Insurance companies are losing fortunes to fraudsters, whether they know it or not.
This was the claim from the boss of a fraud database who has seen rocketing numbers of false identity and impersonation crimes.
Peter Hurst, chief executive of CIFAS, a not-for-profit fraud prevention service, said: "Insurance companies must be suffering from false identity fraud because everybody is. They might not realise it but they must be."
CIFAS identified 19,510 false identity frauds in the first six months of 2002. This is a shocking 50% rise from the 12,989 in the same period last year.
Hurst said only about 75% were spotted in time to prevent the fraud going ahead.
There were another 15,821 cases of impersonation, creating a total of 35,331 identity crimes from January to June this year.
Hurst said identity crimes were the biggest problem facing CIFAS members, which include Direct Line, Churchill, Royal & SunAlliance and Admiral.
Internet and telephone sales channels provided an easy entry for fraudsters signing up for new policies.
"Telephone and internet are soft spots. You could be anybody, anywhere. Forgeries are rife," he said.
CIFAS began collecting data from insurance companies about a year ago and now has covers about 10% of the industry. Hurst believes that its data on insurance claims fraud - booked at 245 cases in the six months to June - is
only scratching the surface and will continue to rise as more companies join.
He said: "There's a long way to go yet.
"I would expect to see thousands of insurance claim frauds."
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