Tips to identify insurance fraud is so important, especially with fraudulent claims on the rise. According to an Aviva report fraud grew by 13% in 2021, and then in 2022, a Zurich article specific to property claims, reveals this increase is now up by 31%. The Guardian say this rise is fuelled by the cost-of-living crisis.
What is insurance fraud?
Insurance fraud is any act committed to defraud an insurance process, and common fraudulent claims relate to,
- Whiplash
- Home insurance/property claims
- Slips, trips, and falls
- Policy fraud & ghost broking
The Insurance Fraud Bureau (FIB)
The Insurance Fraud Bureau are a not-for-profit company established in 2006 to lead the insurance industry’s collective fight against insurance fraud. They act as a hub for sharing insurance fraud data and intelligence and are at the heart of the insurance industry, aiming to disrupt organised fraud networks.
They have recently launched an Insurance Fraud Register and in the past 12 months (01/07/2021 to 30/06/2022) 5058 people were added to the register – this equates to around 100 people per week, which is up 17% on the previous 12 months.
How to identify insurance fraud
- Be aware of the latest trends in insurance fraud e.g., what type of claims fraudsters are currently claiming for, whether it’s ‘flash for cash’ (where you are flashed out of a junction and they then collide with you) or if it’s home insurance claims for high-value jewellery, mobile phones, and TVs, as outlined in the Guardian article
- Step up your double checks and controls e.g., cross referencing vehicles with DVLA or making doctor assessments a mandatory inclusion in all whiplash claims etc.
- Flag common fraudulent accident types e.g., staged accidents, induced accidents or ghost accidents
- Initiate fraud pattern recognition into your systems and processes
How can Alphatec’s software help identify insurance fraud?
Alphatec’s Avers software provides a complete Insurance software solution and ClaimControl a claims management, incident management and claims risk management software solution. Both applications will allow you to be one step ahead of insurance fraud.
Some of the features within these applications to help with fraud detection are,
- Configurable classification of categories and types.
- Providing a platform for routine tasks relating to each claim type to be pre-defined allowing automatic notifications, requests, and reminders to be set up, for example, mandatory doctors assessments in whiplash claims etc.
- Enabling you to flag specific claim or policy types which are known to be the types of claims fraudsters may be currently claiming for.
- The system is configurable to allow you to set up additional workflow processes and to add in additional controls and checks to maximise fraud detection.
- There is an “associated parties” feature that identifies if a particular claimant, witness, solicitor, broker etc. has been associated to other claims in the system and shows the claims that they have been involved in. This can identify potential fraud patterns, repeat claimants, witnesses, ghost brokers etc.
- Our software applications come with excellent reporting features and Business Intelligence integration supercharges the reporting providing further insight to identify anomalies, missing data, root cause and further fraud detection.
- The property and motor modules provide opportunities for management and analysis specific to property and vehicles. Offering additional opportunity to identify trends, repeat claimants or repetitive claims against the same vehicle/property.
- The motor module also links directly with the DVLA providing another verification check.
A great software partner can protect your business from insurance fraud.
The best way to find out how Alphatec’s software solutions will help your business is to contact us for a demo.
