Nearly three quarters (74%) of the UK's leading Insurance Fraud Investigators (IFIs) interviewed by Ordnance Survey have seen an increase in fraudulent claims since the beginning of 2009 and the problem is showing no signs of levelling out.
Four out of five (80%) investigators believe the situation will continue to get worse as they envisage the top issue facing them in the next 12 months will be the credit crunch further fuelling fraudulent claims, followed by fraud being committed at the point when people first take out their policies (43%).
Over two in five (44%) have seen an increase in the volume of fraudulent claims made and a similar number (46%) have seen an increase in both the volume and in the monetary value of claims made. Over half (57%) have seen a rise in the number of completely bogus claims made, followed by inflated claims (54%). Other scams on the increase include the number of serial claimants (47%), activity by criminal gangs targeting insurance companies directly (42%), activity by criminal gangs targeting insurance policy holders (35%) and people lying on application forms or withholding information to save money on policies (33%).
