A new Aviva Canada report revealed an auto insurance fraud trend costing insurers $2 billion every year. This added expense to insurers is leading them to increase premiums to compensate for the fraudulent claims payments.
Drivers across the country are being forced to pay for an incredible $2 billion in added fraudulent expenses.
The Aviva Canada report was published under the title “Crash, Cash and Backlash: Aviva Fraud Report 2017.” It pointed out that honest drivers are required to shell out more for their coverage every month as a result of the rampant auto insurance fraud. This conclusion was drawn following an interview of over 1,500 Canadian auto insurance policyholders. The interview was conducted by Pollara Strategic Insights in October 2017.
Among the interview respondents, 81 percent stated that they had experienced increases in their premiums. They believed that those factors had to do with fraudulent vehicle theft, vehicle repair and personal injury claims.
The largest issue currently faced in auto insurance claims has to do with personal injury coverage.
“The biggest fraud is from personal injury claims,: said former Toronto Police detective, Gord Rasbach, who is currently leading the anti-fraud efforts at Aviva. “A big chunk (of fraud) comes from that,” he added.
The Aviva report went on to say that among those who were interviewed, 67 percent said they believed that proper anti-fraud actions would help to reduce the amount they pay in auto insurance premiums. Unfortunately, according to Rasbach, taking effective action of this nature is easier said than done, requiring the participation of many agencies, not just insurers.
In a recent media interview, Rasbach explained that he was not at all shocked by the high totals of fraudulent claims in Canada’s auto insurance industry. In fact, he expressed that he felt the $2 billion estimate was likely rather conservative when compared what the actual number is likely to be. That said, he also pointed out that this auto insurance fraud isn’t something new to the Canadian market. Instead, it is something that has been around for “a long, long time.”