Press Relations: laptop insurance

Thursday, February 23, 2012

FAKE INSURANCE CLAIMANTS CAUGHT WITH TROUSERS DOWN – LITERALLY

GADGET-COVER.COM

MOBILE PHONE & GADGET INSURANCE

PRESS RELEASE

February 22, 2012.

FAKE INSURANCE CLAIMANTS CAUGHT WITH TROUSERS DOWN – LITERALLY.

A naked bedroom raider and a trouser-removing prostitute who couldn’t be fought off one-handed by a youth carrying a takeaway are amongst dodgy and declined insurance claims made for lost or stolen mobile phones.

More and more fraudsters are being caught with their pants down as insurers tighten the belt on ever more creative bids to trouser cash from false or questionable mobile phone loss and theft claims.

Gadget-cover.com, which provides policies for resellers including many high street names, saw a near-doubling of insurance claims for lost or stolen mobile phones in January 2012 over January 2011, but it would have been higher still had new tougher checks not identified fake or suspicious claims.

Carmi Korine of www.gadget-cover.com, which is the biggest and longest-established insurer in the sector, said that two attempted claimants in particular were caught, literally, with their pants well and truly down.

“One attempted claim arose when a customer’s son went on holiday with a friend and his friend’s parents. The phone was alleged to have disappeared one night when, whilst they were all in bed, a naked guy came in to the parents’ room and got in the bed with them.

“The father then awoke and kicked the naked guy out of their room, but before leaving, the naked guy put on the customer’s son’s trousers, which were on the floor, and left – we weren’t given a clear explanation as to why his trousers were in his friend’s parents’ hotel room.

“The phone was said to be in the trousers which were taken by the naked guy. The parents did not think the incursion was strange, and carried on with their sleep. There was no sign of forced entry.

“The second incident is also alleged to have involved a loss of trousers. The claimant’s son was coming home from a takeaway shop. He said he walked into a back street in order to wait for a cab, which he had called for earlier.

“Whilst waiting for the cab in this back street, a woman, who he described as looking like a prostitute, walked up to him and began touching him and pulling down his trousers. The customer says her son tried to push the ‘prostitute’ away but was ineffective in his efforts as he was carrying his takeaway in one hand.

“The woman managed to pull his trousers all the way down to his ankles and, after a while, she left and he later realised his phone was no longer in his pocket. The customer’s son was so traumatised he did not leave his room for three days.”

In each case, and based on wider assessment of the submissions made, but withheld here to avoid identification, the claims were declined.

www.gadget-cover.com is part of London-based Supercover Insurance, which is the UK’s longest-established insurer of mobile phones and high-intrinsic-value consumer electronics. Launched in 1995, the company offers theft, loss and damage insurance, as well as up to 3GB gadget content backup, for laptops, PCs, satellite navigation equipment, MP3 players including iPods, and other such communication, storage and gaming equipment.

Ends

Further information:

Iain Macauley

im@pressrelations.co.uk

07788 978800

www.gadget-cover.com

Thursday, April 22, 2010

SUPERCOVER INSURANCE CREATES POLICY FOR THEFT-TARGET iPAD

SUPERCOVER INSURANCE

PRESS RELEASE

April 22, 2010.

SUPERCOVER INSURANCE CREATES POLICY FOR THEFT-TARGET iPAD.

Supercover Insurance has moved quickly to create a policy to cover what it expects to be potentially the most theft-targetted tech product of 2010.

The Apple iPad is expected to be launched in the UK in May, but such is demand in the USA that the

launch is running behind – and that, says Supercover, www.supercoverinsurance.com, could well lead to iPad-focussed theft epidemics.

“The vast majority of iPad buyers are excited but honest, and are waiting patiently for their order to pitch up. But there are some people out there who, as was the case with the iPod and iPhone, simply can’t wait and don’t care where their iPad comes from, even if the source is dubious,” said Carmi Korine of Supercover Insurance.

“We’ve created a white label policy for resellers which can be included in new or existing policies, sold as an incremental revenue product or as an as an add-on to motor or home policies providing substantial ongoing revenue streams. It is available to insurers, brokers, banks and other insurance providers and brand partners at £7.99 a month, with very attractive commission deals.

“But we’re also going to be keeping a wary eye open for claims that happen just a bit too quickly: we’ve seen with iPhones that people can sometimes be tempted to make a claim for a lost iPhone, which isn’t actually lost at all, and then when the insurance replacement arrives they sell it on at a vast premium while retaining and using their original iPhone.

“We anticipate there will be some questionable claims with the iPad, but we’re geared up to address any claims that don’t appear to be legitimate.”

Supercover Insurance is a 15-years-established provider of insurance for consumer portable high-intrinsic-value products such as mobile phones, laptops and other gadgets, as well as spectacles.