Travellers tempted to try and cash in on their travel insurance policies may find themselves talking to the police instead of their insurer.
SCTI investigate about 1,500 people a year who are trying to make fake claims. As well as internal claims assessors, SCTI utilises the services of specialist fraud investigators.
“Travel insurance is for when something unexpectedly goes wrong and a traveller needs legitimate help,” says Southern Cross Travel Insurance (SCTI) CEO Craig Morrison. “The majority of our customers make genuine claims and have nothing to fear – the only ones who have to be concerned are those who fabricate their claims.”
Most aren’t aware of the consequence either. For starters, you certainly won’t get any of your claim paid, but you can also be blacklisted from your insurer, taken to court, gain a criminal record, find yourself on a database with other fraudsters and become uninsurable (a problem if you ever want a mortgage or to travel overseas again).
“We receive up to 1,300 claims a week and see all kinds of attempts to manipulate the system,” says Morrison. “Everything from implausible accounts of theft and unlikely items added to a genuine claim, to completely fabricated claims, including false testimony and fabricated documents.”
Despite a lot of people thinking it’s a victimless crime, everyone who buys travel insurance suffers when fraud occurs as the cost of paying claims is shared by all customers through higher premiums, says Morrison.
“While technology has made it easier for people to falsify reports, investigators and claims assessors are specifically trained to analyse and detect fraud. Faster computers means more real time analysis of claims…before the money is out the door.”
And Morrison says distance won’t save you from scrutiny.
“I find it amazing that people think they’re going to outsmart someone who investigates shady claims as a full-time job. It’s relatively easy to unpick the lies some people tell – even if the documentation is purportedly from another country.
Insurance Council NZ figures estimate that insurance fraud in New Zealand sits between $150 - $450 million per year.
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