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- Undercover agents: how fraudsters speculate on the topic of insurance
Undercover agents: how fraudsters speculate on the topic of insurance
Hackers can use various schemes to deceive Russians about insurance, experts have warned about this. Social engineering scenarios related to this area are popular in the fraudulent environment, as they have high financial capacity and wide room for maneuver in terms of legal aspects. For details on what insurance schemes to expect from fraudsters in 2026, what are the dangers of such tricks and how to protect yourself from them, read the Izvestia article.
What is the topic of insurance interesting to fraudsters?
Insurance consistently attracts fraudsters because it is directly related to money, documents and life situations where a person is in a state of uncertainty or stress, explains Nikolai Dolgov, an expert on cybersecurity at Angara Security, in an interview with Izvestia. Insurance products are issued online and extended regularly, and payments often occur after an accident, illness, or other unpleasant events.
"In such conditions, users tend to make decisions faster and check details less, which is exactly what the attackers are counting on," says the source.
Insurance-related social engineering scenarios are popular in the fraudulent environment because they have high financial capacity and wide room for maneuver in terms of legal aspects, adds Irina Dmitrieva, a cybersecurity expert and analyst at Gazinformservice.
According to the expert, it is possible to deceive both the insurance buyer by making a deal with a fake policy, and the insurance company by faking an insured event for a hefty sum. Fraudsters carefully study the terms in contracts, including all the "gray areas": ambiguous wording, exclusions from coverage and methods of calculating damages. They are aimed at obtaining maximum compensation due to a staged insured event.
What insurance schemes to expect in 2026
This year, attackers will use deepfakes more often — to imitate the voice or video of "insurance agents" to make communication look more convincing, and to fake insurance company websites for phishing scenarios, says Konstantin Larin, head of the cyber intelligence department at Bastion.
"We can also expect the appearance of schemes with fake notifications of payments or policy extensions," the Izvestia source believes. — Their goal is to extort money from a person or get an access code to important applications, such as banks or departments.
Increasing the realism of attacks will become the main fraudulent trend in 2026, Nikolai Dolgov expects. In particular, fraudsters will actively copy the interfaces of insurance companies, create clone websites with online registration of policies and personal accounts. A user who is confident that he is taking out insurance will in fact simply transfer his money and data, the expert warns.
The second area is personalized attacks. For example, a potential victim may receive one of the messages that look very plausible: "your CTP policy expires in three days, extend it with a discount," "an insured event has been fixed, confirm the details," or "payment has been approved for you, specify the details." At the same time, we should separately expect schemes with "assistance in payments".
According to Nikolai Dolgov, in such scams, a person is offered to speed up receiving compensation after an accident or illness for a small percentage. But in the end, they either take an advance payment and disappear, or they get access to personal data and banking information.
With the development of artificial intelligence, the quality of counterfeits will increase: neural networks will generate error-free texts, realistic websites, fake calls from insurance, voice messages, and even videos for identification.
What insurance schemes have you encountered before
Meanwhile, fraudsters have been trying to use various insurance tricks for several years. In particular, according to Irina Dmitrieva, the attackers succeeded in creating high-quality copies of the official websites of insurance companies to sell fake insurance policies. Underestimating their cost may seem like the best solution for a client who wants to save money, but in practice it turns into a successful catch for a fraudster.
— Fake CTP registration sites, fake offers to receive insurance payments, as well as mailing lists on behalf of well—known insurance companies asking for confirmation of data or payment for a "policy extension," Konstantin Larin says in an interview with Izvestia.
In addition, attackers in the past have used the "legend" of compensation and refunds under old insurance contracts, demanding to pre-pay a "commission" or "fee" through a phishing site, the expert notes. In turn, Nikolay Dolgov points out that the main audience of such schemes are car owners, tourists, people with medical policies and those who have recently encountered an insured event.
Users are especially vulnerable when they are stressed: after an accident, illness, or when they urgently need to take out insurance. At the same time, the danger lies not only in the loss of money for a fake policy. If a user transfers personal data and banking details to fraudsters, this can lead to more serious consequences.: fraudsters' access to bank accounts, loan processing, and further targeted attacks.
— In addition, the presence of a fake policy can be revealed at the most critical moment, for example, in an accident, — warns Nikolai Dolgov. — In this case, the person is effectively left without insurance coverage and bears the costs themselves.
How to protect yourself from insurance fraud schemes
In order to protect themselves from insurance fraudsters' tricks, experts interviewed by Izvestia advise following certain safety rules. In particular, Anastasia Averina, director of organizational development at the insurance broker A.R.S. Consulting, calls for attention: if an "insurance agent", "investigator" or even a relative who allegedly got into an accident calls or writes to a person and urgently demands to transfer money or apply for a loan, it is necessary to immediately interrupt the conversation. To do this, you can call the person or company back using the number that is saved in contacts or listed on the official website.
— Observe anti—phishing hygiene - no direct clicks: after receiving a letter or push about the "urgent extension of CTP", "blocking of the LCA policy" or "state compensation for medicine", do not follow the links from messengers, SMS and letters, — advises the specialist. — Close the notification, open the official insurance or Gosuslugi application and check the policy status there.
In addition, according to Anastasia Averina, it is important to control your digital footprint: scammers can collect photos and videos of users from social networks in order to train neural networks to generate deepfakes to bypass biometrics. Therefore, it is worth restricting public access to high-resolution photos and videos, as well as using privacy settings. It is necessary to maintain critical thinking, adhering to the concept of zero-trust ("zero trust") to impose quick solutions, especially if the service is offered much cheaper than the market or for free.
The expert also recommends checking the facts and consulting with trusted persons, such as a trusted insurance broker. In turn, Konstantin Larin reminds that any issues related to policies, payments or insurance renewal should be resolved only through official applications, websites and contact centers of insurance companies.
— It is also important not to follow links from messages from strangers, carefully check the website address to notice signs of a phishing resource, and not to inform third parties of the confirmation codes required to access the account. In addition, it is not necessary to transfer funds to individuals and enter bank card data and account details on questionable resources, — concludes the interlocutor of Izvestia.
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