Protect yourself

Insurance business and insurance mediation may be exercised only by undertakings and intermediaries registered in the Registers kept by IVASS.

Unfortunately there are cases of unauthorised operators offering fake insurance policies or exploiting the name of duly authorised undertakings.

Follow these 5 steps to be sure that you are contacting a duly authorised undertaking or intermediary and to protect you from fraud.

Check if the insurance undertaking is registered in IVASS registers

Check on our website if the insurance undertaking you have got in touch with is registered in the Register of Italian insurance undertakings or in the enclosed lists, in the appendix to the Register, of undertakings with head office in another country of the European Economic Area (EEA) licensed to pursue business in Italy.

If it is an undertaking offering motor liability/liability for ships, consult the following lists:

• Italian undertakings pursuing motor vehicle liability (class 10)
• Italian undertakings pursuing liability for ships (class 12)
• Foreign undertakings pursuing motor vehicle liability (class 10)
• Foreign undertakings pursuing liability for ships (class 12)

Remember that EEA undertakings are not subject to IVASS supervision but to that of the supervisory Authority of the country where they have their head office. IVASS lists relating to these undertakings are updated on the basis of the communications sent by the home supervisory authorities. For further information on EEA undertakings you can also consult the websites of foreign competent Authorities.

Check if the insurance intermediary is regularly registered

Check if the subject offering you the policy is registered in the Single Register of Intermediaries (RUI) kept by IVASS. If it is a subject from another EU country it must be registered in the list of insurance intermediaries of the European Union licensed to pursue business in Italy kept by IVASS.

Do some further checks and pay attention to the details

Check if the information you have been given is the same as that published in IVASS Registers.

If you have any doubt, send a request for information to the undertaking, using the contact numbers and addresses published on our website or on the undertaking's website.

Carefully check the data shown in the policy, including headers and footers, and pay attention to any corrections and minor differences. Even if they may seem clerical errors, this could be a case of counterfeiting. Sometimes unauthorised operators use the name of a duly authorised undertaking (especially a foreign one) and change only one letter!

Consult the warnings on unauthorised operators and cases of counterfeiting

Check the warning list of cases of counterfeiting or that on unauthorised or unlicensed undertakings. They regard cases for which we have, over time, published specific warnings to inform the public.

We have also found cases of irregular websites, which name themselves as intermediaries but are managed by unauthorised subjects.
If you want to buy a policy through the Internet, check the lists of the websites of insurance undertakings supervised by IVASS and of intermediaries duly registered with the RUI.
The list of irregular insurance mediation websites, updated on 25/10/2023, is also available.

IVASS orders the blackout of the websites that offer insurance services without authorisation.
The orders to cease the unauthorised activity and the press releases on the blackouts can be found in the section on unauthorised websites.

Call us if you have doubts

For further information or to report a possible unauthorised operator, call IVASS Consumer Contact Centre at the free phone number 800 486661, from Monday to Friday 8:30 to 14:30.