Strategy to raise awareness of cost of fraud to consumers
A long-awaited insurer-funded advertising campaign aimed at reducing fraud is likely to be launched in mid-2007, Insurance Times has learned.
The campaign, developed by the ABI's fraud committee, will target lower value fraud, such as exaggerating and falsifying domestic claims, rather than the major frauds perpetrated by organised crime rings.
Although the details of the campaign have yet to be agreed, it will be aimed at raising awareness of the cost of insurance fraud to consumers and will warn of the risk of being caught.
In an ABI survey carried out in 2002, nearly 40% of respondents said they would be prepared to make up an insurance claim, with nearly half being prepared to exaggerate a claim.
The campaign, which Insurance Times first revealed last year (News 27 April), had been expected to coincide with the launch of the Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB) in June, but has been slow to progress.
The question of how the campaign would be funded was left unanswered.
Chris Hannant, head of financial crime prevention and market regulation at the ABI, said that discussions were still very much ongoing.
He said: "With the launch of the IFB, organised insurance fraud is now being tackled.
"However, when it comes to individuals who commit occasional fraud, we need to take a different approach and that approach has to be one of persuasion."
Hannant said the ABI was working closely with insurers and looking at other industry approaches, such as the Department of Work and Pension's campaign to tackle benefit fraud.
Mihir Pandya, claims fraud manager at Allianz, said he was confident there was enough enthusiasm and appetite in the industry to fund and co-ordinate an anti-fraud campaign.
But he warned: "We have to be careful that we don't just focus on the lower hanging fruit.
"The insurance industry is doing very well in making savings on lower-end fraud, but we have to understand whether this is typical of today's fraud or whether we are just fishing in the same pond."
He added that there needed to be sufficient infrastructure and support in place to deal with the likely effect of any campaign.
