Allianz’s personal lines business has reported a 29%1 increase in fraud prevention in 2023 compared to the previous year. This spans across all types of insurance fraud from motor claims, home claims and application fraud, and the notable rise of ghost brokers and their tactics to lure innocent victims into a fake insurance policy.
Unfortunately, a landscape of rapidly evolving fraud tactics is evident, with fraudsters regularly adapting their methods to pursue new scams, including a rise in moped crash for cash fraud and an increase in shallow fakes. Cases where apps were used to distort real-life images, videos and documents increased by 300%2 from 2022 and into 2023, and has all the signs of becoming the latest big scam to hit the insurance industry.
In one case, an individual had a picture of his van posted on his social media page as part of his business, and had a claim pursued in his name for an accident that never took place. LV= received images of his vehicle from the fraudsters, showing the front bumper had been cracked in the alleged accident, along with a false repair invoice totaling over £1000. Noticing concerns with the claim, LV=’s fraud team investigated the case, identifying the image was identical to the one found on social media but with the addition of photo editing.
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