Insurance Fraud

At Equity Insurance Group, we take the issue of insurance fraud very seriously.

Fraudulent and inflated claims cost the insurance industry £1.9billion each year and add £44 to annual premiums paid by honest policyholders.* (data source)

The illegal proceeds of fraudulent claims are often used to fund other more serious crimes and in some cases to fund terrorist organisations.

Whilst a relatively small number of people provide false details in order to initially obtain an insurance policy, invent or inflate claims, Equity believes its duty is to identify these fraudsters, avoid paying their claims and discontinue their insurance.

To protect our customers and guard against insurance fraud, we have introduced a number of counter-fraud measures. For example; we check all new insurance policies and claims for potential fraud against a number of national databases including:

Insurance Hunter: a screening tool designed to prevent crimes including “crash-for-cash” scams, identity fraud and money laundering.

Motor Insurance Anti-Fraud and Theft Register: contains details of all written-off and stolen vehicles

Claims and Underwriting Exchange: holds details of most car and home insurance policies together with reported claims. Additionally, the identity of any person previously injured in an accident which resulted in an insurance claim.

Motor Insurance Database: contains a record of all motor insurance policies with the aim of reducing the volume of uninsured drivers

CIFAS: a fraud organisation holding national UK databases of frauds and people who have perpetrated fraud. We check the CIFAS databases to find known fraudsters within the financial services sector and other industries. See www.cifas.org.uk for further details

Equity Cheat Line
We have introduced a confidential cheat line service to allow both customers and insurance brokers to report suspicious activities on an Equity insurance claim. All calls will be handled by our dedicated team which can be contacted free of charge on 0800 032 5470.

Insurance Fraud Bureau Cheat Line
If you believe you have witnessed or been involved in a “staged accident” or wish to report any other insurance-related suspected fraudulent activity, free of charge and in confidence, please call the Insurance Fraud Cheat Line on 0800 422 0421, or visit www.insurancefraudbureau.org for further details and guidance.

Data Protection
We process our customers’ information in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 and other applicable laws. The data is shared with approved organisations for underwriting and fraud prevention purposes. For more information, please refer to the privacy statement contained on our website.

Combating insurance fraud
If false or inaccurate information is provided to us and fraud is identified, details will be passed to fraud prevention agencies we use. Police or other law enforcement agencies may be able to access and use this information.
We and other organisations may also access and use this information to prevent fraud or other crimes such as money laundering, for example when:

checking customer details when applying for insurance

checking at other times when changes are made to customer policy information

a claim is made to check all parties in the claim

checking job applicants and employees, but also wherever possible other contractors

checking details on applications for credit and credit related or other facilities

managing credit and credit related accounts or facilities

recovering debt

If you have further questions or need more information such as the contact details of the relevant fraud prevention agencies, please write to:

The Company Secretary

Equity Insurance Group
Library House
New Road
Brentwood
CM14 4GD.

We and other organisations may access and use the information recorded by fraud prevention agencies from other countries.

* Association of British Insurers (ABI) General Insurance Fraud Report 15/07/2009