The Israeli Consumer Council has sent an urgent appeal to the insurance inspector demanding a financial sanction, in order to stop the operation of insurance agents who use the name "Silver Mountain", they mislead consumers into thinking they are government websites and issue a coupon at the expense of the public who gives them their personal information.
The Consumer Council has accumulated complaints from consumers who tried to locate insurance data in search engines using the "Insurance Mountain" service operated by the Ministry of Finance and only after providing personal details and paying for the service, did they realize that it was not the online government system but private insurance agents.
Insurance agent, illustration, photo: Getty
The "Insurance Mountain" is a dedicated website that provides a free service, established by the Capital Market Authority of the Ministry of Finance and its purpose is to allow consumers, with the click of a button, to receive all the information about insurances that belong to them and may have forgotten about their existence.
This is similar to "The Mountain of Money", another free website designed to help consumers locate pension savings, life insurance policies and bank accounts that belong to them. These websites provide fast and comprehensive information and at no charge. But they require registration and entering details.
An examination conducted by the Consumer Council on the subject raises concerns that a number of insurance agents, individuals or corporations, are advertising themselves in search engines with a misleading description and using the name "Insurance Mountain", with the aim of attracting consumers and collecting personal details for marketing purposes.
The sites are predicted to belong to or are operated by the Ministry of Finance.
The Consumer Council says in an appeal to the insurance supervisor that this is a violation of the provisions of section 55 of the law.
The Consumer Council has already turned to the Capital Markets Authority on this issue, in October 2019, with a request to review and exercise its powers.
They advertise with a misleading description in the name of the site, photo: Getty
The council says that sometimes the private websites come up first in the search results, either as an ad, i.e. a sponsored link, or as a full-fledged website.
Those who are not familiar with the differences, which are sometimes not noticeable, will not always know how to identify the official website compared to the private websites.
Some of the private websites add due disclosure, but some not only do not mention the fact that it is a private website that does not belong to the Ministry of Finance, but they use the wording of the advertisement or the symbols of the State of Israel, the Ministry of Finance or the Insurance Mountain.
Even worse, most of the pages do not indicate the fact that they are operated by an insurance agent, or the name of the agent, and in order to locate the insurance agent, a thorough and comprehensive search is required on the page.
Web pages were also located which do not appear at all on the details of the agent to whom the details are transferred.
From a recent search, the following sites came up:
"Insurance Mountain State of Israel gov - Insurance Mountain Ministry of Finance check quickly";
"Insurance Mountain gov - click here to check on the Insurance Mountain website";
"Insurance mountain - come in to do an inspection - locate all the insurance policies in your name";
"Insurance mountain - a centralized report of all your insurances;
"The insurance mountain - concentration of the policies - the insurance mountain - perform an inspection now"
;
Attorney Ofer Feinstein, the CEO of the Council addressed in a letter to the insurance supervisor to act to eradicate the illegal phenomena of impersonation, misuse of data and misleading the public.
The Consumer Council requests the removal of impersonating websites or the removal of misrepresentations.
For example, one of the consumers contacted the Consumer Council claiming that he wanted to get to the Mount Insurance website through Google.
The first result was a private agency that reached out to the Mount Insurance website and asked for the personal details, including the date of issuance of the identity card, school, mother's maiden name, etc.
At the end of the process, they save the personal details and do not hand over any information except for a page that says the details have been captured.
The same consumer stated that he is very afraid of using this data.
Another consumer wrote to the Consumer Council that a representative of a company called him and convinced him, after a "brief compatibility question," to purchase for NIS 399 a comprehensive examination of all funds that may be in forgotten pension funds, insurances, and more.
In addition, the company offered the advice of a pension consultant who could, if necessary, offer different funds than the ones it has today and reduce the management fees.
If there is any suspicion that a criminal offense has been committed, bring it to the attention of the ombudsman. Gali Beharev Miara the ombudsman, photo: Gideon Markowitz
In the letter, the consumer wrote that after the transaction was made and before he received the report of the results of the company's inspection of his affairs, he learned that all the company's services are provided free of charge by the state on websites such as the "Silver Mountain", the "Insurance Mountain" and the "Pension Clearing Site" and that the company uses in a cynical way, the ignorance of the citizens in the field. He also noted that the same pension consultant is no different than a salesman who seeks to make more profit from those citizens. The consumer requested to end his contract with the company in light of the above and to receive all his money back, but the company's representatives did not agree to cancel the employment.
The CEO of the Council stated in his address that the publications are in apparent violation of the Financial Services Supervision Law which states that "an insurer or insurance agent shall not describe a misleading description of an insurance transaction that is presented to a particular customer and shall not include a misleading description in a publication to the public." A "misleading description" is a description that contains In order to mislead on a material matter in the transaction and that the "name of the insurer or agent" is a material matter as stated.
The Consumer Council asks the insurance inspector to exercise his powers and impose a financial sanction on insurance agents who violate the provision of the law and to consider revoking those agents' licenses or suspending them.
This, since there is in this action an injury to the reliability of the insurance agent.
Attorney Feinstein, CEO of the Consumer Council requests due to the seriousness of the phenomenon and the fear of harming a large public of consumers, to look into the matter and as soon as the investigation raises suspicions that a criminal offense has been committed, to bring it to the attention of the Legal Adviser to the Government.
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