Insurance policy mis-selling trap: Over 80% of users on online insurance platforms experience dark patterns, reveals study

What are dark patterns?

• Dark patterns are tactics seen on digital platforms to nudge consumers into buying financial products they neither need nor fully understand. Some common practices include:
• Forced action: Design practices that manipulate customers into taking unintended actions such as mandatory data sharing, unwanted add-ons, or purchasing unnecessary coverage to proceed with a transaction.
• Subscription trap: Making the platform hard to navigate that users find it difficult to or are unable to cancel their insurance policy.
• Nagging: Websites using persistent prompts, popups, or reminders to coerce users into purchasing extra coverage or signing up for newsletters, often interrupting the main task.
• Bait-&-switch: Artificially low premiums or superior coverage advertised to lure customers, only for the company to substitute them with higher rates, reduced coverage, or different policies later.

Instances of users complaining of experiencing dark patterns on online insurance sales/service platforms are on the rise
Forced action

Subscription trap

Nagging

Rise in complaints (Percentage of respondents experiencing mis-selling in 2026 versus 2024 survey)

Source: ‘Consumer Pulse on Dark Patterns on Online Insurance Sale/Service Platforms’ by LocalCircles. The survey received over 87,000 responses from consumers across 341 districts who have used online insurance sales/service platforms; 68% respondents were men while 32% respondents were women. 44% of respondents were from tier 1, 34% from tier 2 and 22% respondents were from tier 3 & 4 districts.