Ifed and Nominet join forces to take down fake insurance sites

Fake insurance websites often carry professional branding and seasonal promotions to appear genuine, Jethwa said. The unit has tracked a rise in complaints linked to sites that copy the logos and wording of major motor and home insurers. The same techniques are appearing in travel and pet insurance scams.

The dark-web portal cases are harder to trace because they use encrypted payment channels and disposable domains, Jethwa noted. The hope is that earlier domain-level intervention can cut off the supply of new fake sites before they reach search-engine listings or social media ads.

Nominet already has a regulatory role in policing domain registration data. The unit can check ownership details for accuracy and flag patterns such as multiple domains registered to the same entity with slight variations of insurer names. That capability could reduce the window between domain registration and takedown from weeks to days.

Ifed already works with Action Fraud and the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau. The Nominet link adds a faster escalation path for the most common type of insurance website fraud: domain impersonation. Jethwa said the partnership follows a broader push by City of London Police to embed domain and cybersecurity expertise into fraud investigations.