How to Spot a Fake Certificate of Insurance

The standard ACORD 25 certificate of insurance is far from a modern document. With a simple grid template, consistent fields and little in the way of a watermark or credentialing practice, it’s not surprising that so many contractors try their hand at creating their own. It may surprise you, however, how many are successful. In this article, we’ll go over why the number of fraudulent COIs has shot up in recent years, how fake COIs are created, and how to know whether a certificate of insurance is real or fraudulent. 

Why Fake a Certificate of Insurance?

The simple fact is that creating a fake a certificate of insurance is often significantly easier (not to mention cheaper) than obtaining a real one. If you google “COI template,” you’ll find many easily adjustable options to choose from. The dramatic increase in homemade COIs is partly due to the fact that more of the workforce has the digital literacy to find and edit these images. 

A second key factor is the increase in online insurance quoting. As little as three years ago, the first step you would take to get business insurance was likely to google “business insurance broker,” or call one you were familiar with. Now, more common search terms include “online insurance quote,” “business insurance online,” and “cheap certificate of insurance,” all of which will return images of a certificate of insurance template.