Insurance Commissioner on National Consumer Protection Week

Montana’s Commissioner of Securities and Insurance Troy Downing called in to the KGVO Montana Morning News show on Tuesday to promote his office’s participation in alerting the public to National Consumer Protection Week.

“My office is charged with protecting Montana consumers against securities and insurance fraud,” said Downing. That means protecting you from everything from Ponzi schemes to, insurers or agents who will take your money and not place the insurance with an insurance company.”

Downing said his office is providing information on how to protect Montanans from a variety of fraudulent activities.

“Topics ranging from cryptocurrency, what to watch out for and how to not be taken advantage of, to how to deal with insurance claims, to how to deal with protecting your parents or your grandparents from elder abuse,” he said.

Downing also brought up topics that most consumers are not aware of when it comes to fraud.

“Some things that they just may not be aware of, such as ‘contributory negligence’, where let's say you're a victim in a car crash, and somebody runs into you and all of a sudden the insurance company says that you're responsible for $100 dollars of it because they say you are partly to blame because you didn't yell or honk or wave, and making sure that if that happens, and it doesn't seem right, it's probably not right, and to give us a call because we're watching out for that.”

With damage from storms in eastern Montana to wildfires in western Montana, Downing said to watch out for ‘storm chasers’.

“It's really important that people vet those contractors, because a lot of them, we'll call them ‘storm chasers’, will just come into town and make promises and take deposits and sometimes not show up,” he said. “So if that happens, make sure that you are vetting those contractors, that they're licensed, that there are references and that they pass muster because that's another issue that we watch out for.”

Click here to find out more information about the Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance and consumer protection.