Testing of Cifas and Hill Dickinson data has revealed links between false motor claims and other fraudulent activity
Fraud data from other sectors can help insurers identify and tackle policy application and claims fraud, according to a report by Cifas and Hill Dickinson published today.
The report explained the results of a cross sectoral data match between motor insurance fraud cases and fraud cases from other sectors, such as retail, banking and telecommunications.
The study revealed complex networks of criminal activity and strong links between false claims on motor insurance and other fraudulent activity, such as money laundering.
The data matching exercise was between a sample set of confirmed fraud cases from Hill Dickinson’s Netfoil ACE database and confirmed fraud cases held on the Cifas National Fraud Database.
In total, 196 of the Hill Dickinson cases matched on details within 347 Cifas National Fraud Database cases.
The key findings were:
- 32% of false claims on motor insurance involved individuals who were also found to be involved in other types of fraudulent activity. The vast majority (82%) of matches were against cases in other sectors, showing the extent to which the same fraudsters are operating across different industries.
- 31% of the individuals involved in both insurance claim fraud and other forms of fraud committed the other fraud first, showing that the sharing of cross-sector data could have alerted insurance fraud investigators to the fraud risk at an early stage.
- 42% of matches were on activity indicative of money laundering, suggesting strong links between insurance fraud and serious organised crime.
The results also suggest that insurance fraudsters are operating across regions.
The report said: “Not only are some individuals involved in frauds at multiple addresses in the same region, many are linked to frauds in other cities. London, Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham and Sheffield had the highest numbers of linked fraud networks.
“The findings highlight the crucial role of intelligent data matching in fraud prevention. In some cases, fraudsters had deliberately used different names and addresses to evade detection but were identified purely through common contact details such as mobiles or emails.”
The IFB and a number insurers have taken part in a third and final testing phase of the Government-led counter fraud checking service (CFCS), which looked at the potential benefit of sharing fraud data with the tax office, Department of Works and Pensions and banks.
Following the completion of phase three in August, a business plan is now being being drawn up by the different sectors to look at if the benefits of setting up the service justify the cost.
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