Concern at surge in bogus insurance claims

THE number of insurance fraud cases investigated by the insurance industry more than doubled in 2009 and has already seen a fresh surge in the first quarter of this year.

Figures provided by the Insurance Industry Federation (IIF) show that its Insurance Confidential Hotline received information on 686 new cases in 2009, compared with 308 cases in 2008.

The IIF said this upward trend has continued in the first quarter of 2010 and that the figures reflect only the number of cases being investigated, with the number of calls to the hotline a multiple of the case numbers.