Fraud is the most experienced crime in the UK and accounts for over 40% of all crime, costing approximately £7 billion annually. Insurance fraud is front and centre of this, resulting in countless victims and bogus insurance claims and applications estimated to cost the industry over £2 billion each year.

Given the devastating financial and emotional consequences, the Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB) has this year committed to delivering its most sustained digital marketing campaign, called ‘Fraud Cons’ and as part of Fraud Awareness Week (12 – 18 November) wants to highlight that insurance fraud is something we should all be mindful of.

In addition to raising awareness of insurance fraud scams to help people protect themselves from becoming victims, for the first time ever IFB has delivered a sustained campaign to educate on the consequences of succumbing to opportunistic fraud. This decision was in response to trends seen by our member organisations and was backed up by the results from YouGov findings in June 2023 suggesting a rise in people’s willingness to consider insurance fraud when compared to the same survey question results taken in 2022.

Opportunistic fraud is a term used by the insurance industry to describe everyday people who are not linked to organised crime but spot an opportunity to commit fraud to either save costs on an insurance application or make money on a claim.

Aimed at targeting new audiences across age groups and with a variety of interests, the Fraud Cons adverts have featured on a number of channels including TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube shorts. Not only has the insurance fraud prevention message reached some people for the first time, there have been nearly 50 million views.

Ursula Jallow, IFB Director shared: “Public awareness campaigns will continue to feature in the IFB’s vital work, the insurance industry wants to support the public to understand what insurance fraud is, the potential impact and consequences. We also want to encourage the public to report suspicious insurance fraud activity to our CheatLine, this helps us support insurers to detect fraud but importantly support victims of crime and protect honest customers insurance premiums”.

So far in 2023, IFB has received 3,734 CheatLine reports from the public, 68% of which have resulted in action. This shows just how important the reports from the public are on fighting fraud. 

Why does this matter?

Insurance fraud is not a victimless crime and every one of us is impacted in some way financially and/or emotionally. From large companies to small business owners, anyone who drives a car to unsuspecting members of the public that are targeted by fraudsters. No one is safe.

Fraud does impact on insurance premiums for everyone, so if you suspect or know about an insurance fraud that has taken place, we would encourage you to play your part in preventing fraud by reporting it to us.  Here are some easy things everyone can do help fight fraud:

• Report insurance fraud to CheatLine, this line is free and confidential
• Stay up to date with types of fraud to avoid being a victim, and share what you learn to help keep your friends and loved ones safe
• Share preventative messages and challenge the idea of ‘trying your luck by claiming on insurance’