Irish Adults Do Not Know How to Report Insurance Fraud!

by Carla Simpson | 1 min read     November 13th, 2020

In 2019, it was reported* that 68% of Irish adults did not know how to report a case of suspected Insurance Fraud and 1 in 3 are hesitant to report suspected fraud due to fear of being identified.

Insurance Fraud is not a victimless crime, it is just as serious as any other criminal act. We wouldn’t hesitate to report witnessing a stolen car or house robbery, would we? Then why do we when it comes to Insurance Fraud? We all need to treat insurance fraud in the same manner.

Did you know? Insurance fraud costs the industry over €200m every year.

Types of Insurance Fraud

• Exaggeration of insurance claims, ie:adding extra items that were not stolen or damaged
• Claiming for a false injury
• Exaggerating an injury
• Setting up policies under someone else’s name
• Claiming someone else was driving at the time of the incident
• Over stating the value of a claim
• Online fraud – phising emails, SMS texts to capture data

All of these acts are illegal and can lead to prosecutions.

How to Report

If you have seen or know of an individual or business who has committed Insurance Fraud, you can report it through either of the below methods:

• Report to your local Garda station and retain any information that would assist in the investigation of your complaint
• Visit  http://www.insuranceconfidential.ie/ or lo-call 1890 333 333

Reporting a crime takes courage but please be aware it is strictly confidential, so there’s no need to worry about being identified.

At Allianz we acknowledge too that fraud impacts profitability and our reputation. If we all work together at exposing fraud, it will make a difference to us all. We have a social and corporate responsibility to detect and prevent fraud and reduce its impact on society and hence Allianz has a “Zero Tolerance” approach to fraud.

If you see it, report it!

*Red C research on behalf of Allianz Insurance, conducted in February 2019