Amie recalled the day she was stopped by police in her home city of Londonderry in August.
“I saw the flashing lights behind me and I was going ‘oh, my God, what have I done?’,” she said.
“I got pulled over and he said ‘you’re not insured’ and I said ‘I am insured’.
She showed the police an email chain from what turned out to be the bogus broker, based in England.
Officers told her it was a scam.
She also contacted the legitimate company called Dayinsure, who she had falsely been told she had been insured with.
They had no record of her and said they never sold policies on social media.
When she tried to contact the “broker”, she said he “ghosted” her.
“I was blocked on everything,” Amie said.
She said anyone considering taking out an internet insurance policy should “do their background checks” before they paid out any money.
“Make sure it’s a real person you’re talking to and don’t just be doing it because your friends are doing it,” she said.
At Londonderry Magistrates’ Court on 8 May the district judge imposed no penalty due to the circumstances in the case.
