Insurance fraud is not as common as phone fraud or online sales fraud. In addition, it seems that this problem concerns only insurance companies, and they are rich and will somehow sort it out. In fact, everything is much more complicated. Fraudsters cause indirect damage to the clients of insurers, the economy of the region and the country. All this directly affects ordinary citizens. According to the All - Russian Union of Insurers, approximately 90% of cases of insurance fraud are detected in auto insurance. We will tell you more about them.
The police do not respond to every case in which insurers see a violation of the law. According to the reports of only one company - VSK Insurance House - in 2023:
In total, the insurance house's specialists sent 1,622 fraud reports to the police in 2021: twice as many as in 2020. This growth is primarily due to increased inspections of insurance claims. But the share of criminal cases initiated during this time decreased by 10% and amounted to about 13%.
The least number of criminal cases related to the insurer's complaints – only 1% – were initiated in the North Caucasus Federal District. In the Arkhangelsk region, the situation is the opposite: they reacted to every application submitted. In 74% of cases, law enforcement officers responded to complaints from insurers in the Omsk region. In other regions, the situation is noticeably worse.
Up to 90% of illegal claims for payments relate to auto insurance. This is a well-developed area of fraudsters: in 2020-2021, only in Moscow and the Moscow region, more than 1 thousand groups were identified that may be involved in fraud with OSAGO and CASCO.
The most common schemes are:
It is more difficult to find signs of fraud in staged accidents. They look more and more realistic. Criminals make video recordings of the scene, use vulnerabilities in the unified OSAGO calculation method. Often, conscientious drivers are involved in the schemes, not suspecting that they are becoming accomplices in a crime.
So, for example, it happened in Severodvinsk. A group of intruders operated there for 2 years. For at least 33 episodes, they appropriated more than 6 million rubles. In order not to attract attention and not to expand the group, the criminals hired the instigators of the accident. The second side of the incident was just law-abiding citizens. Cars weren't always hit on purpose. Sometimes accidents were staged with cars that were already in need of repair. All that remained was to refresh the damage a little.
Moscow's auto dealers were even more inventive. They hired professional stuntmen to crash their cars so that they were written off as unrecoverable. Used, of course, expensive foreign cars. But insurers and law enforcement agencies managed to expose this complex criminal scheme.
To identify intruders, insurers conduct real investigations. Visiting the scene, interviewing witnesses, and other methods can reveal that the burnt-out car was not just set on fire – it was carefully watered with gasoline. No one stole the car from the owner's house, he got into it himself and left in an unknown direction. Such investigations are becoming more and more popular: scammers are well aware of the rules that work in insurance.
Fraud is also detected through expert examinations. This is how you can identify, for example, the facts of a deliberate accident or arson of a car in order to receive payments. In this case, instead of money, the attacker will receive a penalty provided for by the Criminal Code.
An important role is also played by the exchange of information about suspicious customers, similar insurance claims, and cars and drivers who regularly become involved in road accidents. For this purpose, since 2015, the Insurance History Bureau has been working – an organization that often helps track fraud at the stage of entering into a contract.
Thanks to the Bureau, insurers identified a scheme in the life and health insurance segment. They found a paired case. Two men took turns going down into the underground passage, fell and broke their left arm. Upon a detailed examination, it turned out that there were not 2 such cases, but 14. At the same time, none of the victims could be found at the address indicated in the insurance documents. It turned out that the attackers hired homeless people, issued insurance for them, and then broke their hands with a tire iron. According to" serial " cases, you can also calculate car scammers.
A serious problem for insurers is the small number of criminal cases initiated on the fact of fraud. The police often do not find evidence of a crime in clearly fraudulent schemes. Insurers believe that the fact is that not all police officers know the specifics of insurance well enough. To solve the problem, in 2021 insurers created and distributed to all divisions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs a methodology for solving crimes in the insurance field. The business hopes that this will help to increase the detection rate of a rather specific type of crime.
Decent drivers also take risks. Rigged accidents are hard to avoid, because normally people tend to avoid collisions, and the car fraudster pursues a completely different goal. Any accident is a risk, lost time, often-the need to invest additional funds in car repairs.
Scammers try to make sure that they are not recognized as the culprits of an accident. Otherwise, the CTP will not pay for the damage. Therefore, everything is used, from bribing the car inspector to putting pressure on the second participant. And as a result, the victim of auto-delivery is forced to buy insurance at higher rates.
Even worse is the situation when acquaintances or friends involve a person in criminal schemes, while not fully revealing their cards. In this case, there is a high probability of getting a criminal record, or even a real term, instead of working part-time. Therefore, you need to fight car scammers as much as you can.
Even a very experienced driver may not always be able to avoid auto-stops on the road. But to comply with the law, not to try to "agree on the spot", not to agree to incomprehensible schemes – even a novice can do it. If the situation seems suspicious or if you don't understand very well what exactly is being offered to you, call the insurance company and the police and wait for what the professionals will recommend. This may delay the registration of an accident, but it will save you nerves and, in the long run, money.
The less often scammers succeed in their schemes, the more likely they are to move their activities to industries where they will cause less harm. After all, schemes with car damage on the road are a risk not only for the wallet, but also for the health and life of accident participants.
Some statistics
Of the claims for payments for all types of insurance that insurance companies receive, about 10-20% contain signs of fraud. According to the BCC, in the first half of 2023 alone, insurers filed more than 4,800 fraud claims with the police. The amount of damage caused by the actions of intruders exceeded 2.5 billion rubles.The police do not respond to every case in which insurers see a violation of the law. According to the reports of only one company - VSK Insurance House - in 2023:
- In Moscow, 451 applications for insurance fraud attempts were filed, 28 criminal cases were initiated;
- There are 219 applications and 36 cases in the Krasnodar Territory;
- There are 176 applications in Dagestan, but no criminal cases were initiated.
In total, the insurance house's specialists sent 1,622 fraud reports to the police in 2021: twice as many as in 2020. This growth is primarily due to increased inspections of insurance claims. But the share of criminal cases initiated during this time decreased by 10% and amounted to about 13%.
The least number of criminal cases related to the insurer's complaints – only 1% – were initiated in the North Caucasus Federal District. In the Arkhangelsk region, the situation is the opposite: they reacted to every application submitted. In 74% of cases, law enforcement officers responded to complaints from insurers in the Omsk region. In other regions, the situation is noticeably worse.
Up to 90% of illegal claims for payments relate to auto insurance. This is a well-developed area of fraudsters: in 2020-2021, only in Moscow and the Moscow region, more than 1 thousand groups were identified that may be involved in fraud with OSAGO and CASCO.
How scammers operate
90% of all fraudulent actions in insurance occur in the CASCO and CTP segment. BCC claims that in the first half of 2021, companies sent 4,700 fraud reports to law enforcement agencies. The total amount of damage is estimated at more than 2 billion rubles.The most common schemes are:
- faking AN accident;
- falsification of technical expertise results after a traffic accident;
- overstatement of payments from insurance companies in court;
- assignment of insurance benefits.
It is more difficult to find signs of fraud in staged accidents. They look more and more realistic. Criminals make video recordings of the scene, use vulnerabilities in the unified OSAGO calculation method. Often, conscientious drivers are involved in the schemes, not suspecting that they are becoming accomplices in a crime.
So, for example, it happened in Severodvinsk. A group of intruders operated there for 2 years. For at least 33 episodes, they appropriated more than 6 million rubles. In order not to attract attention and not to expand the group, the criminals hired the instigators of the accident. The second side of the incident was just law-abiding citizens. Cars weren't always hit on purpose. Sometimes accidents were staged with cars that were already in need of repair. All that remained was to refresh the damage a little.
Moscow's auto dealers were even more inventive. They hired professional stuntmen to crash their cars so that they were written off as unrecoverable. Used, of course, expensive foreign cars. But insurers and law enforcement agencies managed to expose this complex criminal scheme.
How to calculate fraudsters
To counter fraudsters, each insurance company has departments whose task is to check upcoming insurance events. Their work is getting harder every year.To identify intruders, insurers conduct real investigations. Visiting the scene, interviewing witnesses, and other methods can reveal that the burnt-out car was not just set on fire – it was carefully watered with gasoline. No one stole the car from the owner's house, he got into it himself and left in an unknown direction. Such investigations are becoming more and more popular: scammers are well aware of the rules that work in insurance.
Fraud is also detected through expert examinations. This is how you can identify, for example, the facts of a deliberate accident or arson of a car in order to receive payments. In this case, instead of money, the attacker will receive a penalty provided for by the Criminal Code.
An important role is also played by the exchange of information about suspicious customers, similar insurance claims, and cars and drivers who regularly become involved in road accidents. For this purpose, since 2015, the Insurance History Bureau has been working – an organization that often helps track fraud at the stage of entering into a contract.
Thanks to the Bureau, insurers identified a scheme in the life and health insurance segment. They found a paired case. Two men took turns going down into the underground passage, fell and broke their left arm. Upon a detailed examination, it turned out that there were not 2 such cases, but 14. At the same time, none of the victims could be found at the address indicated in the insurance documents. It turned out that the attackers hired homeless people, issued insurance for them, and then broke their hands with a tire iron. According to" serial " cases, you can also calculate car scammers.
A serious problem for insurers is the small number of criminal cases initiated on the fact of fraud. The police often do not find evidence of a crime in clearly fraudulent schemes. Insurers believe that the fact is that not all police officers know the specifics of insurance well enough. To solve the problem, in 2021 insurers created and distributed to all divisions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs a methodology for solving crimes in the insurance field. The business hopes that this will help to increase the detection rate of a rather specific type of crime.
Common cause
It would seem that insurance scammers only harm business. But in reality, everything is much more complicated. Companies are forced to bear the costs of a serious fight against fraud and take into account their risks due to criminals. All this leads to an increase in the cost of the insurance product and its market price. So successful scams are paid for, in fact, by the end user.Decent drivers also take risks. Rigged accidents are hard to avoid, because normally people tend to avoid collisions, and the car fraudster pursues a completely different goal. Any accident is a risk, lost time, often-the need to invest additional funds in car repairs.
Scammers try to make sure that they are not recognized as the culprits of an accident. Otherwise, the CTP will not pay for the damage. Therefore, everything is used, from bribing the car inspector to putting pressure on the second participant. And as a result, the victim of auto-delivery is forced to buy insurance at higher rates.
Even worse is the situation when acquaintances or friends involve a person in criminal schemes, while not fully revealing their cards. In this case, there is a high probability of getting a criminal record, or even a real term, instead of working part-time. Therefore, you need to fight car scammers as much as you can.
Even a very experienced driver may not always be able to avoid auto-stops on the road. But to comply with the law, not to try to "agree on the spot", not to agree to incomprehensible schemes – even a novice can do it. If the situation seems suspicious or if you don't understand very well what exactly is being offered to you, call the insurance company and the police and wait for what the professionals will recommend. This may delay the registration of an accident, but it will save you nerves and, in the long run, money.
The less often scammers succeed in their schemes, the more likely they are to move their activities to industries where they will cause less harm. After all, schemes with car damage on the road are a risk not only for the wallet, but also for the health and life of accident participants.
