Zurich cracks down on motor fraudsters

Zurich has announced it’s piloting a new initiative intended to expand its current work on reducing motor claims fraud.

Zurich has set-up additional bespoke, motor claims investigation teams whose sole purpose will be the detection and investigation of motor claims fraud. The initiative will enable existing claims teams to focus on delivering good quality claims service and it will also generate significant cost savings to the business.

This exercise is intended to broaden the insurer’s current claims investigation activities in this area and introduce one consistent approach across all motor claims teams in the UK. The pilot is geared up to handle issues such as staged accidents as well as more opportunistic types of motor claims fraud. It will also create a team of motor fraud specialists amongst existing teams, who will focus 100% of their time on eliminating fraud, as opposed to juggling fraud detection with their day-to-day claims handling responsibilities.

Techniques used by the new teams will revolve largely around existing proven methods, including field and desk-top investigations, cognitive interview techniques, links with intelligence sources/ specialist external partners. A system of fraud indicators will help the identification and referral of suspected fraud claims to the relevant motor claims investigation representative.

Those taking up new roles in the team have been through intensive training programs to supplement their previous fraud training as motor claims handlers. This has been complemented by wide-scale fraud awareness training amongst the claims teams to help them identify the tell-tale signs of a suspected fraud claim. Industry databases are also being used to help investigate previous claims experience and incidences of fraudulent claims activity.

Scott Clayton, Claims Fraud and Investigations Manager said “The main objective of this scheme is to ensure we enable the teams to focus solely on the elimination of fraud. The Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB) findings show that approximately 22,500 staged and induced motor accidents have taken place across the country since 1999 – this figure has increased year-on-year during that period. These findings also report that fraudsters can make approximately £30k for each successful scam – a very lucrative sum.

Tony Emms, Motor Claims Director at Zurich said “By making it more difficult for individuals to commit fraud, we hope these new teams will act as a deterrent to ‘would-be’ criminals and reduce the extra 5% premium paid charged to honest customers to meet the cost of fraudulent claims.”