Fraud hotline receives 1,800 calls over insurance scams

THREE out of 10 calls to an insurance fraud hotline were about accidents that were either staged or never happened.

More than 1,800 new cases of reported insurance fraud have been received by the hotline, Insurance Confidential, since it was established by the Irish Insurance Federation (IIF) in February 2003.

The hotline was launched in a bid to cut the number of fraudulent claims in Ireland which cost the insurance industry approximately €100 million annually.

IIF chief executive Michael Kemp said the number of calls received by the hotline was staggering. Also, the quality of the information from callers was very good.

“The level of response indicates that people have had enough of bogus insurance claimants.” he said. “They realise that is not just faceless institutions that are picking up the tab every time someone makes a fraudulent claim but they themselves as honest policyholders through higher insurance premiums.” He said the hotline was acting both as an effective tool to help detect fraudulent claims already in the system and also as a deterrent to individuals who may otherwise consider making a false or exaggerated claim.

Calls are coming from a wide range of sources including family members, close relatives, neighbours, work colleagues, employers and employees.

Most of the calls were made by men while women accounted for a third.

One-in-three of the calls made also show claims where an incident occurred but no damage was caused.

More than 20% were about exaggerated claims, particularly in relation to personal injuries and car repair costs. Most related to motor cases (62%), followed by non-motor personal injury (21.5%), property (8.5%) and other types (8%).

The information resulting from the calls is collated and then forwarded to IIF-member companies.

The lo-call phone number for Insurance Confidential is 1890-333333.