Insurers have sounded the alarm about scammers who set up fake websites that mimic real car insurer sites to fraudulently collect payments for OSAGO policies. Sergey Efremov, vice president of the VSS, shared warnings with Finmarket about these phishing schemes that aim to steal money during policy purchases or renewals.
Recently, customers of several major insurers received text messages offering to renegotiate or renew their contracts, accompanied by a link to a counterfeit site. Insurers remind buyers to exercise extreme caution when handling OSAGO contracts online.
Another issue in the online space is the practice of obtaining an OSAGO contract at a lower price by fabricating data during the online process. This creates a risky mismatch between the policy and the vehicle that can trigger problems later on.
Pseudo Policies
In some cases, intermediaries offer to issue an OSAGO policy online for roughly 1,000 to 1,500 rubles. The sellers warn that the payment can bypass the insurer, and the policy is registered only to satisfy vehicle registration requirements. The form appears in the PCA information system for the vehicle, and a traffic police inspection will show the entry in the AIS OSAGO system without raising questions.
However, if an accident occurs, conflict arises. If the victim holds a genuine policy and the at-fault party possesses a policy registered in the system but tied to a different vehicle or with incorrect coefficients, the insurer may deny the payout. Resolution requires a court to pursue compensation from the owner of the fake OSAGO policy. The outcome is typically a personal claim against the individual rather than an insurance payout. Conversely, if the accident victim holds a legitimate OSAGO policy and the other party uses a fake one, the injured party may receive a full refund from the car insurer. This illustrates how the system can operate unfairly in practice.
Policies with biased data go undetected in many cases. Central Bank statistics show that the frequency of insured events for OSAGO was 5.48 percent in 2021, suggesting a relatively low rate of real claims compared to the number of policies in circulation.
Today, electronic OSAGO agreements drafted with false information number at least 1.1 million, roughly 3 percent of the OSAGO market. The resulting damages for vehicle owners include misappropriated funds and insurance company shortfalls, with estimated losses from illegal activities in electronic OSAGO surpassing 4.2 billion rubles, according to VSS statistics.