insurance scammers

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insurance scammers
During the period of the financial crisis, insurance fraudsters have noticeably intensified, hoping to cover losses or enrich themselves at the expense of the insurer. Insurer's deception schemes have become more sophisticated. In response, insurance companies began to establish an exchange of information and jointly identify dishonest insurers.
Qualification of deception
Insurance companies note that over the past year and a half the number of dishonest policyholders in voluntary personal insurance and property insurance has been growing. But most importantly, insurers say, the qualifications of deceivers have grown significantly. “Fraudsters are constantly adapting to the control systems built by insurance companies and are rolling in new schemes,” says Alexei Bebnev, head of the ROSNO IC security department for countering insurance fraud. Previously, vehicles were stolen mainly to neighboring countries with an unfavorable criminal situation or “hot spots” inside Russia (Dagestan, Chechnya), but from the beginning of 2009 new channels appeared - “Tajik” and “Uzbek”, which were delivered through the Kazakh border cars hijacked by collusion between the insured and the hijackers.
ROSNO was able to identify and eliminate one of these channels through the analysis of its own statistics. In May 2009, specialists of the company noted an unexpected surge in theft of Gazelles, which traditionally belong to vehicles of little interest to the criminal element. As a result of an investigation conducted by ROSNO security service together with the police and customs officers, it turned out that all the insured events claimed were staged. The "Gazelle" was distilled to Tajikistan, after which the documents for the car were returned to Moscow, and the policyholder announced the loss of the car. As a result, the so-called “Tajik group” was eliminated.
But more often, the security services of insurers are not engaged in eradicating criminal gangs, but in preventing the deception of their own companies. “Thanks to the active work of our specialists, there are people who tell us about such fraudulent schemes. We had a case when a fraudulent insurer announced the “hijacking” of a car on March 2, and we already had information that this car crossed the border with Kazakhstan on February 22, that is, 10 days before the occurrence of the “insured event”, the head of the service said security of a large insurance company on condition of anonymity.
Teamwork
“From the classical schemes, fraudsters move to various combinations in which employees of insurance companies, dummies, insurance intermediaries, unscrupulous law enforcement officers are involved,” says Alexey Bebnev. As a rule, “co-authors” of the performances are the familiar traffic police officers called by the insurer to the scene of the accident. However, insurers admit that among insurance agents there are also people who, by virtue of material interest, help the insured to “correct” the picture of the accident in such a way as to get as much compensation from the insurer as possible.
Today, fraud of insurance companies in the framework of OSAGO has become a business. This fraud is especially common among persons involved in the sale of cars and spare parts for them. Trips to other regions for wrecked cars became popular. Then they are delivered to St. Petersburg, where the accident is staged. After execution of fictitious documents through acquaintances in the traffic police, scammers submit an application to the company, which issued the “culprit” insurance policy.
Fire will hide everything
The number of real estate and cargo insurance frauds is also growing. “By staging insurance cases for fires, insurers try to get rid of illiquid goods, unprofitable premises,” says Andrey Marunich, head of the security department of the regional department for the North-West Federal District of RESO-Garantia. According to him, attempts to receive unreasonable payments for damage to the insured property through arson of buildings (with an overpriced cost of insurance), warehouses (with illiquid goods or goods taken on credit, for which you have to pay), staging the theft of liquid goods (alcohol, tea), became more frequent. , coffee, meat, electronics).
Other applied “methods” are retroactive insurance, deliberate overstatement of the amount of insured property, fake insurance events during the carriage of goods (sometimes even non-existent), falsification of documents confirming the fact of damage to the insured cargo. According to insurers, the practice of involving third parties that help falsify documents has also become more common in tricks with property insurance.
Life in a lie
Personal insurance also did not remain out of sight of scammers. “In the second half of 2009, we observed an increase in fraud in voluntary health insurance, which manifests itself in single-industry towns that are more affected by the crisis than megacities,” says Alexey Bebnev. In the St. Petersburg branch of the RGS company, they said that lovers of medical treatment at the expense of an insurance company are found among tourists. “They purchase insurance for those who go abroad, hiding the existing disease from the insurer, come to one of the countries of Europe and, upon prior agreement with the clinic’s doctor, receive expensive treatment. Residents of the Kaliningrad region are especially fond of this scheme, ”the specialist explains.
“It is quite difficult to assess the dynamics of the level of fraud in life insurance in absolute terms - this segment of the insurance business is only at the stage of developing communication and information exchange channels. If we talk about the expert assessment, it makes sense to note the improvement of the “qualifications” of fraudsters, ”says Victor Dubrovin, Director of the Department of Legal Support and Security of Allianz ROSNO Life. The most common cases of fraud remain the falsification of medical documents, that is, a non-existent diagnosis. “A characteristic case. The insured contacted us and said that two weeks after the conclusion of the insurance contract, he slipped, fell, received a head injury, as a result of which he became disabled. When asked to provide medical documents showing the injury and treatment in the hospital, the insured gave vague explanations, citing a loss of memory, ”says Victor Dubrovin. As a result of the investigation, there was no connection between the disability and the alleged injury.
Information as a way of protection
Insurers have come to understand the need to combine efforts. “This year, work with fraud has become one of the activities of the committee on the development of life insurance of the All-Russian Union of Insurers. Leading market participants agreed to establish an active exchange of information and interaction in identifying fraud. There are already positive results, ”says Victor Dubrovin.
The exchange of information between car insurers has intensified. According to Andrei Marunich, the interaction with colleagues helped their company identify a couple who, for four years, deceived insurers. “As it turned out, a man and his wife, having owned two very similar Audi cars, insure them in different insurance companies, then they stage the theft or death of a car and receive compensation from insurers. Now they are handled by law enforcement officers, ”summarizes Andrei Marunich.
07/19/2010 | Source BN.ru

 

[Матушкин Андрей Николаевич]

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