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Life insurance is a vital part of financial planning for anyone with dependents. It is a necessity that lets you be at peace, knowing your loved ones will be cared for if something happens to you. However, as with any other type of insurance, there are plenty of life insurance scams on the market.
This article provides information on protecting yourself from becoming a life insurance scam victim and the steps to follow if you think someone has scammed you. Read on to find out.
One of the standard techniques used by scammers involves posing as someone from an insurance company and contacting the victim. This person may tell the victim they need to provide additional information or pay a premium to keep their policy in force.
The second type of scam exploits people’s desire for the best deal. The con artist offers the victim a cheap policy but forces the victim to pay the entire amount upfront. Once the victim makes the payment, the scammer cancels the policy, and the victim never receives any benefits.
Spotting a life insurance scam early-on during a call can help you protect yourself against phone scams and fraud. Here are 5 ways to spot a life insurance scam:
When the caller gives you the name of an insurance company you have never heard of, you must exercise caution in dealing with them. On the flip side, it may be possible that you have yet to hear of all the insurance companies, as there are over 800 of them in the US.
Suggestion: If you hear the name of a company you are unfamiliar with, do not make immediate decisions. Set a time for the caller to call you back, and do your due diligence by checking with your State Insurance department.
It is a warning sign when someone forces you to decide on paying immediately and tempts you with "too good to be true" offers.
Suggestion: Disconnect from the call immediately and do your due diligence by accessing the company's official website. If you do not find the promotion the caller offered on the official source, you can be sure it was a scam. You can also call their toll-free number and verify if the said promotion is genuine.
Stranger-originated life insurance (STOLI) is a type of life insurance fraud that has become quite common in the US. The STOLI scheme involves individuals who are not the intended insured, insuring someone else, usually an older person. The people involved in these scams can be anyone from friends and family to strangers.
Suggestion: Be cautious when the caller offers promotions too good to be true, and never agree to take out a policy on someone you don't know well.
If the caller is overselling services you don't need, it should ring a warning bell. They may not be from the insurance company they claim but sellers out to make a quick commission.
Suggestion:
If the caller asks you for personal information during the call, you should be wary of such callers and immediately hang up. Companies you do business with do not need this data as they already have it and do not need it again.
Suggestion:
If you suspect being the victim of a life insurance scam, you should immediately report it to the authorities. Options to report scams may be location specific. Check the options in your state to report phone scams.
Here are some general ways to report a phone scam.
The first step is to contact your local police department and file a complaint. Sharing all relevant details about the scammer, like their contact number, time of call, etc., can aid the police in tracking the con artist efficiently.
Filing a report with the State Insurance Commissioner can alert the regulator of any nefarious activities in their jurisdiction. You can also report scams online at https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/#/.
You can also check with organizations like the Better Business Bureau (BBB) to see if a company is legitimate. The BBB keeps track of customer complaints against businesses, allowing you to access more information about the company you want to do business with. If a company has a bad reputation, it's best to avoid them altogether.
Finally, you should trust your instincts, as everything may not be as straightforward. Life insurance scams can cost you time and money. So, take time to understand more about the company you want to do business with. Never give out any personal information until you are sure a company is legitimate.
Blocking spam after you receive the call and engage the spammer is a reactive approach to ensuring protection against spam.
You can be proactive and block unwanted calls on your landline by getting spam-blocker services. You can download several apps to screen and block spam if you have an Android or iPhone. Learn more about how to protect yourself from phone scams in the sections below.
Most landline providers do not offer spam-blocking services, leaving you with no option but to block them manually on your phone. Manually blocking spam calls is ineffective because you can block numbers only after receiving the call.
The only effective way to block spam calls is to switch to a provider that blocks them automatically before they reach you.
Community Phone offers landline phone service with built-in spam call blocking that can stop unlawful and unwanted calls from reaching your landline. It allows you to keep your landline phone without tying it to the internet.
Get rid of unwanted calls, and protect yourself, your loved ones, or your business from scams with Community Phone's spam-calling blocking services. Its spam call blocker can automatically detect spam, fraud, or robocalls and stop them before your phone rings.
The Community Phone "Safelist" is a list of numbers you pre-approved to receive calls from. Your phone will ring only to let calls from the pre-approved numbers reach you. It will block all other numbers before your phone rings. You can update this list anytime to add or delete pre-approved numbers.
This feature is handy for seniors who are unsuspecting victims of phone scams. The Community Phone account holder can prevent anyone seniors don't know from reaching them, guaranteeing they'll avoid phone scams.
Research indicates that many people miss legitimate calls from unknown numbers, fearing scams. Community Phone is engineering revolutionary spam call-blocking software that automatically blocks 99% of spam calls and helps you manage legitimate calls.
This feature lets your phone ring only for numbers pre-approved by you and routes the rest to voicemail. You can access your voicemails and respond to legitimate messages or missed calls. You can update the pre-approved list anytime to add or delete numbers.
Community Phone guards your landline number against known robocallers, scam calls, and telemarketers by checking each incoming caller's number against a regularly updated database, better known as the blocklist. Their database has over 6 million known spam numbers and is growing daily. You can contribute actively by updating the database with a spam number to protect yourself and other Community Phone members from unwanted calls.
Join Community Phone's waitlist today for first access and receive a free brochure on how this one-of-a-kind spam call-blocking service can help you.
There are 2 ways to block spam calls on your iPhone
You can find Community Phone's spam blocker in the Apple Store. Download this free app on your iPhone to block spam calls and text messages. You can also add the spam number to the Community Phone blocklist to update their blocklist. This action can help protect you and other Community Phone members from unwanted calls from that number.
You can block scam calls manually on your iPhone by following these steps:
You can block scam calls manually on your Android Phone by following these steps:
Here are some benefits of choosing the Community Phone spam-blocker services:
Landline service providers cannot house the technology for an in-built spam blocker. If you have a traditional landline, you can manually block spam numbers until you reach a limit. However, you can block the number only after you receive the call, which could be risky in many cases as you may have engaged the scammer.
The Community Phone built-in spam blocker scans, flags, and blocks spam calls before your phone rings, protecting you from scams and fraud.
The Safelist can ensure seniors are not troubled by scammers calling from unknown or unidentified numbers. The person who controls the Community Phone user account can pre-approve numbers from which the senior would like to receive calls. The spam blocker service will only allow calls from pre-approved numbers and block all other calls.
You can update the Safelist or the Allowed list at any time to add or delete numbers. This feature prevents you from engaging scammers and ensures peace and protection against scams and fraud.
The Do Not Call list is not effective against scammers. To prevent scam calls and to protect yourself from fraud, sign up for the Community Phone spam-blocker services for your landline or download their app for iPhone now.
You can report a phone scam in the following ways:
Since reporting phone scams are location specific, you may want to check what applies to your state and follow those protocols to report phone scams.
You can stop receiving life insurance scam calls through these methods:
Proactive Approach
Reactive Approach
Life insurance scams can take many forms, but the scammers' common aim is to steal your money. This article provides information on how to protect yourself from becoming a victim of a life insurance scam, to identify and report them.
Instead of being the 43% that invest in spam-blocking services after being scammed, be proactive. Get the Community Phone spam-blocker services to protect yourself and your loved ones from phone scams and fraud. Talk to their specialist to learn more!
or call (866) 969-4886
