Fraudsters fail to escape keen eye of Insurers |
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Fri, 25 Mar 2005 01:00
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A study by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) disclosed that a whopping £3.5m amount was being detected as insurance fraud every week by insurers. In fact, the number of fake claims had risen by a shocking 95% since 2002, reaching £200m in 2004.
ABI also informed that fraud detection techniques had improved significantly in the past few years, thereby making fraud detection quite easy.
| Most insurance scams varied from intentionally damaged TVs and fabricated thefts to well organized traps. There was an instance where a claim for a ruined carpet due to “accidental" spilling of paint was declined, because forensic lab tests revealed that the carpet had been purposely tarnished with paint. Likewise, a woman filed a complaint against her husband for overstating his injuries after a car accident.
ABI, managing up to 94% of UK’s insurance business added that serious efforts were being made on its part to uncover organized frauds. Of the major organized cases, planned motor accidents were the most common with naive motorists being used to cause intentional accidents and then registering an insurance claim for heavy damage of the vehicle along with cervical and neck injuries. What’s more, fraudsters were also found to have false witnesses in place to support their case.
Chris Hannant, the ABI financial crime prevention head commented on the issue saying that insurers were not as vulnerable as fraudsters might suppose and that honest policy holders had absolutely no need to worry with their diligent fraud detection team.
A "cheat line" has, therefore, been put in place by the ABI to help people report any suspicious or assured case of fraud. Telephone: 0800 328 2250.
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