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\nThe Central Bank is the regulator for the insurance industry in Ireland and has a list of approved brokers and insurance companies on its website<\/p>\n
Garda\u00ed, insurance companies and the consumer watchdog have warned the public about the risks of buying car insurance through social media.<\/p>\n
So-called ‘ghost brokers’ operate by advertising on social media apps or through word of mouth to sell people forged or fraudulent policy documents.<\/p>\n
Some victims are unknowingly driving without insurance, meaning they could be prosecuted, fined, or have their car seized.<\/p>\n
Amie Donaghey, a 21-year-old from Derry, has been left with a criminal conviction after being conned into thinking she had paid \u00a3700 to be covered by a legitimate insurance company.<\/p>\n
The scam only came to light when she was stopped by the PSNI and told she was not insured.<\/p>\n
As a mother of two, Ms Donaghey required a car for daily life but could not afford the \u00a34,000 to \u00a35,000 she was being quoted by traditional insurance companies.<\/p>\n
‘I knew it was a real person, so I just believed him’<\/p>\n
She saw someone advertising cheaper insurance on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok and contacted this ‘broker’.<\/p>\n
Ms Donaghey said she had direct communication with this person through social media messages and on the phone.<\/p>\n
“I knew it was a real person, so I just believed him.”<\/p>\n
The ‘broker’ quoted her \u00a3700 and she transferred the money.<\/p>\n
“It was dear enough for me to believe it, so I was like \u2013 this is grand, this is legit.”<\/p>\n
Ms Donaghey was emailed documentation and believed she was insured with a legitimate insurance company based in England.<\/p>\n
But one day she was stopped by police in Derry and told she was not insured.<\/p>\n
She showed the police the documentation she had been emailed by what turned out to be the bogus broker.<\/p>\n
She also contacted the legitimate company in England, who she had falsely been told she had been insured with.<\/p>\n
They had no record of her and said they never sold policies on social media.<\/p>\n
‘Be careful and do your research’<\/p>\n
When she tried to contact the ‘broker’, she said he “ghosted” her.<\/p>\n
A few months later, Ms Donaghey received a court summons.<\/p>\n
At Derry Magistrates’ Court in May, the district judge imposed no penalty due to the circumstances in the case, but Ms Donaghey has been left with a criminal conviction for driving without insurance.<\/p>\n
\nThe Central Bank is the regulator for the insurance industry in Ireland and has a list of approved brokers and insurance companies on its website<\/p>\n
She said she wants to warn others about how easy it can be to fall for such a scam.<\/p>\n
“If it looks too good to be true, then it\u2019s definitely too good to be true. Just be careful and do your research.”<\/p>\n
While Amie Donaghey\u2019s case happened in the jurisdiction of Northern Ireland, garda\u00ed are also warning people in the Republic to be vigilant.<\/p>\n
“Be wary of anyone selling insurance products that communicates solely via services such as WhatsApp, Telegram, TikTok, Snapchat or Instagram,” a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
“Be wary of anyone who requests payment for an insurance product by way of an electronic transfer to an account in their own name.”<\/p>\n
Garda\u00ed have warned that the activity of ‘ghost brokers’ leaves customers exposed to serious consequences.<\/p>\n
“You may be convicted of an offence under the Road Traffic Act for driving without valid insurance. Such a conviction could make it difficult and more expensive to obtain valid insurance cover.”<\/p>\n
The Central Bank is the regulator for the insurance industry in Ireland and has a list of approved brokers and insurance companies on its website.<\/p>\n
Rob Smyth, the Head of Investigations and Fraud at Aviva Insurance Ireland, said ‘ghost brokers’ are an issue that is “widespread across the industry”.<\/p>\n
“Whether it\u2019s getting worse, it\u2019s difficult to tell. It\u2019s obviously a hidden business, they\u2019re fraudsters.”<\/p>\n
Mr Smyth said seven years ago, Aviva Insurance Ireland identified 20 ‘ghost brokers’ operating in the market and all were reported to police.<\/p>\n
“Now, we have identified maybe about three currently operating. But it\u2019s a hidden activity. I\u2019m not saying there\u2019s only three operating; we\u2019ve only identified three at the moment. There could be lots more out there.”<\/p>\n
Mr Smyth added the insurance industry in Ireland has taken “lots of action” to “block that off”.<\/p>\n
However, he is calling for the establishment of a system that would allow insurance companies to share information about fraudsters with each other.<\/p>\n
“Unfortunately, at the moment, we\u2019re restricted from doing that under GDPR regulations.”<\/p>\n
“What we need is that legislated for. We need a central hub where we can legitimately share information and warn other people about potential criminals that are trying to manipulate their customers.”<\/p>\n
“In the UK, there\u2019s a lot more co-ordination. They have an Insurance Fraud Bureau that co-ordinates a lot of information from the industry within one central hub and they work directly with the police.”<\/p>\n
Mr Smyth said when Aviva reports a fraudster to police, they are “over-reliant on police to carry out investigations with other insurance companies”.<\/p>\n
“Police already have enough to be doing without doing the work on behalf of the industry.”<\/p>\n
The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission has also advised the public to be wary of buying financial products through social media ads.<\/p>\n
![\"Grainne](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/00247009-614.jpg\"\/)
\nGr\u00e1inne Griffin of the CCPC said the case had ‘characteristics of a typical fraud’<\/p>\n
Gr\u00e1inne Griffin, Head of Financial Education at the CCPC, said Amie Donaghey\u2019s story has “characteristics of a typical fraud”.<\/p>\n
“The first is that young woman was in a really difficult position. She needed car insurance and the quotes that she was getting were very high. And fraudsters will look for people who are in constrained circumstances.”<\/p>\n
“The second thing then is this came through social media. It was a social media ad.”<\/p>\n
“Any transaction at all that you’re going through, after going through an ad, is automatically something that you have to be suspicious of and quite cautious of.”<\/p>\n
“And then I suppose in terms of things like fake documents, fake websites, all of that, it is so easy now with AI for fraudsters to run out these really, really legitimate-looking sites and be able to supply all sorts of materials to back it up.”<\/p>\n
“This wouldn’t have happened five years ago. AI just means it’s possible now to do just so much more sophisticated work as a fraudster and really be much more convincing.<\/p>\n
“If there is a deal that is so cheap, that is so much better than what all the other companies are offering, that’s a real red flag.”<\/p>\n
The CCPC is also advising consumers to pay with a card rather than a bank transfer or direct debit.<\/p>\n
“That does open up more in terms of potentially getting your money back because you may be able to organise for a chargeback through your financial services provider if it turns out that you have been scammed.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Garda\u00ed, insurance companies and the consumer watchdog have warned the public about the risks of buying car insurance…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":572263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60],"class_list":["post-572262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/572263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}