According to recent data the most rapidly growing coverage segment is also a massive target for scams.
Though auto policies have traditionally been the area in which insurers have traditionally had to be the most vigilant in watching for scammers, travel insurance has suddenly started to see the emergence of a new trend in false claims.
The General Insurance Association (GIA) has reported that this insurance sector is growing exceptionally fast.
The GIA has noticed this trend as a growing number of people travel overseas and recognize the importance of travel insurance coverage as they go. This broadened awareness is making a big difference in keeping people on top of the insurance policies they may need when they leave the country and head somewhere new. In addition to health and personal accident insurance, travel coverage made up 21.6 percent of the general policies business in 2015. That was a rise from the figure in 2014, when it had been 19.8 percent, and again from the figure in 2013, when it was 18 percent.
As such, the travel insurance segment has become a notable target for scammers making fraudulent claims.
Though the GIA did not provide any collated data, it did establish a new workgroup in 2015 in order to help to overcome the issue of fraudulent travel policy claims, which is a problem that is relatively new in the insurance industry. A.K. Cher, the president of the GIA, stated that “We have people who are now traveling at the expense of insurance companies.”
As an example, he described a recent case in which three travelers claimed that while they were visiting an island resort, they had been robbed. However, an investigation into the issue noted that one of the travelers still had a credit card which was used to pay to bring them all home. Further research into this issue discovered that each of the people involved in this case had purchased travel policies from eight different insurers.
This has prompted the GIA to start looking more closely into data analytics in order to crack down on this type of travel insurance scam.
