Fraud To Accident Insurance Companies

In Spain, with the economic crisis, multiple fraudulent claims have been made to insurers. Some of the most frequent frauds in this country are: simulating theft in houses, hiding causes of the accident due to the negligence of the insured or intentionally causing an accident.

Currently, 6 out of 10 false claims occur in the automobile branch. The most common is that of insured with third party damage policies; It is here where the insured take the opportunity to incorporate damages that already existed, prior to the accident.

Fraud to insurance companies, are they crimes?

Frauds against insurance companies are considered fraud crimes ; They are framed in article 248 of the Penal Code. When the client cheats for profit, prison terms are established ranging from six months to three years. The time will be determined according to the amount defrauded and the economic damage caused.

The law does not contemplate jail for fraud less than 400 euros. However, this does not exempt the insured from taking responsibility for the financial and reputational consequences caused by the fraud.

When ‘big scams’ occur, which exceed 50,000 euros, article 250 is applied to determine the penalty. If the scam is effective, the insured may pay with a penalty of between one and six years in jail.

In any of the cases, and if fraud is proven, the insured must pay fines and comply with the assigned punishment; in addition, he is registered in the database as an offender, which is shared by insurers. In the future it will be difficult for you to subscribe to a new insurance policy.

Identification of fraud by insurers

In the face of the multitude of fraud to accident insurance companies, companies began to pay more attention to avoid these situations. Proof of this is that the Cooperative Investigation of Insurance Entities rewards insurers for their work in detecting fraud.

In Spain there are many cases of fraud to insurance companies that have become popular. Some because they are very important, others because of their repetition over time or because of the number of culprits who were sentenced.

The most famous insurance fraud cases

False abuses

In Seville, a criminal network was uncovered that specialized in simulating abuses. The investigation began when the company discovered that the policyholders had provided the same contact number.

For some time, policyholders had been involved in 30 traffic accidents. Some of the members had even been involved in 19 accidents, both on the part of the driver and the hit man. Really, an unusual case.

Buying a wrecked car and accident simulation

This is one of the strangest cases ever discovered by the Pelayo company. A man bought a car that had been declared a total loss ; paid 2,400 euros and falsified the invoice; He claimed that he had paid a higher amount, 21,000 euros.

The insured faked an accident and the experts realized that many things did not fit. The area where the car was left, and the fact that the driver was unharmed, was highly suspicious.

When everything was investigated, it was found that the driver took the car to a secondary route and pushed the car. In this way, he faked an accident for which he intended to collect compensation.

Contract for many policies

This fraud became quite well known. A man took out eight insurance policies from different companies and simulated an accident in order to collect compensation from each one.

The worst part of the story is that the insured cut off his right hand to commit the crime. Finally, three of the companies answered for the insurance and paid him a total of 335,000 euros, money that after the investigation he had to return.

The roundabout fraud

Another very popular scam in Spain is the roundabout scam. The scam consisted of causing traffic accidents in a roundabout.

Fraudsters circulated in the inner lane of the roundabout. They waited for a driver to circulate in the outside lane and put the indicator to exit; They accelerated causing an accident with the other driver. In the end, the culprit turned out to be the victim.