How to spot fake certificates of insurance

Fake certificates of insurance are rising sharply in 2025, and have been on companies' risk radar since mid 2022. These fake documents create costly gaps in liability protection for businesses that rely on third-party vendors, contractors, or service providers. 

Regulators and insurance carriers have warned that forged COIs are now being used to win contracts, access restricted worksites, or bypass compliance checks, putting organizations at financial and legal risk.

As digital fraud templates and AI-generated forgeries become easier to access, fraudsters can now replicate the look and feel of legitimate COIs with minimal effort. These fake documents are increasingly used to manipulate onboarding workflows, inflate perceived coverage, or hide uninsured operations behind fabricated policy details.

A certificate of insurance is critical for contractor vetting, vendor onboarding, and liability management. Knowing how to spot fakes can make the difference for organizations that may unknowingly expose themselves to uninsured claims, contractual breaches, or compliance violations that only surface after a loss occurs.

Read on to learn what certificates of insurance are, how they’re being forged, how to spot a fake, and how AI-powered tools can help verify them at scale.

Check out our “how to spot fake documents” blog to learn about more common document forgeries.

What is a certificate of insurance?

A certificate of insurance (COI) is an official document that provides a snapshot of an active insurance policy. It is typically issued by an insurance carrier or licensed broker and serves as proof that a business or individual holds specific types of coverage during a defined policy period. 

Organizations request COIs during vendor onboarding, contractor approval, and risk assessments to confirm that partners carry adequate insurance before work begins.

Although COIs serve the same purpose worldwide, their appearance can vary by region. In the United States and Canada, most insurers use the standardized ACORD 25 format. Outside North America, insurers often issue their own proprietary templates with different layouts and terminology. 

Despite these visual differences, all legitimate COIs follow the same core principles: they identify the insured party, outline the active coverage, and specify who is relying on the document as proof of insurance.

Common elements found in a certificate of insurance include:

• Named insured. The individual or business covered under the policy.
  
  
• Producer or broker information. The issuing agency’s name, address, and contact details.
  
  
• Insurance carriers. Listed insurers for each line of coverage, often including identification numbers.
  
  
• Policy numbers. Unique identifiers for each active policy.
  
  
• Coverage types. General liability, auto liability, professional liability, workers’ compensation, and other lines applicable to the insured.
  
  
• Policy effective and expiration dates. The coverage window for each policy.
  
  
• Liability limits. Per-occurrence and aggregate limits for each coverage type.
  
  
• Certificate holder. The entity receiving the COI as proof of coverage.
  
  
• Additional insured indicators. Notes or checkboxes referencing endorsements that extend coverage to a third party.
  
  
• Additional information. Cancellation terms, special conditions, or coverage notes included by the broker.

Together, these details confirm whether a business carries valid insurance, the extent of its coverage, and the time period during which that coverage applies.

Whether a company reviews COIs within a standardized market like the United States or across multiple international regions, the verification process needs to adapt to the document types being received. 

In North America, the familiar structure of the ACORD 25 form allows reviewers to rely more heavily on template-level cues and formatting expectations. In global contexts, where insurers use a wide range of proprietary layouts, reviewers must shift to a principle-based approach that focuses on internal consistency, coverage logic, and document construction rather than placement of fields or adherence to a single template. 

This distinction ensures that fraud checks remain effective even when the underlying document formats vary widely.

An example of a certificate of insurance for illustrative purposes only.

Why certificates of insurance are important

Certificates of insurance play a central role in risk management, vendor onboarding, and contractual compliance. They confirm that third parties carry active, sufficient insurance for the risks involved before they begin work, move goods, or enter financial agreements. 

In trade finance, COIs often appear as supporting documents to show that cargo, warehouse operations, or insured business activities meet the coverage requirements tied to financing terms.

Here’s how certificates of insurance are used for document verification across specific industries:

• Construction and trades. Project owners and general contractors review COIs to ensure subcontractors hold liability and workers’ compensation coverage before entering a jobsite.
  
  
• Logistics and transportation. Freight brokers and carriers use COIs to confirm cargo, auto liability, and general liability coverage for shipping partners.
  
  
• Marketplace and vendor onboarding. Platforms that onboard independent sellers or service providers verify insurance to reduce exposure when enabling high-risk or regulated activity.
  
  
• Professional services. Companies check COIs to confirm errors and omissions (E&O) or professional liability coverage for consultants, auditors, IT vendors, and other specialists.

Certificates of insurance are widely trusted as proof of insurance because they are issued by licensed brokers or insurers and follow established industry practices for documenting active coverage. 

Although not primary transaction documents, COIs function as essential supporting materials that help organizations validate insured operations and satisfy contractual or compliance requirements.

5 Signs of a forged or fake certificate of insurance

Detecting a fake certificate of insurance manually is challenging because COIs are expected to look routine and trustworthy. Fraudsters take advantage of this by editing existing certificates, modifying blank templates, or generating new ones that mimic the structure of insurer‐issued documents. 

At scale, these forgeries are difficult for reviewers to spot, especially when policy details appear plausible or when documents come from unfamiliar insurers or regions. 

Still, if you’re trying to review certificates of insurance manually, here are the most common red flags to watch for:

1. Inconsistent formatting

Legitimate COIs follow clear formatting practices, whether they use standardized regional forms or insurer-specific templates. Layout irregularities often signal document tampering.

• Certificate holder field in an impossible location. The certificate holder box appears mid-page, detached from the lower-left section where it belongs on standardized COIs or from the final block position used in non-ACORD formats. This floating placement is a common artifact of manual template edits.
  
  
• Coverage columns that break the left-to-right structure. Real COIs follow a strict sequence for each coverage line: insurer letter, coverage type, policy number, effective date, expiration date, then limits. Fakes often show policy numbers under the wrong column, dates shifted onto the wrong line, or limits spilling into the coverage description area.
  
  
• Incorrect claims-made or occurrence indicators. The "claims-made" or "occurrence" boxes are checked for coverage types where they don’t apply (such as auto, workers’ compensation, or property), or both boxes are checked at once. These misunderstandings of coverage structure are common in fabricated COIs.
  
  
• Irregular spacing in coverage fields. Columns or rows expanded, compressed, or misaligned in a way that breaks the form’s usual grid.
  
  
• Missing or altered standard headings. Labels like “certificate holder,” “producer,” or “limits” appear with unusual capitalization or non-standard phrasing.

2. Incorrect or misleading information

Fraudsters often invent or alter policy details, resulting in inconsistencies that don’t match insurer practices, business realities, or common insurance structures.

• Invalid or improbable policy numbers. Sequences that don’t resemble the issuing carrier’s numbering conventions.
  
  
• Carrier names that don’t match insured lines. For example, a known property insurer listed as covering auto liability.
  
  
• Coverage entries that contradict business type. A small contractor showing unusually broad professional liability coverage.
  
  
• Incorrect NAIC or insurer identifiers. Codes that belong to unrelated carriers or don’t appear in official insurance directories.
  
  
• Policy dates that conflict across sections. Effective and expiration dates inconsistent between coverage lines or with the insured’s onboarding timeline.

3. Bad math and uncharacteristic figures

Coverage limits and policy values follow predictable patterns. Mathematical inconsistencies or unrealistic figures are common indicators of fabricated COIs.

• Liability limits far outside typical carrier offerings. Extremely high limits listed for small businesses without corresponding endorsements.
  
  
• Totals that don’t fit coverage type. Aggregate limits lower than per-occurrence limits or limits structured in non-standard ways.
  
  
• Coverage lines combined incorrectly. Claims-made fields appearing under occurrence-based policies.
  
  
• Implausible effective windows. Policies activated the same day they are issued or coverage periods too short to reflect real underwriting practices.
  
  
• Premium or deductible references that don’t align. Notes suggesting deductibles or premiums in sections where they do not normally appear.

4. Certificate of insurance inconsistencies

A COI must present a coherent, internally consistent representation of active insurance. Structural contradictions often indicate editing or template misuse.

• Producer and insured details from different regions. A broker from one country paired with an insurer or insured located in another without clear justification.
  
  
• Certificate holder details that don’t match the contracting party. Wrong addresses, outdated names, or unrelated entities listed.
  
  
• Missing or incomplete coverage lines. Required insurance types (like workers’ compensation or auto liability) left blank despite industry norms.
  
  
• Additional insured indicators without supporting context. Boxes checked but no endorsement references or explanation.
  
  
• Signatures that don’t match broker-issued document practices. Real COIs typically use signatures generated through broker platforms or agency management systems, which produce consistent sizing, clean edges, and uniform image quality. Fakes often include pasted signature images with uneven resolution, visible compression artifacts, or backgrounds that don’t match the surrounding document.

5. Metadata discrepancies

Even when the visible layout looks correct, digital clues may reveal how the document was created or altered.

• Creation tools inconsistent with insurance systems. Metadata showing Photoshop, Canva, or mobile editing apps instead of broker or insurer software.
  
  
• Timestamp conflicts. Files created or modified after the policy’s effective date or after the COI was supposedly issued.
  
  
• Non-standard language or region settings. Metadata showing document locales that don’t align with the insurer’s region.
  
  
• COIs that appear as screenshot-based image layers rather than true scans. Legitimate brokers sometimes send scanned, image-only PDFs, but forgeries often use full-page screenshots imported into a PDF editor. These files show uniform pixel patterns, skewed edges, or inconsistent cropping that differ from a standard scan and often indicate the entire COI was copied and rebuilt digitally.

Disclaimer: Manual checks alone are no longer enough to catch today’s COI forgeries. Fraudsters have editable templates, advanced PDF tools, and generative AI systems that can reproduce insurer layouts with high accuracy at scale. Modern fraud detection requires AI document verification that automatically examines certificates of insurance in a forensic manner.

How to verify a certificate of insurance

Certificates of insurance are reviewed across several industries that rely on insured operations, third-party contractors, or movement of goods. Compliance teams, vendor onboarding specialists, trade finance analysts, logistics coordinators, and procurement departments can validate these documents either manually or through automated systems, but manual approaches have limitations.

Reviewers often struggle with unfamiliar insurer formats, inconsistent international templates, and the sheer volume of documents moving through modern onboarding and risk workflows.

AI-powered automation provides stronger, more scalable verification by analyzing structural patterns, digital construction, metadata trails, and cross-document signals in large volumes, quickly and consistently, identifying anomalies that humans may overlook, especially when documents come from varied regions or insurers.

Still, many organizations continue to rely on manual review due to existing workflows, regulatory requirements, or limited access to specialized tooling. If manual checks remain part of your process, the following steps can help strengthen COI verification and reduce fraud risk:

Manual verification of certificates of insurance

The first place to look is the red flags we mentioned above, but you can also turn to the following sources to detect fraud in certificates of insurance:

• Contact the issuing insurer or broker. Confirm policy numbers, coverage types, dates, and limits directly using official contact information from the insurer’s website—not from the COI itself.
  
  
• Cross-check insurer identifiers. Validate carrier names and regulatory IDs (such as NAIC numbers in the US) using official insurance directories or government registries.

Keep in mind: Manual review helps catch obvious errors, but it cannot scale to match the sophistication or volume of modern COI fraud. Calling every single insurer every time you receive a COI is a time consuming process. Automated analysis provides a more reliable and consistent layer of protection for organizations that depend on accurate proof of insurance.

Using AI and machine learning to spot fake certificates of insurance

For organizations handling large volumes of certificates across multiple regions and insurers, AI provides consistent, scalable, and privacy-preserving verification at speeds and levels of accuracy that manual review cannot match.

Benefits of AI in spotting COI fraud include:

• Deep structural analysis. AI evaluates how a COI was built, identifying layout drift, unexpected font variations, copy-paste seams, and inconsistencies in document construction that often indicate manipulation, regardless of what the document is, its format, or where it came from.
  
  
• Cross-document context. Systems compare submissions against each other to identify reused templates, repeated assets, or serial fraud attempts across customers or workflows.
  
  
• Adaptive decisioning. Organizations can tailor outcomes to their risk appetite, adjusting thresholds and alerting behavior to balance automation and human review.

Automation vs. AI

Automation can perform useful checks, such as confirming that required fields are present or ensuring that dates follow expected formats. For example, these rules-based automation systems can validate whether a coverage line is filled or if a certificate holder field contains information. 

AI, by contrast, learns from evolving fraud patterns and adapts to new manipulation techniques. Instead of depending on a fixed list of rules, AI examines a COI’s structure, metadata, and construction to identify anomalies, generative AI patterns, or subtle inconsistencies that would not appear in a genuine insurer-issued document. 

By combining digital forensics with behavioral and structural analysis, AI provides stronger and more future-proof protection against increasingly sophisticated COI fraud.

Conclusion

Fake certificates of insurance create serious financial, operational, and contractual risk for any organization that depends on proof of insurance to approve partners or move goods. 

As forged COIs become easier to produce and harder to distinguish from genuine insurer documents, manual review alone cannot keep up, especially if you’re verifying different types of COI’s that don’t all fit into a standardized format. 

Resistant Documents uses a principle-based approach that focuses on how a COI is built rather than how it looks. Even if the certificates you collect vary widely, structural analysis evaluates the underlying construction of the file, revealing layout drift, suspicious edits, generative AI artifacts, and inconsistencies that would never appear in a real insurer-issued document.

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Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

Hungry for more fake certificate of insurance content? Here are some of the most frequently asked fake certificate of insurance questions from around the web.

Can a certificate of insurance be verified online?

In some regions, insurers allow limited online verification of policy numbers or carrier registration details. In the United States, for example, carrier identifiers such as NAIC numbers can be confirmed through the National Association of Insurance Commissioners directory. Most policy details, however, are not publicly accessible, which is why direct confirmation with the issuing insurer or broker is still required.

Is a certificate of insurance a legally binding document?

A COI is not a contract and does not modify the terms of an insurance policy. It is a summary document that reflects coverage in place at the time it is issued. Its purpose is to provide proof of insurance, not to create or extend coverage.

Can someone fake an additional insured endorsement?

Yes. Fraudsters often check the “additional insured” box or add wording that suggests extended coverage without including the actual endorsement. Authentic additional insured status must be backed by a specific endorsement issued by the insurer.

How to spot fake certificates of insurance with AI?

Using resistant AI document fraud detection software is the best way to spot fake certificates of insurance with AI. 

What’s the difference between a certificate of insurance, a policy declarations page, and an insurance binder?

These three insurance documents often get mixed up because they can all appear during onboarding or risk checks, but they serve very different purposes. A certificate of insurance is used to show proof of coverage, a policy declarations page lays out the actual terms of the policy, and an insurance binder provides temporary evidence that coverage is in force before the full policy is issued.

Certificate of insurance. Used to provide quick, high-level proof of active insurance to a third party.

• Issuer: Licensed insurer or broker.
  
  
• Characteristics: 
  • One-page summary document.
  • Lists insurer names, policy numbers, coverage dates, and limits.
  • Includes a certificate holder section.
  • Shows insurer letters tied to coverage lines (common on ACORD forms).
  • Not part of the policy contract and does not include endorsements or premium details.

Policy declarations page. Used to confirm the binding terms, limits, and conditions of an actual insurance policy.

• Issuer: Insurance carrier.
  
  
• Characteristics: 
  • Multi-page section of the formal insurance contract.
  • Shows named insured, covered locations, limits, deductibles, and premiums.
  • Lists all endorsements attached to the policy.
  • Includes policy-specific schedules or classifications.
  • Uses the insurer’s full policy format rather than a standardized summary layout.

Insurance binder. Used as temporary, legally binding proof of coverage before the final policy and declarations page are issued.

• Issuer: Insurer or authorized broker.
  
  
• Characteristics: 
  • Short-form document summarizing coverage granted on a temporary basis.
  • Shows the binder’s effective period, typically short (e.g., 30–90 days).
  • Contains the signature or authorization of the insurer or broker.
  • Presents essential coverage terms without the full policy schedule.
  • Clearly labeled as a binder or temporary agreement.

Is there software to detect fake certificates of insurance?

Yes. Resistant AI is document fraud detection software that can spot fraud in any type of document.

Who needs to check for fake certificates of insurance?

Several roles inside an organization are responsible for reviewing COIs to confirm that third parties carry valid insurance before work, shipping, or financing can proceed. These teams handle onboarding, liability assessment, and compliance workflows where proof of coverage is required.

• Vendor onboarding specialists. Review COIs during supplier approval to ensure partners meet insurance requirements before being added to procurement systems.
  
  
• Procurement managers. Validate coverage for contractors and service providers engaged for operational or project-based work.
  
  
• Compliance officers. Confirm that required insurance levels are met for regulated activities or contractual obligations.
  
  
• Risk management teams. Assess whether liability limits, effective dates, and coverage types align with organizational risk standards.
  
  
• Trade finance analysts. Check COIs as supporting documents for insured cargo, warehouse operations, or financing conditions tied to coverage.
  
  
• Logistics coordinators. Ensure carriers, warehouses, and transportation partners provide valid proof of insurance before handling goods.

Is making or using a fake certificate of insurance illegal?

Yes. Creating, altering, or submitting a fake COI is considered insurance fraud in most jurisdictions. Penalties vary by country and can include fines, civil liability, loss of licensure, and imprisonment. In the United States, for example, insurance fraud can be prosecuted at both the state and federal level, with penalties increasing if the fraud is tied to financial gain or contractual misrepresentation.