A former Eastern Shore insurance agent pleaded guilty Friday to wire fraud in a scheme that federal prosecutors say allowed him to fraudulently obtain approximately $164,345.
Thomas Robert Hoyt, 32, of Melfa, admitted collecting insurance premium payments from clients and using the money for personal expenses instead of forwarding it to insurance carriers, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Court documents state that Hoyt contracted with insurance carriers to sell their products and served as an intermediary between the companies and policyholders. For some policies, clients paid their premiums directly to Hoyt after he represented that he would forward the money to the carriers.
The Virginia Bureau of Insurance began investigating Hoyt following complaints from clients and contacted him in June 2021. On Sept. 9, 2021, Hoyt signed an…
Treat every unsolicited “urgent” communication from a bank or government agency as a potential “Vishing” or “Smishing” attack, regardless of how official the branding or phone number appears.