Allianz’s personal lines business has reported a 29%1 increase in fraud prevention in 2023 compared to the previous year. This spans all types of insurance fraud from motor claims, home claims, and application fraud, and the notable rise of ghost brokers and their tactics to lure innocent victims into a fake insurance policy.

Unfortunately, a landscape of rapidly evolving fraud tactics is evident, with fraudsters regularly adapting their methods to pursue new scams, including a rise in moped crash for cash fraud and an increase in shallow fakes. Cases where apps were used to distort real-life images, videos and documents increased by 300%2 from 2022 and into 2023, and has all the signs of becoming the latest big scam to hit the insurance industry.

In one case, an individual had a picture of his van posted on his social media page as part of his business, and had a claim pursued in his name for an accident that never took place. LV= received images of his vehicle from the fraudsters, showing the front bumper had been cracked in the alleged accident, along with a false repair invoice totalling over £1000. Noticing concerns with the claim, LV=’s fraud team investigated the case, identifying the image was identical to the one found on social media but with the addition of photo editing.

However, it’s not just photo editing that poses a problem for the insurance industry, but also other emerging technologies, including AI and the rise of deep fakes. The rapidly changing nature of these fraudulent activities pose big risks to UK consumers, and in recognition of fraudsters evolving their tactics Allianz’s personal lines business is developing how they build upon existing controls.

As part of its fraud investment, the insurer is announcing a new partnership with voice analytics tool Clearspeed, to detect more fraud and help accelerate the processing of genuine customer claims. Clearspeed provides a unique technology that not only helps identify potential fraudsters that were previously undetected, but also provides insight to help make better decisions and prioritise resources to boost efficiency and support a better customer experience.

Ben Fletcher, Director of Financial Crime at Allianz’s personal lines business comments: “Here at Allianz we remain committed to combatting fraud and safeguarding the interests of our honest and loyal customers. Our increased fraud detection rate in 2023 reflects how seriously we take this issue and our partnership with Clearspeed is the next step in our ambitious plans to enhance our fraud prevention measures. I look forward to a collaborative and effective partnership to further prevent insurance fraud and crime.”

Alex Martin, CEO of Clearspeed adds: “Allianz is a world class organisation and we’re thrilled to announce our partnership with them as we expand our footprint in the UK insurance market. In an increasingly complex risk environment, with accelerating customer experience expectations, there’s never been a better time to reimagine the claims process.”

“At our core, we believe the key to better identifying risk and preventing fraud is by enabling trust. This paradigm shift is critical to transforming the insurance industry to meet the challenges of today’s world. We can uniquely address that need without trading off between customer satisfaction and risk detection, leaning into greater precision and actionable insights.”