification link on their websites. To validate your motor insurance policy, you can go to the insurer’s website and use the verification link. Further, you can also connect with customer care to verify the details of the policy.

4. Before buying the policy, check the policy’s existence. The policy being sold to you has to be from one of the accepted general insurance companies in India. On the IRDAI website, you can find out about the licensed entities with their details. Experts suggest buying a policy from any of the licensed entities in India. If it is not much of a difference, it is best to buy a policy from the insurers directly.

5. While buying a policy you need to check the genuineness of the policy, as fraudsters and scamsters can copy the minute details of the insurance company and provide you with a fake policy. You can either go online, call up the customer care or, visit the registered branch office of the insurer to authenticate the policy document issued to you.

6. Tech-savvy people can also use the QR Code to verify their policy. IRDAI, a few years back, had made it mandatory for the insurers to print a QR code on the vehicle insurance policy, which would help the insured to verify the authenticity of their insurance policy. Motor insurance policies bought after December 2015 in India generally contains a QR code. By using a QR code reading app on your smartphone, you can scan this code, which will open to a web page with the status, and the details of your policy.