Fraudsters' tactics are constantly evolving and they have developed a wide variety of different scams in order to try and defraud motor insurers into making payments. We take a look at some of the key scams and briefly explain what each entails:
Staged Accident. This premeditated fraud can take numerous forms and involves two or more parties deliberately crashing their vehicles into each other for the purposes of submitting fraudulent insurance claims.
Contrived Accident. Accidents that simply do not happen. Again they can take various different forms and will usually only take place 'on paper' with fabricated documents generated to support the fraud.
Induced Accident. Often referred to as 'deliberate slam on' incidents where a fraudster will target an innocent motorist and deliberately cause a collision. The 'slam on' is just one of many varieties of this scam which will often involve two or more vehicles working together in order to execute the fraud.
Application Fraud. This is an umbrella term used to describe a wide variety of circumstances where there is a dishonest non-disclosure and / or misrepresentation to an insurer for the purposes of financial gain.
Phantom Passengers. Bogus claims from individuals who claim to be passengers but who were not involved. Extremely widespread and equally capable of being perpetrated by insureds or third parties, in genuine accidents as well as induced accidents and by both premeditated and opportunistic fraudsters.
Ghost Policies. This is a form of identity fraud where a motor policy is incepted utilising false details solely for the purposes of enabling third party claims to be made against it and in the knowledge that an insurer's attempts to speak to their 'insured' will be frustrated.
Fabricated Injury. Most commonly involving soft tissue injuries due to the difficulties in disproving them. Can apply equally to genuine and fraudulent collisions and involve both premeditated and opportunistic fraudsters. Often prompted by professional enablers.
N.B. This is just a sample list and far from exhaustive as there are many other forms motor fraud can take such as organised fraud rings, fronting, phantom witnesses, bogus thefts and all forms of deliberate exaggeration.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
