Insurance Europe has today published a new booklet entitled: Insurance fraud: not a victimless crime. The publication profiles the various measures that insurers are taking to combat insurance fraud, which is second only to tax fraud in most common forms of fraud globally.
The booklet also provides an estimate of the scale of the problem in the EU. According to estimates from Insurance Europe’s members, insurance fraud in the EU stood at approximately €13bn in 2017.
The nature of insurance fraud is constantly evolving, shaped by the technology at the fraudsters’ disposal. For example, in recent years, cyber-enabled fraud has become more prevalent as more insurance business is conducted online.
The booklet also outlines the many negative consequences of insurance fraud. For example, honest consumers face higher insurance premiums and their insurers have less capacity to deal with genuine claims quickly. Certain types of fraud put human lives at risk, such as “crashes for cash” or fraud-related arson, meaning that insurance fraud also puts a strain on society’s resources. And fraudsters are often linked to organised crime, so insurance fraud funds and facilitates other serious crime.